Our 100 Year Celebration clinic went off to a bang last month where we celebrated by raising money for the Guide Dogs charity! As we sponsor Guide Dog, Oscar, we felt this was only a fitting charity to support on such a special occasion. We raised £70 exactly through a tombola, cake and book sale, where our patients enjoyed petting two beautiful Guide Dogs who came to visit us on the day despite the rain! We didn’t let it dampen our spirits though and our patients enjoyed 20% off their glasses orders as a thank you from us for their continued support and loyalty. Some of our patients have been with us for over 30 years and continue to return time after time.
Dating back to 1906, the Chase Eyecare practice as it stands today started its life as C Yates & Co Manufacturing Opticians and was founded by Charles Yates and his sons Claude and Stanley in the Birmingham area. They subsequently sold the practice in 1947 to Ralph Priest, a Dispensing Optician and two partners. In 1970 Ralph’s son, Michael Priest and his wife Gail, both Optometrists, take on associated branches around inner city Birmingham, later moving the practice to Cannock in 1980. The Priest’s took on a second branch in Hednesford on Market Street in 1983 and moved to the High Green practice in Cannock in 1984.
In 1985, C Yates laboratory moved to the Cannock premises, to become the first optical practice in the Midlands able to provide on-site lens surfacing as well as glazing while- you- wait spectacles. This service is still available today, allowing us to provide a one hour glazing service which is one of our many unique selling points and one of the reasons our patients keep returning to us.
The year 2000 saw Michael and Gail form a partnership with Beverly Rickets, a Dispensing Optician, to form Chase Eyecare. Later, in 2004, they were joined by the current business owner, who took over both practices in 2005, Consultant Optometrist Shakeel Puri.
We’re proud to have been a part of the community for such a long time, and believe we’ve achieved this by never losing sight of what is important to us – our patients, and ensuring they receive the very best eye care possible. Being able to do this in a professional but friendly manner, which gives our patients confidence that they are in the safest of hands is important to us. We also recognise that the latest technology now allows us to make even more detailed diagnosis, and invest in equipment to ensure we’re providing our patients with the best service and lenses we can.