Spotlight - "Art and Wood" - The Story of Steve Cox
Art and Wood is situated in North End Road, however the family business started not too far away in May Street.
Steve's father Stan opened the family business 'Woodworkers' in 1956 with his brother-in-law Len. They supplied wood to builders merchants from their shop in May Street. In those days May Street extended to St Andrew's church and had a parade of shops and houses. They moved the business to 156 North End Road in the early 60's
where the new development is now and to their existing address in 1969.
When they moved to 220 North End Raod, the name was changed to Art and Wood. Steve was about 14 yrs old when he helped in the shop on Saturdays but later trained as a Building Surveyor at Heymills.
In 1978 Steve took over the shop.
Steve's main business is picture and mirror framing, although he also sells painting and decorating materials.
Steve replaced the glass on a small cabinet shaped like a steeple and in it was a rather worn out scarf. When the item was picked up, Steve was informed that the scarf belonged to Emmeline Pankhurst the suffragette.
Sometimes paintings are not picked up in time. On one occasion Steve had worked on an item which was not collected for 3 years, apparently the owner had emigrated to Australia but was not happy there. On her return she remembered the picture and luckily Steve had kept it safe.
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