Sydenhams take over F Knight & Sons

Sydenhams
F Knight & Sons, on Ock Street, have been taken over by Sydenhams, a large family run business with outlets in Wessex – where Sydenhams proudly sponsor the Wessex Football League.
Sydenhams
According to their old website, Fred Knight originally opened as a small electrician’s shop on Marcham Road around 1960, and quickly grew as sons joined the family business. The shop eventually moved to larger premises, before moving to the current location on Ock Street in 2000, where Ballards used to be.
Sydenhams
In the last couple of years Knights have expanded, taking over all the buildings in the yard – that stretch to the River Ock – for the display and storage of timber and other building supplies.

Previously TVE Plant and Tool Hire, and Plastics Direct shared the yard.

27 thoughts on “Sydenhams take over F Knight & Sons

  1. newcomer

    Let’s hope that this change doesn’t mean this wonderful shop is going to change one iota. It’s an Alladin’s Cave of useful stuff staffed by really helpful and good-humoured guys. It’s one of the remaining shops in town which retain ‘local feel’.

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  2. Craig

    Totally endorse Newcomer’s comments. The staff are great. As a DIY idiot, I’m never made to feel as if I am in fact an idiot!

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  3. Coggin

    Sorry to hear that is changing hands but also glad it’s not closing down and having houses built on it.
    I always go there first instead of the large DIY stores, better service and normally better prices too.

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  4. ppjs

    Knight’s has always been outstanding. I agree with all the above. Let’s hope that Sydenham’s management know not to fix something that ain’t broke!

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  5. HelenP

    I’ve been in today. Same staff – just in in blue jackets! Several guys in overcoats observing – looked a bit odd at first, till I was told that the heating was off! (run out of oil)
    Apparently the management are saying they don’t plan to change anything.

    The main difference is that I was given a sales invoice/vat receipt as well as the usual till receipt!

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  6. John Watson

    As aready has been said lets hope nothing changes apart from the name. I have been visiting Knights for over 30 years when dad Fred used to be in Spring road, now the chemist. I hate B&Q so always go the Knights first, then Homebase. Many thanks to the sons and lads for the excellent service always given.

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  7. Jenbms

    The new till system made my purchase today a penny cheaper than the old system would have made it. I have no complaints!

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  8. Pete

    Long may they trade. Ask for something and they know what you mean and provide skilled assistance… contrast that with the likes of Homebase & B&Q where they are more interested in selling you a scatter cushion.

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  9. Trace mason

    Don’t worry Sydenhams are a great family run firm too, We are all a big happy family, they are great to work for and look after and respect their employees, we are all excited about our new family member , hope to have a visit soon :))

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  10. Lee Wright

    wow What fantastic comments ! , Our success as a company is down to our staff and it is an absolute pleasure to welcome knights to the Sydenhams group , it is clearly apparent why Knights have been so successful for many years and we look forward to many more to come .
    Don’t worry no major changes we have a lot to learn from the guys at Abingdon and we hope that with our large network of branches we can enhance the range of products available we look forward to seeing you soon !

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  11. Peter Harbour

    I used to buy loads of stuff from Fred when he was in Spring Road, on the corner of Edward Street. I’m going back over forty years. I still have many of the tools I bought and they are much better than most modern ones. Fred taught me lots, over the years.

    When the Asian Tsunami happened and we ran the STAR project to get help out to Indonesia, Knights donated a huge amount of packaging material, probably more than they bargained for! But that is because local people were very generous and the result was that 600 tents, medical supplies, clothing generators and so on were sent out to country stations along the coast from Banda Aceh. This was organised by a charity called Humanity First, organised from the mosque in Cowley Road. There are and were some wonderful people there, many of them of Pakistani origin and we should not forget that at these difficult times.

    From TVE Plant and tool hire came a generator (or maybe two of them, my memory playing up after 10 years) and the medical tent was set up, using cast off beds from the JR. This helped local devastated families, long before Oxfam were mobilised.

