Barrow-in-Furness: a town where ships ruled the waves, the salty air stung your cheeks, and the clang of hammer on steel rang through the streets like an unending symphony. But what of its financial scene? Today, we’re cracking open the vault on Martins Bank, a financial institution that stood like a steadfast iron safe in a world of rattling horse-drawn carts and the scent of coal smoke curling through the air.
Gearing Up: Early Days (1865 – 1928)
Picture 1865: Barrow was a town in its industrial infancy, the air thick with the tang of sea brine and iron filings. Down Duke Street, the newly established Wakefield and Crewdson bank settled in like a steam engine huffing into a station—solid, essential, and brimming with purpose. Carriages clattered past its doors, the hooves of shire horses kicking up a murky blend of rainwater and coal dust.
Stepping inside, you’d have caught the scent of polished oak and parchment, the quiet rustle of ledgers turning as clerks in stiff collars scribbled away with ink-stained fingers. Customers—shipwrights, merchants, and factory owners—lined up, their heavy purses jingling with coins, thick wool coats dusted with the residue of industry.
By 1893, the Bank of Liverpool swept in, a financial juggernaut, absorbing Kendal Bank like a rising tide swallowing a fishing boat. The merger didn’t bring fanfare, just a fresh brass plaque on the door and clerks adjusting their sleeve garters before returning to business. When the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Bank Limited was formed in 1918, the town barely blinked—money still needed counting, wages still needed paying, and Barrow’s workforce still needed a place to deposit their hard-earned shillings.
By 1928, a touch of modernity arrived. Martins Bank Limited was born—a fresh name, perhaps a sharper cut of uniform for the tellers, and a signwriter carefully painting over the old lettering above the entrance, the smell of wet paint mingling with the usual aroma of ink, leather-bound ledgers, and damp wool coats.
Branching Out: The Martins Bank Era (1928 – 1969)
The year 1904 had already seen an outpost emerge across the channel on Walney Island—a beacon of convenience for islanders who had long endured the burden of lugging weighty purses of pennies and sovereigns across the water. Picture a fisherman, pockets sagging with silver coins, trudging against the wind, relieved to finally deposit his earnings instead of hiding them under a loose floorboard at home.
By 1930, with the air now filled with the whirr of tramlines and the distant roar of industry, Rawlinson Street welcomed a second branch. No more long treks to Duke Street for those on the other side of town. Its doors creaked open, revealing polished counters and clerks ready with their abacuses, the scent of ink still fresh on newly printed banknotes. The sound of shuffling queues mixed with the occasional frustrated huff of a customer who had forgotten their account number.
Changing Landscape: The Later Years (1969 – 2001)
The landscape of banking shifted in 1969 when Barclays Bank Limited took over, swallowing Martins Bank in a corporate tidal wave. The old signage came down with the screech of metal against stone, replaced with Barclays’ unmistakable blue. The Rawlinson Street branch closed its doors in 1978, its grand wooden entrance locked for the final time, the echo of the latch a ghostly punctuation to decades of business.
Over on Walney Island, the Vickerstown branch met a similar fate in 1970. The familiar chime of its entrance bell silenced, the polished counter now gathering dust, and the last customer peering back over their shoulder before the doors shut forever.
But Duke Street endured—Barrow’s financial stalwart—until 2001, when even it succumbed, merging with Dalton Road’s branch. The scent of ink and coins, the reassuring thunk of the teller’s stamp, and the quiet murmurs of business dealings—gone, replaced by an empty shell where once a century of commerce had thrived.
Furness Financed
There you have it—Martins Bank in Barrow-in-Furness, a story of financial endurance, of ink-stained fingers and brass-handled doors swung open for over a century. But is this the final chapter? Not a chance. Stay tuned—we’ll be peeling back the layers of Martins Bank’s legacy across the whole Furness region. The past still lingers, if you know where to look.