Staff at the tiny Northern Rock office in Oxford must have been laughing their heads off.

While their colleagues in offices up and down the country were besieged by customers anxious to withdraw their money from the troubled bank, life went on as normal in their High Street bunker.

It appears that few people knew it was there.

Now that the stampede is over, the Oxford staff can reflect on one achievement - theirs must have been the only office in the country with not one angry investor in sight.