    I was furious that the local papers didn’t report any of that but it was not because we didn’t tell them. Papers love bad news. This was good news. So thank you Knights and may your family continue long into the future. I suspect that much of the plastic sheeting you supplied became temporary housing for several families. Brilliant!

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  12. Graham

    I well remember Mr Knight, as he worked for Nivens, in the shop at the end of Bath Street.
    Nivens sold all sorts of DIY stuff, but what was of most interest to me as a schoolboy were the huge amount of models for sale. I bought no end of ‘Airfix’ kits, pieces of balsa wood and suchlike for my Hornby-Dublo railway.
    This was in the late fifties/early sixties.
    I think it was when Mr.Niven retired that Mr Knight opened up his own business at the end of Ock Street/ corner of Spring Road

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  13. Malc Costar

    I became friends with Fred in 1946 , I missed the last 20 odd years as I retired to Thatcham, but came back after I lost my wife, however over the last year I have kept in contact with Mervin Andrew and I still visit Fred, who I’m afraid is far from well, so thank you F Knight & Sons so much for the years of help and friendship you have given me, look after yourselves, will be thinking of you.

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  14. Sarah knight

    You are all forgetting me! I am not one of the guys afraid, wrong gender! I used to work with my dad Mervin and my uncle Andrew. I enjoyed my time there, I have gone on to something completely different now…. I am doing a degree in graphic design!
    My Dad Mervin is retired, he’s having a rest and he deserves it after 46 years in the shop. Andrew is still at the shop for a little while. Jack my youngest brother is still in the office and everyone else is still there.

    I am so so proud of all my family for everything they have done or are doing, F.Knight and Sons will always stand proud, my grandfather started it, then my dad and my uncle built it up.

    Please don’t forget us, we will miss you all!

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  15. Sarah knight

    Oh yeah and not forgetting Rob, he’s like one of the family!

    He worked for F.Knight and Sons for 24 years!

    Reply
  16. Simon Lonsdale

    On Monday I went to work and said to my colleague Gavin, I need to go to Fred’s; I need some bits to attach my wind turbine to my Canal boat; but I don’t know what I need. Gav said ‘Si, Knight’s have been taken over’.
    The first tool I bought for my business was a Stanley Screwdriver in 1984, still got that. Still drove down there, all new signage; when I walked in I still expected to see the same faces; I must have looked bewildered and was asked ‘Can I help you’? Is Andy still here? No, it’s his Dad’s funeral…’Will he be coming back’? Yes, but only for a week.
    I didn’t bother asking about the bracket kind of thing that might hold a wind turbine onto an undulating surface. But I needed an extension cable, after the 3rd ‘Can I help you’ and unable to find a price tag I held up the extension cable and asked ‘How much is this? There’s no price tag’. The answer was, ‘Yea it’s on a bar code mate’….’I can’t read bar codes; can you tell me how much it is?’ ‘Yea when they’ve finished on the computer’….’OK don’t worry then’ as I headed for the exit……Then, maybe suddenly realising that the reputation of the shop was built on customer service…..’hang on a sec mate, scan this for me Trevor’, ‘It’s 36 quid mate’….’Yea I’ll leave that then’. Bought the same thing for 15 quid in B&Q.
    Goodbye Fred Knight’s; and thank you; we’ll miss you xx

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  17. Simon Lonsdale

    Sorry, I feel guilty now. I wish the new owners well, it must be so difficult to take over a family business.
    I suppose I’m just angry as over the last 25 years I’ve seen the heart ripped out of Abingdon by the Vale of White Horse and their short sighted decision making fuelled by property pricing.
    I’m just a silly old Hector, that misses, Walters Café, Warwick Arms, Braggs, Hacken & Bell, Moorlands Brewery. John Lane and many others.
    Even my own business had to close when both Lloyds Private Banking and the Vale of the White Horse, told me they were giving their business to a company based in Manchester who were more expensive…but bigger.

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  18. Sarah knight

    That’s why non of the new people that were in there on that day apart from little Mike, didn’t know anything!

    Reply

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