The Beavis Shops History.
 
The Bedford shop today The Newport shop today
The first family business was started in Southampton by Albert Octavius Beavis and his three brothers in 1895. It was called The Domestic Bazaar Company and sold everyday household items. Over the next three decades they expanded into a very large and successful business with around 200 shops from Inverness to Penzance. This business then collapsed in the early 1930’s when Woolworths first started trading in the UK.
The company C.J.Beavis Ltd was started by Cecil James Beavis (A.O.Beavis' eldest son) in 1934. He purchased the leases to five of the original Domestic Bazaar shops; Bedford (14-16 The Arcade), Newport (54 High Street, currently occupied by Smiths), Wolverhampton, Stoke Newington, and Crouch End.
During the 1950’s Cecil James' sons Donald and Ian joined their father in the family business. During the next thirty years some shops were opened and some were closed. Over the years Beavis have had branches in Guildford, Crouch End, Stoke Newington, Wolverhampton, Shanklin(IOW), two in Leicester, two in Ryde(IOW), two in Bedford, and two in Newport(IOW). By the late 70’s the business had expanded into a chain of ten shops based in the Midlands and the Isle of Wight.
Bedford shop in 1950
In the 1980-81 the business suffered two years of extreme losses and many shops had to close. Then in 1982 the remaining shops were split into two companies between Donald and Ian. Donald kept the china shop and card shop in Bedford. Ian kept the other half that comprised the current Upper St. James Street shop in Newport, (although he sold a mixture of gifts, catering equipment, and frozen food.) and Ryde(High Street) and Shanklin which only sold frozen foods. During in the 1980’s the frozen food shops in Ryde and Shanklin were closed and the Newport shop was converted into solely selling gifts.
In 1992 Michael Beavis took over from his father Donald in Bedford and in 2000 purchased the Newport business from his uncle Ian.
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