Safe Door Weighing Two Tons!

Arrival of a new strong-room door at Barclay's bank in High Street, Bideford, last week attracted a crowd of interested sightseers.

Weighing two tons five hundred weights, the door provided quite a problem when it came to taking it inside the building. The entrance door had to be widened by the sub-contractors, Messrs A F Beer and Son, of Bideford, and then steel rollers used to push the heavy door inside. The photograph shows Messrs Littlejohns' new 'Jumbo' mobile crane being used to lift the new doors. However, apart from one incident, when, describes an eye-witness, the door dropped and "hit the pavement as if the ground was butter" the operation was carried out successfully, and completed the following day.

Mr E C Midlen, the bank manager, told the Bideford Gazette that the new door was the latest of its kind, incorporating many new devices, including automatic lighting and an ability to resite the acetylene burner.

Manufactured by Messrs Hobb, Hart and Company of London, the door travelled by rail to Bideford, then by lorry and finally by crane to the bank. "I think we can safely defy any safebreaker who may be in Bideford with this one!" commented Mr Midlen.