Marples Grange on the old National savings Site

SHOW HOMES LAUNCH 30TH JUNE!!!!

Well of course that got my attention - I used to work on the site of the National Savings Building so was interested to see that they had started to build some of the new houses... have a read of the introduction on the website...

Nowadays Marton falls within the modern town of Blackpool, but a thousand years ago, there were several small hamlets of Little Marton, Great Marton and Marton Fold. The name comes from AngloSaxon ‘Mere-tun’ - and the mere or lake after which Marton is named is still there; in fact today, Marton Mere (and neighbouring Marton Moss) is a renowned local nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, attracting all manner of birdlife, wildlife, flora and fauna. Marton itself is just three miles from the Lancashire coast, where central Blackpool meets the sea, and is close to the green enclave of Stanley Park, which contains the renowned Blackpool Zoo. Nearby Preston Old Road has a number of local neighbourhood shops, whilst Blackpool town centre has an excellent choice of supermarkets and shops, for which Blackpool has long been celebrated.

The coastal areas to the north and south of the town are glorious, from the southerly Ribble estuary and Lytham St. Anne’s to the historic former fishing town of Fleetwood, on the Wyre estuary overlooking Morecambe Bay and the Lake District, to the north. The area has no less than four Primary schools and two Secondary schools, and its principal thoroughfare, Preston New Road, leads directly to the eastbound M55 motorway, which connects to the north-south M6 (for The Lake District, Liverpool and the Midlands) and M61 (for central Manchester and Leeds). There are also rail links from Blackpool to Preston, for onward West Coast rail services (Preston – London: 2hrs 45 mins). 

now just on case in years to come you think which two houses are these...

Plots 7 and 8 on the above map ( easier if you download and enlarge ! ) 

For those of you who may have worked at the old site of course ! Please see the old images below 

The following was said about the building before it was knocked down..

The Post Office Savings Bank (formed in 1861) opened its Bonds and Stocks Office in Lytham St. Annes in 1956, when premium bonds were first introduced by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan under the control of the Department for National Savings.

Following additional work transferred from the Harrogate office in 1963, and the subsequent aquisition of the Post Office Savings Bank by HM Treasury (who re-branded it 'National Savings') in 1969, work began in the early 1970s to create a new Bonds and Stocks Office office in Marton, Blackpool, which was opened in circa 1978.

In 1996, National Savings became an executive agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 2002 saw a further name change to National Savings and Investments (NS&I). Responsibility for Premium Bonds still remains at the Blackpool office (albeit outsourced to Atos, an IT services company) - but in the Moorland Building, a more modern office block (built 1993) at the northern edge of the site.

However, the remaining three buildings, including the eight-storey Tower Building, are suffering from a range of issues including widespread asbestos, and as such, are to be demolished to build housing and new offices. Development is currently underway, with parts of the site already demolished.