Chapter Nineteen - W. & H. Peacock Reborn

Summary

On 29 September 2000, the various auction businesses, by then owned by the Bradford and Bingley Building Society, were acquired by Mark Baker. Mark, who had started as a clerk at Peacocks in 1975, was at this time managing Peacocks’ Bedford and St Neots Auction Centres, and the new business acquired both these divisions plus the Locke & England and Ambrose auction businesses.

The trading name of the businesses at Bedford and St Neots was immediately re-designated as W. & H. Peacock whilst the businesses trading as Locke & England in Leamington Spa and Ambrose in Loughton, Essex, retained their local trading styles. It was particularly fitting to see the Peacocks’ brand back in existence in Bedford nearly one hundred years after the business was formed in September 1901.

A major asset of the new business was the existing team of loyal and competent staff who helped to make the transfer of business back to the Peacocks’ brand a seamless transaction.

The first major sale by the new Peacocks was held in Bedford for the Panacea Society. This landmark sale was held in a marquee at the Panacea Society site in Albany Road, and comprised antique furniture, collectables, ceramics, textiles and jewellery. It was held over five days from 17 July 2001. The Times described the auction, of over 3,000 lots, as, ‘the biggest auction to take place in England this year, and probably for many years to come’. Bedford was the world-wide headquarters of the society, which had been formed in c. 1913 by a group of women who shared an interest in the writings of the prophecies of Joanna Southcott (1750–1814). Led by Mable Baltrope, the society campaigned to have Joanna's sealed box of prophecies opened by a meeting of the Bishops of the Church of England. By the 1930s there were over seventy members living in the Albany Road area of Bedford.

Since the re-launch of Peacocks the auction business has moved to keep track with the changing fashions in furniture and the ways in which customers wish to buy. A new website was launched, and more importance placed on providing the entire service from valuation and collection through to sale.

The business has developed a high reputation over a wide area with a dedicated team of experts.