Cumberland Building Society branches celebrate 40 years

The two west Cumbrian branches opened in 1983 and celebrated with their customers along with balloons and cakes to mark the occasion.

Elsewhere in its branch network, Preston will celebrate its 50th birthday this week, while Wigton, Kendal, Haltwhistle and Lockerbie are all marking their 40th anniversaries too.

Customers were treated to cakes to mark the occasion (Image: Submitted)

Claire Crossan joined the Cumberland as a cashier straight from school in 1987, but for the past two years she’s been the society’s customer experience manager, ensuring a consistent approach across all 32 branches.

Looking back on her 36 years with the Cumberland, she said the changes in society and in the business have been dramatic.

“When I joined we didn't actually have computers, we just hand-wrote everything. We hand-wrote a customer passbook, and a transaction sheet, and those sheets were posted every night and then processed by head office the next day.

“So when I look back, it was a really manual process compared to today. The way we do things has developed significantly over the years.

“Some customers still love coming in to update their passbooks. But now some people want to bank online or by telephone. So it isn't just about the face-to-face experience - it's a whole customer experience, and that is one of the biggest changes that I've seen throughout my career,” she said.

Although there have been big changes in the banking sector in the 40 years since the Egremont branch opened, cluster manager Victoria Rose believes being the ‘only bank in town’ shows the Cumberland’s focus on it’s customers.

“There’s no other bank branches in Egremont and there’s a real community feel to our branch. We have that same feeling in Whitehaven” she explains. “Forty years is a great moment to celebrate that.

“We've got customers who have banked with us for forty years, and they’ll be able to remember coming in when we first opened. They can still come in and speak to someone if they need us. They know us and they don’t just want to have to speak to someone on the end of a phone.”

Katie Anderson, who works at the Egremont branch, celebrates the milestone (Image: Submitted)

Debbie Shearer joined the Cumberland in 1989 as an office junior in Carlisle’s English Street branch, just a year after it opened, before working in numerous branches across the network. She’s now head of first line risk.

“We build up good relationships and bonds with our customers,” she explained. “When I was at English Street, I got to know the lady who comes in every Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock and she wants money out of her account.

“Then I went off on my tour of other branches and came back twenty years later, and the same lady is still coming in every Tuesday morning at 10 o’clock.

“For a lot of our customers, they just like coming to see us; it's part of their week.”