THE picture shows a bustling corner of one of Oxfordshire’s popular market towns.

Shops open for business, cars parked higgledy-piggledy, people walking, chatting and pushing a pram – a typical daytime scene.

In fact, this was a staged event – with some of the people posing for an advertisement for Lloyds Bank.

The picture, taken at Faringdon in 1973, shows two business customers, Maryoth Goodwin and John Carter, talking to each other in the foreground.

The woman pushing the pram behind them, between the two cars, was Jane Rimmer, who was also a customer at the branch.

They took their places outside the branch while the photographer set up his equipment some distance away.

The picture later appeared in a weekend magazine under the heading: “Lloyds, where banking comes to life”.

In the text below the picture, Mrs Rimmer, whose children had Lloyds Bank savings accounts with Black Horse money boxes, was quoted as saying: “My husband and I rely on the bank to pay our insurance premiums promptly by standing order.”

Miss Goodwin was a partner in a garage business, which apparently owed much of its success to its relationship with Lloyds Bank.

She said: “Having banked elsewhere, I know that the staff are friendlier here, and that the manager gives me clearer, more understandable advice.”

Mr Carter said that loans from Lloyds had enabled him and his brother to build up a thriving supermarket, from two small shops to a 6,000 sq ft retail operation with a turnover of more than half a million pounds a year.

Bank manager John Green had been at the branch for 10 years and said customers had made his job enjoyable and rewarding. “I try to respond by giving good, efficient banking service,” he said. The advertisement was sent to Memory Lane by reader Steve Palmer, of Banbury, who writes: “Were the people in this posed shot actual Faringdon residents?

“A Vauxhall Victor 101, registration number KMO 481D, is featured. Does anyone remember it? And who were the people in the background – and was there a baby in the pram?”

The picture was taken a year before Faringdon transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire under the 1974 local government reorganisation.

* If anyone would like a copy of the picture, call Mr Palmer on 07932 567791 or write to him at 38 Mewburn Road, Banbury, Oxon OX16 9NZ