We’ll stand up to the bullies at Barclays
Historic village that defied a king’s rule leads fight to halt branch closures
2000 MoS MS reveals Barclays is axeing 172 branches
2014 MoS reports on another savage round of cuts
ANGER is mounting over Barclays’ decision to launch a fresh wave of branch closures – 14 years after axeing 172 in one day.
The Mail on Sunday visits communities about to lose their branch and listens to those who fear it will trigger the death of their high street. We also return to a community that lost its last bank in 2000 to see how it has adapted.
GOING… last bank in town
STANSTED Mountfitchet can trace its history back to the Iron Age. Stansted means ‘stony place’ in Saxon – though it is more recognised today as the name of the nearby airport.
The Essex village picked up the suffix when it was given to a French baron after 1066. A small castle from that time has recently been reconstructed as a tourist attraction by owner Jeremy Goldsmith. It is proving popular, especially with schoolchildren.
While Jeremy has invested considerable sums in the venture, drawing bus loads of visitors, the village’s renaissance has passed Barclays by. It is shutting its branch there in just over a week’s time.
It’s a decision that has angered many villagers. Jeremy says: ‘If Barclays bothered to look at our village’s history it would realise we are a people who stand up to bullies and tyrants and we won’t take this closure lying down. It is a despicable act of community vandalism to shut the last bank in town.’
Jeremy, 46, says Richard De Mont-fitchet bravely stood up to King John and forced him to put his seal to the Magna Carta in 1215, curtail- ing some of the monarch’s powers. King John took revenge by destroying the castle.
Retired secretary Valerie White, 71, who contacted The Mail on Sunday to voice her anger over the closure, says: ‘Barclays is clearly not interested in serving loyal customers like myself. It has decided it can make bigger profits elsewhere. It is immoral that the bank can abandon us without any consultation.’
The branch is now being sold, with Sainsbury’s expected to buy it.
A note on the door explains the bank will be closing on Friday, June 20. The next Barclays branch is three miles away in Bishop’s Stort- ford, Hertfordshire. But even that branch does not have a guaranteed future. The premises are rented and the landlord has recently put in a planning application for change of use to a restaurant.
GOING… one bank remains
ON the fringes of Chelmsford – an Essex city promoted from town status two years ago to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – sits the 13,000-population urban village of Great Baddow, which has the Vineyards shopping centre at its heart. In the square sits a Barclays branch with more than a dozen customers waiting to be served.
A notice in the window says it will shut on June 20 – the same day that the Stansted Mountfitchet branch closes for good. Next door to the doomed branch is a less busy NatWest. Around the square there are signs stating: ‘No cycling or skate boarding’ and ‘no ball games’. Perhaps the next sign will be: ‘No banks’. Lauren Rowntree-Taylor, 26, was popping into Barclays to bank some cheques. She says: ‘This is such a busy branch I cannot believe for one minute it does not make money.
‘No matter what the bank claims, this kind of closure looks like it is part of a deliberate strategy to streamline its high street presence. The bank is treating us like idiots when it says it has no overall closure plan.’
Shop manager Dave Oldershaw, 49, was queuing in the branch to deposit a cheque. He was there with daughter Charley, 11, and wife Keren, 36. He says: ‘The banks just want people to do all their finances via the internet or phone to save money, but I think the personal touch is important – particularly for the elderly.’
Cafe waitress Michelle Bevans, 46, who also banks with Barclays, says she will probably transfer her current account to NatWest.
She says: ‘To say I’m not happy is an understatement. Although the nearest Barclays branch is only three miles away in Chelmsford city centre, it is a nightmare to get to with all the traffic and perpetual problems with parking. There was no consultation over this branch closure – the bank just doesn’t care about us.’
GONE… abandoned after centuries
THE Norfolk village of East Harling has a link with Barclays that stretches back more than 240 years.
The village once had a branch of Barclays that could trace its roots back to when it was a Gurney Bank, which was started by local Quakers in 1770.
Gurney was a founding member of Barclays after it merged with 19 other banks that included Barclays. But this great heritage counted for nothing on Friday, April 7, 2000
when the East Harling branch got the chop with 171 others.
Annette White, 70, remembers the day vividly. She was one of two employees at the branch and was in tears when ordered to close the doors for the last time.
She lost a job she had cherished for 22 years. The bank is now a family home and Annette has moved across the road to work at the local post office.
She says: ‘It was a strange mixture of sadness and anger when the branch shut. Something was lost that can never come back. Life goes on but some of the local businesses suffered and closed down as a result of the bank going.’
Since the branch closed the village has lost two grocery stores, a bakery, butcher and three garages. But it is still a bustling hub with a post office, convenience store, chemist, butcher, ironmonger, a couple of pubs, takeaway outlets and hair salons.
Ted Pheasant, 64, who works for the butcher, remembers the closure as it if was yesterday but he does not like to dwell on the past.
He says: ‘Of course it was a bitter blow for many – particularly the elderly without transport as they now have to catch a bus to the next branch ten miles away. But we have stuck together as a community.’
Subpostmaster Gary Baker, 61, tried to buy the antique wooden counters when the Barclays branch closed down so he could put them into his post office. ‘It would have been good for continuity if we could have cherished this piece of history but unfortunately Barclays’ head office refused,’ he said.
The family-run Gurney Bank was renowned for honesty, reliability and fair dealing. Qualities that seem to have got lost over time.