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They nearly closed us down, but with your support we have brought Biddles of Guildford back! Story will update soon......
It all started back in 1885.......
Biddles & Son
Biddles and sons was founded in 1885 by Charles Biddle, a printer from Alton, the business occupied a small corner shop in Martyr Road, producing printed stationery for local shop keepers. From here Charles and his son Leonard continued to grow the company. In 1894 Charles retired and died in 1905, the business continued to trade under the watchful eye of Leonard and eventually, his three sons. Biddles and Sons soon became Biddles Ltd. The company also had two shops in the High Street, one at no 12 and one at no 218.
Building the business
In 1923, however, they built new premises on Martyr Road, 100 yards from where the original business started all those years ago. This combined the stationery store on the ground floor and printing equipment on the first and second floor.
The factory was commandeered by the Air Ministry to manufacture aircraft components during World War II.
After this period the business went from strength to strength and growth continued from the Martyr Road until 1989.
Whats in a name
Over the last 30 years Biddles has seen many names as a result of purchases, mergers and restructuring, but essentially the shop is still much the same as it was all those years ago, offering the products that people want at a fair price.
A brief history consists of Neal Heaven, managing Biddles since the 70's, in 1988 BIddles stationery business was purchased by Straker Office supplies. As a result of a merger in 1997 Oyez joined Straker and OyezStraker was born. The over the years the office supplies buying group brought the company under its umbrella, giving the business the support of a multi-million pound purchasing group, yet still having the freedom to run the store independently in Guildford.
In 2014, the original Biddles print works closed, and the time was right for the Stationery business to reclaim the Biddles name and Biddles of Guildford launched once again in 2014. The story continues...
