I wonder if any visitors to this site remember the Midland Bank, Laindon , which was situated at 72 High Road. I worked there in the early 1960’s as clerk/cashier. It was a sub branch to Basildon, which was then located at 30 Southernhay.
I have happy memories of Laindon including Mrs. Attenborrow who lived behind the Bank. Every day she would bring round a tray of tea for myself and the guard. We were the only ones working there. One of the guards was Sid Cordery who lived in Tyler Avenue and was a retired railway employee.
The facilities at the Bank were fairly basic – no lavatory, we had to use the public convenience over the road. We travelled to the branch from the main office by bus with a gladstone bag containing the cash strapped to the guard’s wrist.
Two of the local pubs used the branch: the Laindon Hotel and The Crown. Also, gas meter collectors used to call in with large quantities of coin. Fortunately, these could checked by weight rather than counting.
I now live in Lowestoft and am approaching my 80th birthday. I have looked at the modern Laindon on Google Street View and sadly it is not a bit like the place I remember.
Editor: Thank you Bill, I wonder how many people remember that there was also a Midland Bank in Laindon Laindon Shopping Centre? I have added a link here to a publicity leaflet that shows an picture of it. Does anyone have a photo of the branch that Bill mentions? Click here for link
Editor: I have added below information that can be found on the ‘Basildon History’ website and a link to that page of the website. Click Here
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I remember the Midland Bank only because my grandfather Bill Urwin, an ex-policeman, was a guard there in the 60’s.
There was a Barclays, fifty yards from the station on the left. Then there was a Lloyds which sat back from the High Road, on the left, just before the Hiawatha and the cop shop. I cannot remember a Midland. Where exactly was it located? If indeed there were three banks along the High Road, all servicing Laindon, this seems like overkill. How many people had a bank account in 1950/1975? My memory says it was a cash society.
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