My first introduction to the mystic arts of mortgages, conveyancing of property and all things peculiar to the buying of a home came about in the autumn of 1960.  In February of that year I had applied for, and been successful in obtaining, the position of junior clerk in the Birmingham Municipal Bank (BMB).  I therefore transferred from being an assistant librarian at the Ilfracombe branch of Devon County Library Service to my home city.  Sent to “learn my trade” at Solihull Branch under the tutelage of the manager, Mr William (“Bill”) Buxton and his Chief Clerk - Miss Monica Barton, I soon settled into the routine of opening new accounts; posting deposits and payments into the hand-written ledgers; collecting from the cashiers the payments of gas, electric and water bills (Solihull being outside the city boundaries Birmingham rates bills were seldom seen) and other myriad jobs that ensured a smooth-running branch.

Returning to the script, in the autumn of 1960 my peace of mind was disturbed by a visit to the branch by Mr Hedley Massey, one of the Bank’s inspectors, and I was taken aback by his first question to me: “where did you learn to write copper-plate script?”  I truthfully replied that it was at school, where it was demanded that every boy learned to write in the same fashion.  “Good”, was his reply, “report to Mr Guy in the Mortgage Department next Monday; he’s got a job for you”.  I duly reported for duty, as ordered, to find that the job entailed hand recording the securities held by the Bank in support of its mortgage loans to customers.

To explain a little further, in those far off days before the advent of Land Registry computerised records, the transfer of title of a property involved the literal handing over of all the documents that comprised the current owner’s right of possession to which were added the new owner’s details; name, previous address, the new mortgage deed, solicitors acting, etc. To ensure that the bundles did not reach gargantuan proportions, every three or four sales of the property the purchasers’ solicitors would condense all the papers to a single document (Abstract of Title) that simply listed the individual documents in date order and was signed off by the solicitors as a true and complete record of the various transactions.  The procedure had the authority of legal precedent thereby giving the Abstract acceptability as being accurate and inviable in any court proceedings.

It was these documents that I had to transcribe for posterity in the massive leather-bound tomes in which all the mortgages granted by BMB were entered.  This seems at first reading to be incredibly boring; however, it was a very thorough grounding into the complexities of conveyancing that have proved especially useful to me in a career that has extended over fifty-five years.  Over the following few years I was periodically called in to the Department to “write up” the tomes but this began to diminish as the computerisation of the Land Registry provided guaranteed title to property and effectively finished the need for “tome writing”.  That said, the efficacy of BMB’s system was proven on a number of occasions.  Once a mortgage was repaid all the documents held by the Bank were returned to the mortgagor with cautionary advice to take care of them  (the Bank’s safe deposit facilities were usually suggested); but, once or twice a year plaintive telephone calls were received from solicitors informing us that title deeds had gone missing or, more usually, destroyed and could the Bank assist? Typically, the house owners had stored the documents somewhere in the house and rodent damage had reduced the documents to a shredded tangle; but, occasionally, it was a house fire or water damage that had caused the problem.  Customer service being our watchword, we would produce a copy of the tome entry which, once signed off by the Department Head as a true and accurate copy, was passed to the solicitor.  The invariable response from the customer was: “thank God for the Municipal Bank” as it saved the solicitor time and consequently, the customer a significant legal bill.

My next foray into working in the Mortgage Department came when David Johnson was promoted and I was appointed to take his place working with the late, great John King who, like me, had started as a “tome writer”.  The Department Head was Bert Hopkins and he was instrumental in creating a very pleasant working environment for all his staff.  I was now, with John King, the main point of contact with the Bank’s customer base and it was extremely rewarding to assist customers in what is their largest financial commitment of their lives.  In the 1960s the average price for a semi-detached house in the Birmingham conurbation was, as memory serves, approximately £3,000.  The maximum mortgage available was limited to 80% of mortgage valuation subject to an over-riding limit of £2,500 per application.  The term of the mortgage was not greater than 20 years. There were just two types of mortgage available; “Reducing” or “Equated” and the principal guideline was that applicants should be accountholders (or “depositors” being the term used by bank staff) for a significant time holding their funds in the No.1 Department Account. The difference between the Reducing mortgage and the Equated mortgage was straightforward.  A Reducing Mortgage was where the sum borrowed was divided by 240 (i.e. 20 years x 12 months) to obtain a monthly capital repayment to which was added monthly interest on the reducing balance.  This system was the cheapest for the customer as the initial payments were higher but as the capital outstanding reduced, so the interest proportion steadily declined. The Equated Mortgage, on the other hand, provided that all the repayments were exactly the same throughout the entire term of the mortgage; overall it was more costly but had the advantage for customers of being more affordable in the early years of the mortgage.  In those vastly different times, it is also interesting to remember that the interest rate was fixed throughout the term of the mortgage. Again as memory serves, it was 4% at the time I started working in the Department.  Of course, over the ensuing years, economic times changed and so did the Bank.  The mortgage limit increased to keep pace with property price inflation; the Reducing Mortgage was no longer offered to customers; the maximum term increased to 25 years  and the rate of interest varied to match the economic climate.  In writing this article,  I unearthed my aide-memoir note-book that has always accompanied me and found that in 1981 the mortgage rate varied between 12% and 16%; there being four changes in Bank Rate in almost as many months.

Working in the Mortgage Department was an incredibly happy time for me.  Not only was I assisting customers of the Bank I was also learning more about the fascinating subject of conveyancing.  John King recognised a kindred spirit and ensured that I had plenty of opportunities to obtain first-hand experience of how it all worked.  The actual responsibility for ensuring the Bank’s security was sound lay, of course, with the City’s Legal Department (the Bank being part of the City’s assets).  This was undertaken by Mr Palmer, a qualified solicitor, who worked in the Legal Department.  Mr Palmer was a true gentleman, very dignified and graced with impeccable manners.  That said there were moments when his patience and forbearance were tested to the limit.  To explain; the Bank being blessed with very generous accommodation was very often the chosen venue for the completion of the sale/purchase of properties. The various solicitors would gather and hand over the documents of title and receive the agreed bank-drafts etc.   Or rather that is how it should have been; however, some solicitors (who will remain anonymous) could not be bothered to attend and would send along their newest junior clerk to complete the sale or purchase.  Without the necessary experience, they inevitably would be floundering in deep waters and well out of their depth.  Mr Palmer would then call a halt to proceedings and march into our office and politely request either John or me to step into the breach.  We would always do so because it helped our customer and, to be honest, we enjoyed the mental exercise.  To earn the praise of Mr Palmer was reward enough but it also gave us useful contacts within the legal profession.  The only slight contretemps we had with Mr Palmer was that he could never tell our handwriting apart and this irritated him.  Our styles were similar but there were slight differences and at least it was readable.

As years passed, I moved back into branch banking eventually managing five of the Bank’s branches although I did have a spell as Manager-Personal Lending in the Department before heading off to work for a London based project for Central TSB’s chairman Sir John Reid but that is a story for another day.

(November 2020)