OUR HISTORY
OUR
STORY
There has been an opticians here at 21 Fisherton Street for over 100 years. This means we are one of the oldest running businesses on Fisherton Street along with the Florist by the train station. Our central location is nestled amongst a wide variety of other independent stores, something our street is very proud of.
Our wonderful practice started life around 1900 as part of a small group of opticians called Springates. Springates at number 21 on a flooded Fisherton Street in 1915. Notice the classic opticians sign above, we removed some of the old iron recently that would have formed part of that sign. At number 23 is Asbridge Jewellers where in 1907, Mr Eric Asbridge was born.
Mr Eric Asbridge was the son of the Asbridge family jewelers at 23 Fisherton Street. After a brief period of studying jewelry and watchmaking, Eric decided that eyes and the technology that went with it were a career path for him. With the help of the Springates optician at the time, he completed a course at the Worshipful Company Of Spectacle Makers and became a Freeman Of London. He took over Springates in 1928 and changed the name to Asbridge Opticians.
In 1975, Mr Asbridge retired and the practice changed over to The McCoy family, Janet and Malcolm. They retained the practice heritage, excellent reputation and established a strong bond with the infirmary, also on Fisherton Street. The McCoys formed an excellent partnership with Malcolm testing eyes and Janet doing the dispensing. We still have members of their fan club attending the practice today.
Mark Jones took over Asbridge Opticians in 2005 and has since gone about slowly modernising and updating the practice. As with the McCoys and Mr Asbridge, Mark has continued to provide exceptional care to the people of Salisbury and continually encourages staff to achieve higher standards. In 2011 Mark changed the name of the business to Mark Jones Eye Care to reflect the modernisation that was going on at the time. We still retain the Asbridge Opticians clock in the practice as a throwback to our heritage.
After the conversion to Mark Jones Eye Care, the practice has rapidly grown and gone from strength to strength. So in 2018, our little practice doubled in size and expanded into number 23. The fact that the practice remains a family business is a lovely finishing touch and completes a brief history of Mark Jones Eye Care to date.