4 minute read
Oakwood
A family affair
The story of Oakwood Financial Services starts as a love story which quite rapidly turned into a family affair! Stewart Jones and Jean met in East London in early 1975 – an auspicious year: Margaret Thatcher had become leader of the Opposition, the Vietnam War ended and the film Jaws was released. And three weeks after their first date Stewart asked Jean to marry him and so began a 42-year love affair and the birth of three children; Matthew, Martin and Stephanie.
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The couple moved to Peterborough with Stewart’s job as a computer support manager at Pearl Assurance, where he had worked since leaving school aged 16, and at first settled in a house in Bretton, later moving to Market Deeping where they bought their young family up in Wade Park Avenue and then Holland Close. After being made redundant from the company aged just 41, Stewart took up employment for Agon, but after redundancy hit again the conscientious businessman vowed never to be in that position again. Going it alone as an Independent Financial Adviser working initially from home, Stewart enjoyed having control over his destiny. It was during these years that he worked with both the Lions Club of the Deepings and became a member of the Rotary Club too. As President of the Lions he organised a Gala Fun Day in his Presidential year and organised a concert at the Key Theatre Peterborough with TV’s Hi di Hi Star Ruth Maddoc. His strong sense of social responsibility has remained a
Stewart Jones linchpin with the company who continue to sponsor the Carnival, the Dog Show and the Deepings Literary Festival, amongst other major local events.
Oakwood was established as a business in 1996: the name chosen for its sense of being solid and after all out of tiny acorns mighty oaks do grow! Initially Stewart worked from an office he rented from Tony Martin, who ran Eurosure in Market Deeping. Stewart established his insurance business in an office on the corner of Conduit Road in Stamford in 2000, thne in 2006 the opportunity to purchase the current building arose. This is where Scallywags and Baltic Batik were operating and when these closed, the Financial Services and Insurance Brokerage eventually came together. His son Martin headed up the insurance brokers and then in 2013 the company again expanded to include a property management arm. Matthew took over at the helm. Both wives are involved in the businesses. As Jean had been made redundant she decided to come on board, and the family enjoyed a relatively brief period working together before Stewart passed away aged 65 in 2016.
His legacy, however, has been a strong, dependable and primarily local family business. It is important to the team that training and qualifications are up to date and in a rapidly changing world the symbol of the oak has proved to be both enduring and memorable.
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