08th October 2025

Pextons celebrates 90 years as a hardware shop

 

Pextons in the late 1960s

One of our well-known shops on Bishy Road, with a reputation throughout York and beyond, is Pextons Hardware, known by this name for 90 years. It's a shop where you can go and ask for ‘one of these’ and get expert advice on how to solve household problems. Nearly every square inch is filled with a useful tool, fixing, or gadget, and the staff are always very willing to advise, with well-known faces there - Todd, Bobby, Jonathan, Tessa, Lee and Lucien.

Pextons today

Pextons are celebrating their anniversary with some great videos on Facebook, including a feature about fork handles...

The shop has also played a key role in selling our local history books, starting with Bishy Road: a York shopping Street in time, in 2018. Our new book, Micklegate: the Great Street of York, will be on sale there after the launch on 15 October.

The Pexton name appears from 1935, when Arthur Edwin Pexton opened his business here, trading in cycles and radio. Arthur was a brake fitter on the railways, and his wife Emily ran the shop, which became a general hardware dealer. From 1965 to 1968 Pexton’s daughter ran the shop in Bishopthorpe Road, initially as S. & M. Martindale, hardware dealers, but reverting to the name Pextons from 1969. Pexton’s also had a cycle shop at 10 Acomb Road in Holgate from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Bryan and Margaret Shearer, well known in the area, ran the shop here for 25 years from 1974 until 1999, then on Bryan’s retirement the business was bought by Johnny and Frankie Hayes. They achieved great success, expanding into no.13 next door. This proved to be a good move, expanding sales during a period when DIY was taking off, supported by TV programmes about house improvements. They won the title of Best British Independent Hardware Retailer in 2009.

Johnny and Frankie Hayes and staff

Johnny Hayes told us "When we moved into Pextons we had boxes full of railway toilet locks that had the engaged sign on. There were lots of 1920s window catches beautifully wrapped in tissue paper. We had blanks for church keys 9” long, 'beaver stones’ to wash the front doorstep, and carbolic soap. People would come to us from all over York to buy black lead. Everything had to be cut, just on the counter, you would just make do and mend."

Johnny and Frankie ran it for fourteen years, until they sold it in 2012, to York couple Dan Ebdon and Claire Gilham, who met as sixth-formers at All Saints School. Dan had gained his hardware experience in Norway, where he also worked as a lumberjack. Frankie and Johnny then launched their cookshop at no. 23.

Todd Lepage

After ten years Dan and Claire sold the Pextons business to Todd Lepage. Bobby is also a key player, and Todd said "For Bobby and I, Pextons is more than a shop, it's a community resource with a fantastic history. Collectively we have over 12 years of working in the shop and have a great understanding of who our customers are and what they require.  Our customers know us for providing great customer service and advice as well as having a deceptively large and diverse product range - we love being challenged with unusual requests."