About Us

In 1804, Mr. John Oldrid and Mr. Richard Hyde formed a partnership and opened a shop trading as John Oldrid & Co. in Boston. They were a draper, mercer, hosier, haberdasher, and funeral director. By 1812 the pair had established a wholesale business supplying many of the small shops in the surrounding villages.

In 1831 this original partnership was dissolved and John Oldrid continued to run the business until his death in 1849. The business then passed to his nephew, another John Oldrid, who ran the business for 30 years until 1879 when he passed away, at which time Mr. John Oldrid Scrivener, the second John Oldrid’s grandson stood to inherit the business providing he changed his name; this he duly did and ran the business until his death in 1901 leaving his widow to run the business until her death in 1905.

In 1906, the executors of the will sold the business to Mr. Sydney Smith who in turn had to sell the business by 1915. It was then bought by Mr. Robert Isaac (who’s family still own a majority share of the company) who had left a partnership in Kidderminster. He purchased the freehold of the three adjacent properties that Mr Smith had sub-let and in 1920 made them into one store. He was joined by his youngest son Ken in 1917 and then his elder son Augustus (Gus) in 1919. They continued to buy other properties over the years including Pescod Hall.

In 1925 Gus felt he would benefit from the experience of managing a business on his own, so he and his wife of one year moved to Chippenham, where they stayed for 6 years until Robert felt he needed Gus back in Boston to allow him (Robert) to ease into retirement.They made the business into a limited company in 1934. Robert left Boston in 1940 with his wife Florence and moved to Chippenham. After the war they moved again to Leigh-on-Sea, to be near their daughter Mary Crookall. Robert died there in 1947 and Florence in the early 1960’s.

The store was again rebuilt and greatly enlarged in the early 1970’s, trading on 3 floors including a food hall. In the early 60’s the company started selling furniture in a separate unit in New Street. By the early 70’s, this furniture store was becoming too small, and was far from ideal. The decision was taken to purchase an edge-of-town site at Wyberton in 1973, and in 1979 work started on the first Downtown Store. The store opened in 1981, and was one of the pioneers of out-of-town shopping. It also housed the company’s motor showroom. This venture into the car trade lasted for 4 years before being sold to another local dealer. Gus and Ken gradually retired from the business in the 1970’s. Between them they had 9 sons, 8 of which went into the business. Mr. Bob (Robert) Isaac became the Managing Director until his retirement in 1987 when his youngest brother Adrian took the post. The other 6 Mr. Isaacs of that generation held various roles within the company and also during the late 70’s and early 80’s some of the next generation joined the business.

The Downtown store in Boston was extended in 1985/6 and the site has since been surrounded by other retailers. In that year a 10 acre field was bought next to the A1 at Grantham and a large new Downtown store opened in the summer of 1989, with the building being 153,000 ft. sq. The first few years at the Grantham store were a struggle and it was not really until 1996 when half of the first floor was converted into selling space and a tenant found for 30,000 sq. ft. on the ground floor that things started to take off. During 1997 and 1998 more land was bought which enabled a new and separate warehouse to be built which then allowed the rest of the first floor to be converted to selling space. Work in the store at this time also involved installation of escalators and a sprinkler system. While this work was going on more land was bought around the car park and planning permission granted for a Garden Centre. Both the first floor space and the garden centre opened in the spring of 2000. Following the opening more car parking was created and a new entrance and exit to and from the site were provided.

During 2001 the building and the external area of the Garden Centre was expanded, bringing the current expansion plans at Grantham to an end. Mr. Adrian Isaac retired as Managing Director to be replaced by his nephew Mr. Martin Isaac. The first non-family Managing Director Annmarie McClintock joined the company in Autumn 2006.

In 2002 and 2003 the original Oldrids Store was extended and refitted to tie in with the long awaited new Pescod Square shopping centre in Boston. During 2004 the Downtown Boston store was extended and altered and then in 2005 the store underwent a thorough refurbishment.