Most people in Alvechurch will know of Alvechurch Insurance Services or David E Matthews. The faces will be very familiar to village residents, and the roots of the business date back nearly 50 years.
The firm began as David E Matthews Insurance Services in 1973 and Brian Hawkins joined not long after it's inception.
After David sadly passed away in December 2015, they decided to make a few changes – but very much wanted to stay in the heart of Alvechurch with its strong sense of community and its loyal client base.
“We’ve got to know all our customers really well over the years and they know and trust us, so it made sense to try and stay in the village,” says Andrew.
Vacant premises in Alvechurch are like gold dust, but help was at hand in the shape of village butcher Geoff Crow, who agreed to let out the ground floor of his home adjacent to the butcher’s shop.
Alvechurch Insurance Services took up residence in the building in January 2016.
The fact that clients are able to visit the team face to face – “the old-fashioned way”, as Andrew puts it – is one of the main advantages of the firm, as the team can offer a friendly chat and a personalised service that you just wouldn’t find with an online provider.
Customers can always speak to the same person and maintaining the village location means that everyone knows where they are.
After Brian Hawkins retired in October 2019 (at the age of 82!) after over 40 years with the firm there was a spare seat in the Alvechurch Office and thus the idea Alvechurch Legal Services was born…
Alvechurch Legal Services
Laura Hawkins (the Daughter of Andy and Granddaughter of Brian) and James Raybone made it their mission to fill the large gap left by the retirement of Brian.
James and Laura had worked together previously at a national law firm who offered Wills, Power of Attorney and Probate and found that they loved this area of law and working together. However, they wanted to be able to offer their clients a friendly, local service but with realistic fix fee pricing.
Another of their colleague’s, Amy, also wanted to join and so we also have partner firm in Newcastle, Goldsborough Pike & Co.
And so, with a little help from Andy, Alvechurch Legal Services was born in January 2020.
The third generation of the Hawkins family to work in Alvechurch and the family business but hopefully not the last!
James lives in the Black County so worked on finding premises in that part of the country. Luckily, a solicitor friend of Brian’s had some free office space at the Waterfront near Merry Hill Shopping centre. This was the perfect spot and the office even included a super fire-proof safe for document storage and the ever-important free parking.
So now Alvechurch Legal Services has two offices and we can visit clients in Alvechurch, Dudley and everywhere in between.
We look forward to meeting you soon and having a no obligation chat over a cup of tea and some biscuits.
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