History

During the reign of Queen Victoria, in the year 1875, when Isaac Eyre was living and working at Barrow Hill, he had no thought of the part he and his descendants would take in creating one of the largest furnishing stores in the provinces. But fate decided the destiny of Isaac Eyre when an injury sustained at work made it necessary for him to find other work. He started by selling sewing machines from home, when his business grew too big, he moved to premises in Chesterfield, 3 Holywell Street. 

Eyres moved to Worksop in 1899 as part of a major expansion, taking a large two storey building on Newcastle Avenue in the centre of the town. While Eyres took the lower floor, the upper level was used as a meeting room by the Pelham Lodge of Freemasons.

All was going well at Worksop until 18th July 1911, when a restless Mrs Hayes, wife of a local bank manager, looked out of her bedroom window at about 3.10am to see flames flickering behind one of the rear windows at Eyres. The alarm was immediately raised and the Worksop 'steamer' under a Captain Rawson was soon on the scene, with water being pumped from the River Ryton onto the blaze. Some of the crowd who had gathered on the street quickly broke into the shops and carried out as many furniture items as they could. As the fire raged unabated it was feared the heat might cause Shaw's store of gunpowder, paraffin and petrol to explode. The assistance of Welbeck Abbey fire brigade was requested and by the time they arrived the trees in the street were burnt, telephone wires had melted and the doors of the Chapel across the road had been singed. The fire broke out on the Tuesday and by the following Saturday Eyres re-opened for business with a fully stocked new shop on Park St, opposite the market, where we are still located today.

Like the first, the war called a halt to further business expansion. Two-Thirds of Eyres’ premises were requisitioned by the ministry of supply for the storage of textiles; there was over one and half million yards of cloth stored at Eyres. When the ports were being bombed heavily, Eyres was used for the storage of aircraft construction materials. It was at this point the current owners, the Shuker family joined the business. Lawrence Edwin Shuker, born 1914, started work at Eyres of Worksop as a removal man down the yard, he enlisted in the RAF, but started back at Eyres in 1945. He worked his way up to furniture salesman, then manager and finally director of the company. 

Eyres bought Mansfield shop, in which John Shuker was promoted to manager of. It was around this time that John's younger brother Paul joined the company, starting at Mansfield in the carpet department there. 

John’s son Richard joined the company in 1989 down in the warehouse and worked his way up through the different departments. Richard still runs the company to this day.

Alicia Shuker, Richard’s daughter, joins the family business and works on the shop floor. From 2023 Alicia manages Miss Poppy’s Coffee shop located on the first floor alongside her job in sales.