Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

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John Donnelly
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Re: Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

Post by John Donnelly »

meekan wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 3:16 pm The building that once was the bank is now the Salvation Army charity shop. I was a customer when the bank was the National Commercial Bank. It was indeed across from Gibson’s tearoom.
Am I getting really old?
I remember the Commercial Bank of Scotland.

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Re: Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

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hahaya2004 wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:09 pm Campbell, could it have been Gibson's? They had a tearoom upstairs. My mum worked there 1964/65 before we moved to Germany.
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Thank you Irene. Gisbon's it was and I'd forgotten they had a tearoom upstairs.

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Re: Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

Post by macaulay »

Maybe the RBSin Nineyard Street went to Dockhead Street first and then to Chapelwell Street. The Nineyard Street one wasn't automated when I was there. Everything was handwritten in pen and ink, and we had those old fashioned pens which required a nib affixed at the end and we dipped them into the inkpots. We had a wide variety of nibs of varying shapes and forms and we used to search for our favourites. Mr. Ryrie, who was the teller who went to the sub-office in Stevenston when I was there was a beautiful script writer and I remember being taught to go up light and down heavy on the nib. He made me practice when I had the time, but I was never as good as him, although I did head a few accounts in the ledgers. We had huge ledgers with the names of all the customers at the top of their personal accounts and we wrote the transactions there. One of my jobs was to add up lines and lines of figures, in those days in L.S.D, and one of the other members of staff, (one of those men whose name I can't remember) showed me how to do it in tens so that I could do it more quickly. . I do that to this very day. My monthly wage was the grand sum of thirteen pound ten shillings!
I've just remembered, the Christian name of one of the men was Hugh.
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Re: Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

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macaulay wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:31 pm Maybe the RBSin Nineyard Street went to Dockhead Street first and then to Chapelwell Street. The Nineyard Street one wasn't automated when I was there. Everything was handwritten in pen and ink, and we had those old fashioned pens which required a nib affixed at the end and we dipped them into the inkpots. We had a wide variety of nibs of varying shapes and forms and we used to search for our favourites. Mr. Ryrie, who was the teller who went to the sub-office in Stevenston when I was there was a beautiful script writer and I remember being taught to go up light and down heavy on the nib. He made me practice when I had the time, but I was never as good as him, although I did head a few accounts in the ledgers. We had huge ledgers with the names of all the customers at the top of their personal accounts and we wrote the transactions there. One of my jobs was to add up lines and lines of figures, in those days in L.S.D, and one of the other members of staff, (one of those men whose name I can't remember) showed me how to do it in tens so that I could do it more quickly. . I do that to this very day. My monthly wage was the grand sum of thirteen pound ten shillings!
I've just remembered, the Christian name of one of the men was Hugh.
Really interesting stuff, macaulay. Did you have the round black rulers? Dockhead Street had a few of them and when I asked what they were I was told they were used years before when the staff could only write with the nib pens you describe. When I started in 1970 ballpoints were OK to write in the ledgers with (which looked exactly as you've described). When my late brother, Hugh, began working at RBS Kilwinning around 1962 he was told he'd need to bring a fountain pen with him on his first day. I still smile because my mother never got over the fact that she got him a new 'sports jacket' and smart grey trousers and they told him he'd a week to get a suit - what he turned up in on his first day was not suitable. She talked about that regularly over the years as money was tight and had it not been for my gran giving her a wee loan Hugh would have lost his job!

There was no adding machine in Dockhead Street when I was there and calculators hadn't been invented.

I've still got my first wage slip and it shows my annual was £414 gross and my first payment in August 1970 £31 16/9 - every penny had to go to my mother and I got pocket money from it. I'd to do that until I was 18yo.

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Re: Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

Post by Meg »

And you had to buy 20 No.6 from that Campbell didn’t you :wink:
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Re: Banks in Saltcoats and Stevenston

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Meg wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2019 8:43 pm And you had to buy 20 No.6 from that Campbell didn’t you :wink:
I did indeed, Meg and you've a good memory :wink: If things were really tight it would be a packet of No.10 or Extra.
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