A PLAQUE celebrating one of the proudest moments in Enfield’s history – the opening of the world’s first cash machine – has been stolen from the High Street.

The plaque was affixed to the wall of Barclays Bank in The Town, Enfield, and was stolen about a month ago.

Barclays Bank say they will replace the metal plaque with an identical one which should be in place within the next couple of weeks.

The opening of the cashpoint, on June 27 1967, caused crowds to flock to the machine and Barclays magazine to celebrate the coming of “instant cash at Enfield”.

It was opened by ‘On the Buses’ actor Reg Varney, who was brought over from BBC studios in Northwood for the occasion.

The machine was invented by John Shepherd–Barron, a managing director of De La Rue, a cash handling company, and was initially seen as an emergency only service. Customers were sent paper vouchers, which were inserted into the machine and cash was released after a four digit code was entered, much the same as today.

A spokesman for Barclays said Enfield was chosen because it has a "good cross section of customers, had space for the machine on the building and space in front of the building so that customers did not block the pavement."

By the end of the 1960s there were 781 cash machines across the world, 595 of which were in the UK.