Next door to the Manhattan Connection menswear shop is the Nationwide Building Society, which occupies the corner of the junction of Erskine Road and the High Street.

This lively branch offers the full range of Nationwide services, from savings and current accounts (Flexaccounts) to mortgages and personal loans. The branch opens Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9.00am, opening at 9.30am on Wednesdays. They shut at 5.30pm on weekdays and at noon on Saturday. They get quite busy on Saturdays, with long waits for counter service, though they do also have some automated machines inside (including a clever deposit machine which will give a receipt which includes a mini photograph of any cheque that has been paid in). Unlike, the Cheltenham and Gloucester, which was bought out by Lloyds TSB and which has recently been killed off on our High Street, the Nationwide is still an independent mutual society and has been able to develop into the modern era of retail and internet banking. The independence of any building society, though, sometimes looks suspect when it is considered that the government are able to force their mergers when it suits them. In September 2008 Nationwide was invited to take on the loss-making Derbyshire and Cheshire Building Societies, at no apparent benefit to its existing members, who have to bear more risk. I suppose we can shorty expect a New Years Honour of some sort for chairman Graham Beale.

There is an outside cash machine at the branch on Erskine Road for when the branch is shut or the queues are too long. It is free to use.