1898 - Barclays Bank, Front Street, Alston, Cumbria. - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

There was a building on this site in Front Street which proclaimed a build-date of 1729 which was demolished and rebuilt in 1898 as the Carlisle and Cumberland Bank. A fine stained glass fanlight can be seen over the main entrance door tells us that this was a prosperous concern, there are several other fine stained glass windows on the frontage. The initials CCB can also be seen on the right-hand second floor window pediment. A reproduction of the previous building's date-stone has been incorporated into the current building's stone and is at the right-hand adjacent to the first-floor window. The stone has the initials "I D F:17 29: 'a symbol'" above "REBUILT A.1898.D."

The Carlisle & Cumberland Banking Co. was established in 1836 and the branch at Alston was set-up in 1869. Registered as a Limited Liability Company in 1880 it absorbed Mackie, Davidson and Gladstone, a small private bank, in 1881 and was itself taken over by the Bank of Liverpool in 1911.

Martins Bank Limited, a Liverpool-based British financial services company had its origins in the C16th and was said to have been founded by Sir Thomas Gresham who traded in Lombard Street under the sign of a grasshopper. It too was acquired by the Bank of Liverpool - in 1918. This bank had been founded in 1831 in Liverpool and the name of the merged bank became the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Ltd. However, this was shortened to Martins Bank Ltd in 1928. In 1969, a planned merger of Barclays Bank with Martins Bank and Lloyds Bank was blocked by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission but the acquisition of Martins Bank on its own was allowed. Hence the building became owned by Barclays as we see today. (Information taken from Wikipedia (visit link) and Martins Bank Archive (visit link) and condensed)

Year of construction: 1898 Full inscription: I D F:17 29: 'symbol' REBUILT A.1898.D. Cross-listed waymark: Not listed

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