|
NE
|
GREAT BARR
|
71
|
62nd
|
SW
|
SE
|
893 Walsall Road, Birmingham B42 1TN
021-357 3361
|
GR
|
1958
|
In 1951, the freehold site at the corner of Walsall Road and Calshot Road was purchased. This site comprised approximately 1,525
square yards, with a frontage of 43 yards 2 feet. Messrs W Parrott & Antrobus acted for the vendors, the purchase price being
£20, subject to the Bank paying professional charges and stamp duty. However, erection of a branch building was not completed for
some years (due to post-war building restrictions), as this extract from the Bank's 1958 Annual Report shows:
On the 25th April,
1958 a new Branch of the Bank was opened at 893, Walsall Road, Great Barr, by Alderman G H W Griffiths (sic), JP, and full banking
facilities were provided from that date. The Branch will be known as the Great Barr Branch, and will, it is hoped, serve the needs
of a quickly growing area.
The architect responsible for the new building is believed to have been the City Arcitect: A G Sheppard
Fidler.
The opening of the new branch at Great Barr appears to have created an identity confusion vis-a-vis Tower Hill
branch. Within two months of the branch opening, a Head Office Circular to branches (dated June 18th 1958) stated that cases have
arisen where a depositor has handed in a transfer form requesting that the account be transferred to the Great Barr Branch, but it
has afterwards transpired that it was intended for Tower Hill Branch. This confusion may have been averted if the new branch had been
called 'Scott Arms'. Such title may have been under consideration when branch sort codes were issued - the number 47 was not
used, and 'Scott Arms' would have fitted this number alphabetically; instead Great Barr was allocated 71, adding the branch to
the end of the list, which at that date ended with Yardley having Code 70.
The cost of the building work was approximately £10,600.
A small portion of this sum (£85 plus costs) was recouped in 1961 when 373 square yards of land adjoining 4 Calshot Road was sold
to the Midlands Electricity Board to enable an electricity sub-station to be built.
The newly opened premises in 1958
below (April 25th 1958):
at the official opening ceremony, the Lord Mayor unlocks the door and Alderman Griffith unveils the Commemoration
Tablet
below:
Alderman Griffith is presented with a solid silver box by the Bank's Chairman (Councillor I L Morgan). Looking on are the
Bank's General Manager (H J Sutherland - left) and the Lord Mayor (Alderman J J Grogan). The box was made by Adie Brothers Ltd of
Birmingham; the lid was inscribed with the Bank's 'key' logo and was appropriately inscribed on the front panel.
2008:
the premises are a branch of Lloyds TSB.
Calshot Road is to the right of the photograph
Managers:
1959 to 1969 - R N Wilcox
1970 to 1974 - M J Smith
1974 - D A Johnson
The majority of the old, and very large, parish of Great Barr lies outside Birmingham, in what was originally Staffordshire, but is
now part of Walsall Metropolitan District. A portion of the parish came into Birmingham in 1928, and both private and council houses
were built in the area, before and after the Second World War. Great Barr is situated about 4½-miles north of Birmingham's centre.
Towards
the end of 1948, the Bank requested the City's Public Works Committee to allocate a site at the junction of Walsall Road and Calshot
Road immediately adjoining No 905 Walsall Road, to be designated for the Bank's purposes. This site, near to Birmingham's boundary
with Staffordshire, in a shopping area at the junction of the Walsall Road (A34) and Queslett Road/Newton Road (A4041) known
locally as the Scott Arms, would not only cater for the district's increasing population, but would be likely to attract business
from outside the city: Aldridge, Walsall, and West Bromwich.
= location of branch at 893 Walsall Road