One of the oldest working banks in Birmingham has shut its doors with the closure of Barclays' Moseley branch after 85 years.

The branch, set in a conservation area in St Mary's Row, was originally opened in 1929 but has seen customer footfall decline dramatically in recent years with the rise in online banking.

Richard Stockland, Barclays' community leader for Birmingham and Warwickshire, said the closure made 'business sense' amid continuing changes in customer habits.

"When we consider something like this, we look at the overlap with other branches. In this case, we had overlap, with customers using other sites and Kings Heath only a mile away.

"Branches are still the jewels in our crown - we have an enormous branch network but it will be somewhat smaller in future.

"There is no set list of branches that we have as a programme to close. This strategy is not about branch closures, it is about 'Are we represented in the right way in the communities we serve?'"

Barclays spokeswoman Lisa Kennedy said: "The Moseley branch was built for Barclays in 1929. We tried closing the branch on Wednesdays in 2010 to help with the declining footfall.

"Unfortunately, this didn't help and usage of the branch continued to decline. Around 84 per cent of our personal customers who did use Moseley branch were already using nearby branches and this is as much as 94 per cent for our corporate customers. There has been significant investment in Kings Heath over recent years."

Mr Stockland said three staff at Moseley had been redeployed to Kings Heath.

He added: "The biggest thing on customers' minds was what was happening to the staff. We have a continuous programme of making sure that what we have got is fit for purpose.

"That will be influenced by customer change and by technology. I think that the pace of change will accelerate - customers can bank in a different way."