The Walford family are known to have been in the Jewellery trade in Oxford in the eighteenth century moving to Banbury in the latter half of that century. The grandfather clock in the Banbury practice dates from this era. In 1814, Walford and Son was established at 68 High Street. In 1919, the business was moved across the road to 18 High Street by Richard Walford's grandfather. The Opticians side of the business was added in the 1920's and was run by Peter Walford.
In 1966, his son Richard went to Cardiff University and there met Tony Round. In 1969, the Jewellery side of the business went into voluntary liquidation on the retirement of the Woodward branch of the Walford family and the Opticians moved to 46 High Street. Peter Walford retired in 1972. In 1983, the practice moved to the present location of 47 High Street - previously the Harlequin Cafe. In 1999, Richard's son, Jonathan Walford, joined the practice - the start of another generation!
The Solihull practice was purchased in 1979 from Mr George Burns. Sadly the house practice that he had established in Olton Hollow had become outdated so in 1983, we moved to Dovehouse Parade in 1983 where it is run by Andrew Mason with the help of Judith Wilkinson.
Our optical laboratory was located at the Banbury practice up to 1979 when it had out-grown the available space. Separate premises were purchased in the Oxfordshire village of Adderbury under the managership of Tariq Mahmood.
In June 1996, the practice of W M Greenwood at Sheep Street, Stratford upon Avon joined the group. With the retirement of Bill Greenwood in 1997, the practice is run by Richard Fantom.
The new Millennium brought further changes. 1st January 2001 saw the Shipston-on-Stour practice of Graham Smith join our family of practices. With the arrival of Tony Round's son Michael from a period working in Australia, and the continued presence of Stephanie Ham, we look forward to continuing to provide the same high levels of service and care that our patients are used to.
Finally, and with the retirement of David Johnson, we have welcomed his Brackley practice to our group. The Brackley practice is run by John Stupples. John was at University with Richard & Tony all those years ago when there was not a single grey hair in sight ...........