REMEMBERING THE BRIGG BANK BRANCHES WE'VE LOST NOW THAT BARCLAYS IS GOING THE SAME WAY

 

The announcement that Barclays is to close its Brigg branch in January 2022 is a main local talking point at present.
Possibly this will be raised as a discussion item during Brigg Town Council's monthly meeting tonight (Tuesday, October 26), as happened when NatWest announced the intended closure of its Brigg branch three years ago. Tonight's meeting is in the Buttercross, starting at 7.15pm.
Barclays points to a decline in customers making branch visits "exclusively for their banking" amid growing use of online devices to access services.
This set us thinking about the steady decline in traditional Brigg banking over recent years.
After Barclays has shut its Market Place branch in the New Year, only Lloyds, on Wrawby Street, will remain open to customers wishing to call in person to access banking services, obtain advice, move money between accounts or speak with staff about other issues.
HSBC closed its Brigg branch in June 2017.
NatWest, also with premises in the Market Place, followed suit in June 2018.
Lloyds withdrew its traditional counter service at the Wrawby Street branch in October 2018, but the premises remained open with staff on hand to offer advice and guidance. This is still the case and by late January 2022 it will be Brigg's only remaining banking branch.
Lloyds was originally based on Bigby Street in premises which now house The Bank hairdressing salon, while TSB also operated on Wrawby Street. Lloyds alone now trades from this building, original TSB customers having been switched on free transfers if they agreed.
After being sold, HSBC's former bank premises were granted planning permission to be transformed into a new bar, to be known as The Vault (yet to open).
The former NatWest building is now used by Victor Finance.
The impending closure of Barclays in the New Year poses obvious questions about the future use of the ground floor of this distinctive three-storey building on the corner of Cary Lane and the Market Place.
All the buildings mentioned here are within the Brigg Conservation Area.
Any proposed change of use relating to the ground floor of what is currently Barclays will require approval by North Lincolnshire Council.
Back in the 1960s, pupils of Brigg Primary School, on Glebe Road, could take a shilling (5p in today's currency), a florin (10p) on even a half-crown (12½p) with them on Monday mornings to deposit in their Trustees Savings Bank account via a green-covered passbook.
We can't recall there being any facility for withdrawals; just as well with a shop selling sweets and crisps being located on the other side of Glebe Road. The temptation might have proved too much, in many cases.
The banking world was very different in the 1960s to what it is today!
Lucky Brigg kids, decades ago, might have received a birthday or Christmas postal order for ten shillings (50p) or even £1 from a relative living some distance away, which was considered a high-tech way of sending money at the time. Cheques were only for business transactions.
Those Brigg kids from the 1960s are now of, or approaching, pensionable age and have seen the arrival of cashpoints, credit and debit cards, internet/online banking and contactless payments (some carried out by using a wristwatch).

PICTURED: Barclays Bank in the early 1970s alongside a recent view of the Brigg branch.