History of Abbey Windows

Andrew Young started Abbey way back in the Middle Ages of 1986.

Born into the window industry, he left school and joined the family business. Before leaving school, Andrew worked part time gaining much experience. An early memory is a project at Greenham Common, where many Ugandan refugees left behind a legacy of some 1000 broken windows.

He found it strange having armed guards whilst you worked - fortunately not a practice Andrew ever adopted for his own staff! At the ripe old age of 21 Andrew decided to start his own company. Using his own initials A.B.Y. he decided to use Abbey as a name (being at the front of Yellow Pages helped too!).

The distinctive Chief Abbott character was created a couple of years later. Over the last 2 decades Abbey have worked on every type of building including a castle in Dorset, and our products have been installed in France, Spain, Ireland & Jamaica.

We have several thousand customers, and, as they move, they come back to us for the second, third time and even fourth time. At Kew Gardens, hurricane damage kept us busy one weekend with over 1000 repairs, and work on their Temperate House must have bored our 5 installers senseless - they replaced 35 miles of glazing seals in a very large roof!

Local schools & councils, Thames Valley Police, house builders such as Barratt & Wimpey, British Airways, & the BBC are just a few of the high profile companies Abbey have worked for. They have also worked in some very sensitive & secure locations but we aren't allowed to tell you where! Ever noticed the sandwich boards placed daily on Richfield Avenue? Andrew's humour attracts the attention of those stuck in traffic with classics such as 'More windows than Microsoft', 'Who needs Viagra with Windows this Rigid' and 'Abbey Potter magic windows'.

Glass 'n' Glaze Logo In 2000, Andrew acquired Glass 'N' Glaze and merged it into Abbey as a specialised Glass Department, thereby introducing a large number of trade customers and organisations such as schools. Abbey have continued to grow every year culminating in the move to our current premises in February 2002.

Here we created an environment incorporating our trade counter, full size conservatories, & offices within a 'cottage' (displaying fascias) all within a customer friendly open plan area with lots of products on display. It works too! Customers appear more comfortable than in the stereotypical 'sales showroom'.

Don't just take our word for it, see what our customers say about us.