In 1966, Mr Allenby and John Stevenson opened their first flooring showroom on Town Hall Street, Grimsby. They'd met at the Co-Op, Mr Allenby the experienced businessman, John a 21-year-old carpet fitter who'd learned the trade at Petchells Furnishers on Cleethorpes Road. When John needed £200 to get the business started, he went to his father. His father said "no, if you want to make something of yourself, you do it through hard work and honesty." So John found the money another way... and paid it back within the first year. Those words, hard work and honesty, have never left this business.

By the late 1970s, Allenby Stevenson had become one of the area's leading flooring specialists. In 1979, John and his younger brother Andrew took a significant step, they bought Petchells Furnishers, the very company where John had first learned his trade. It's still part of the family today, now known as Stevensons, run by John's daughter Claire and her daughter Georgia. Two businesses, one family, the same values. The carpet store moved into a larger showroom, the former Lindsey Electrical on Victoria Street, and the team continued to grow. Among them: David Pullman, who joined as Estimator and retired 40 years later.

John's son Jonathon joined the business in 1987, straight from school, though in truth, he'd been learning it since he was old enough to carry tools. Saturdays and school holidays spent helping the fitters meant he knew the work before he officially started. His father's approach was the same one his own father had taken: learn every aspect. Warehouse. Plans. Accounts. Estimating. Fitting. There were no shortcuts and no special treatment for being the owner's son. The lesson that stuck longest didn't come from the business. It came from Pat Green, the fitter customers trusted so completely that they'd wait for him rather than let anyone else in. Pat stayed with Allenby Stevenson for 50 years. What he showed Jonathon about the value of a relationship over a transaction is still how this business operates today.

In 1996, a fire broke out in a derelict building nearby and travelled through the beams of the adjoining properties until it reached the showroom. The whole store went up. John and Andrew rebuilt, first in temporary premises on Victoria Street, then into the permanent showroom at 83-85 Victoria Street where Allenby Stevenson stands today. The same street, within 100 metres of where it all started in 1966. Some businesses would have used it as a reason to walk away. They used it as a reason to come back stronger.

When Andrew retired in 2004, Jonathon took over the running of the carpet store, and has led it ever since. The products have changed considerably since 1966. LVT, engineered wood, safety flooring, design-led stair runners, the industry has evolved and so has Allenby Stevenson. But the approach has never changed: advise honestly, measure carefully, fit properly, and be there long after the job is done.

In 2024, Allenby Stevenson marked sixty years in business, a milestone built not on advertising or expansion, but on the kind of reputation that only comes from doing right by people, job after job, decade after decade. The same Victoria Street showroom. The same values John Stevenson's father passed on without even knowing it. The same belief that a floor isn't just a floor, it's something that has to be right, properly right, for the people who'll live on it every day. We're not finished yet.