FROM SIGHT TO SOUND

Picture the Exeter scene in the early 1900’s: The historic Cathedral bells are being refurbished to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII; there are just 12 registered motorcars roaming the streets; today’s leading newspaper the ‘Express & Echo’ is launched and local pharmacy Broom Reid & Harris (BRH) established since 1841 has been providing healthcare for over 60 years. 

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Glen King speaks to BRH’s practice owner Curtis Alcock to trace the family business and discover why the company evolved from a general pharmacy to the independent hearing specialist practice it is today. 

“By the 1940’s BRH had expanded to a number of shop holdings taking over what is now occupied by the retail giant Marks & Spencers. It was around this time that a man called Ron Silmon was taken on as a young apprentice who was to play an important role in forming what the practice is today and in the general development of hearing care itself” explains Curtis.  

During wartime Exeter, fourteen-year-old Ron was glad of the employment with jobs few and far between. After ten months of carrying out general shop work he moved into the optics workshop of the pharmacy where BRH cut their own lenses and made their own frames, some from real gold! Young Ron then embarked upon a four year apprenticeship to become an optical technician. He would glaze and fit lenses to frames using a large grindstone to size and shape the glass then an Accurist Lens measure to work out the curve and strength of each. It was an increasingly complex and technical position but when Ron reached 18 years of age he was called up for conscription. He was given a deferment of six months so as not to disrupt his apprenticeship but despite this, Ron’s number was up when he became a ‘Bevin Boy’. Named after Ernest Bevin a trade union official and Labour politician he replaced one of the 36,000 miners who had been conscripted leaving a mass coal shortage in their wake. 

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When leaving for the army in early 1945 Ron’s boss was John Harris.  On his return after the war, Harris had retired and the company had been taken over by a Richard Cross of Enfield. Ron finished his apprenticeship only to find himself stuck working as a dispensing optician with no real career prospects. 

Curtis says, “At this time hearing aids were the very latest addition to healthcare with many considering it a gimmick; something of a farce with no real longevity. The opticians were in charge of fitting them and at BRH they would run upstairs to the glasses workshop to announce the sale of a hearing aid which was greeted by great cheering and hollering. A hearing aid at that time would have set you back £25-£30; that’s the same as £800 in today’s money!”

Their lack of confidence in this pioneering equipment was ill placed, however as soon demand for hearing aids was so high it was increasingly taking opticians away from their primary work. Ron was thrown a lifeline, the chance to take over the hearing side of the business. He agreed to make the move from sight to sound on one condition; that they would change their attitude to hearing aids and take it seriously. 

Ron was enthused about his new position in an area that was very much in its infancy. It was then in the early 1960’s that a man called Peter Werth saw the need to improve standards through education and founded the Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists of Great Britain (S.H.A.A). Important developments were taking place in America so Werth began sourcing and importing the very latest hearing aid technology and supplying them to pioneering practices in the UK, such as BRH. 

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Working closely with Werth and the S.H.A.A organising exhibitions and educating people on hearing technology, Ron soon made the hearing division of BRH a roaring success. The company was now the third largest pharmacy in the country, but change was afoot. Talks of the new Guildhall Shopping Centre being built in Exeter meant relocation from the premises in Queen Street, held since 1841. Lloyds Pharmacy had taken ownership of the optical side of the business with no interest in the hearing division. Ron decided to take ownership and moved the practice to its current position in the Guildhall Shopping Centre where it has remained ever since. Today Curtis Alcock maintains a strong commitment to the company’s traditional values and ethos, whilst pioneering cutting-edge technology, so important to his predecessors. He continues to provide an unrivalled private hearing service for the people of Devon.