About Geoff Steven & Son

Geoff Steven and Son is the latest incarnation of a business that was started by George Steven on the day of Geoff's birth in 1946 at 28 Fore Street, Hexham. George himself was the son of an optician in North Shields and Geoff also followed in his father's footsteps, qualifying in 1969, joining his father in practice in 1971 and instigating the start of a second branch in Haltwhistle. On George Steven's retirement 10 years later his place in the partnership was taken by Alastair Wade and the business became known as Steven and Wade. Further practices were opened at Prudhoe, Ryton, Ponteland, Lanchester and Durham to extend the service through Tynedale and north Durham. In November 1993 the Fore Street premises in Hexham were becoming too small to offer the facilities required for modern optical practices and so they were exchanged for the current more spacious premises in Hexham's Market Place.

On January 1st 2004 Geoff Steven and Alastair Wade decided to go their separate ways. Geoff and his son Mark, a representative of the fourth generation to follow the family profession, became partners in the Hexham, Haltwhistle and Ponteland practices. Following this the Hexham practice was completely redesigned and refurbished under the aegis of Collin Williams Design of Stocksfield with the work being carried out by Newcastle Joinery. This provided extra consulting rooms and space for new, modern and innovative equipment to enhance the standard of eyecare that could be offered. These specialist instruments can provide digital retinal photography (up to 6.4 mega pixel resolution), computerised analysis of fields of vision, corneal topography and retinal nerve fibre analysis and are available as part of the enhanced eye care examination offered to those clients who have joined our comprehensive eyecare scheme, or may be paid for on an individual basis as an additional part of the routine eye examination.

Ten support staff are currently employed at Geoff Steven and Son including two qualified dispensing opticians FBDO (Fellow of the British Dispensing Opticians) and one dispensing optician in training, who will be completing her 3 year course of 110 modules, along with external written examinations, in the summer of 2006. The optical laboratory is run by Rod Storey, an experienced technician who has been working at the Hexham practice for 21 years, prior to which he spent 20 years making hand made spectacle frames. All our receptionists are also long standing employees and have valuable information on all aspects of visual assessments and the range of frames available to suit all pockets.