Oxford Preservation Trust and the University of Oxford organise the annual Oxford Open Doors event every September. It’s a weekend to celebrate Oxfords places, spaces and most of all people.
Lucy Group has taken part in the Open Doors programme for many years, starting off with the Real Estate department sponsoring the event, then in the latterly the Lucy Group head office, located at the top of Walton Well Road, being opened to the public.
The Lucy story and the heritage of the company provide an interesting talking point for people in the local area and beyond. It is believed that the origins of Lucy Group Ltd reach as far back as 1760. However, the company has been in existence since 1812 when William Carter opened a shop on Oxford High Street, trading as an ironmonger, hardware, brazier and tin plate worker. He moved his business to a new brass and iron foundry in Jericho in 1825, the site which has become known as Eagle Works.
The day was ably managed by staff at the Lucy Group office. Richard & Felicity Dick were also on hand to chat to people and share their unique perspective on their memories and history of the company.
In 2018, Open Doors chose to focus on an ‘’industrial theme’’ and invited Lucy Group to be more involved in the event. Visitors were fascinated with the permanent photographic display, as well as the large archive of loose photos covering activities of Lucy Castings, Lucy Zodion, Lucy Real Estates and Lucy Electric as well as the film showing our current activities.
We welcomed 158 people over the course of the day – a record!
We were really delighted to welcome over 150 people to Eagle Works on the Saturday of Oxford Open Doors. It was nice to see former employees, relatives of former employees and a number of local residents. It is encouraging to see continuing interest in the Lucy Group and my thanks in particular to Linda Wastie and Sue Salter for organising such a successful event.
Richard Dick – Executive Chairman
