Indeed Steve’s grandfather Arthur Timms actually had a shop on Sydney Street in London throughout the early part of the 20th Century and is believed to have been a founder member of the British Antique Dealers Association. Arthur Timms passed unexpectedly at a young age leaving behind a large family. At this point Steve’s father Robert Astor relocated to Bedfordshire and despite a perennial struggle to make ends meet he managed to raise a family. Steve was just 15 when his father Robert Astor passed away and immediately left school to step into his fathers footsteps and put food on the table for himself, his mother and his elder sister. Fortunately his elder sister Patricia had just passed her driving test and spent the next few years chauffeuring her younger brother around the countryside whilst he conducted his business.
Steve met Sue, who at that time was just starting out in her career of banking, around 1972 and it did not take long at all for her to fall not just in love with Steve, but also the antiques trade. Together they set up S & S Timms from scratch, using Sue’s contacts at the bank to obtain that all important initial loan and mortgage for business premises in the town of Ampthill, Bedfordshire, which at that time was a hotbed of the antiques trade.
Naturally the business continued to evolve and in 1998 a significant change took place. Sue & Steve’s son Robbie left school aged just 16 and joined the family business as an apprentice, becoming the fourth generation of his family in a row to be involved in the antiques trade. Although raw at first and keen to spend as much time on the road with his father learning as much as possible Robbie gradually managed to bring his own dimension to the business ensuring that S & S Timms were one of the very first businesses in the antiques sector to build a website and use email effectively.
Having witnessed his mothers fight first hand and nursed her through her final weeks, Robbie, who'd largely played a behind the scenes role in the business until that time, resolved to stand up alongside his father Steve, and between them not just continue Sue’s previous good work, but to grow the business and ensure S & S Timms Antiques remained a business which Sue would have been proud of for years, and decades even, to come.
As you can imagine having been in business for well over 40 years we have a vast wealth of knowledge and experience in all areas of the antiques trade between us here at S & S Timms Antiques Ltd. We are always more than happy to share and pass this experience and knowledge on to others where possible, whether they be avid collectors, novice dealers, prospective clients, or even just a member of the public seeking advice on something. We all have to start somewhere and passionately believe here at S & S Timms that sometimes our own industry can be seen as a little inaccessible, or even snooty at times.
As you have probably already established, our business is now run from our extensive website, which us updated on an almost daily basis, and also from the many antiques fairs we attend with a small selection of our stock throughout the UK each year. We also have a small selection of our stock for sale, and on display, in our area at The Edenbridge Galleries in Kent. The Edenbridge Galleries, is an exceptionally high quality collective of respected dealers from various disciplines, owned and managed by Antiques Roadshow furniture expert Lennox Cato.
