Stevens & Willey

About Us

WELCOME to the website of Stevens & Willey, Chartered Certified Accountants – the largest firm of Certified Accountants in North Devon.

Established in 1955, we currently have four partners and over twenty employees working together towards our aim of providing a prompt, reliable, friendly and, above all, a value for money service to our many clients.

For most of the firm’s life it has operated from a single office in Barnstaple, a policy designed to concentrate our resources in one place, thereby providing a pool of expertise and knowledge to meet our clients’ requirements. We do now have a satellite office in South Molton to service clients in that area, which we opened in 2018.

We serve a wide variety of clients from private individuals to limited companies with multi million pound turnovers, many of whom have been dealing with Stevens & Willey for decades.

Whilst we are a solid and long established firm, we actively embrace changes and improvements in information technology and are continually looking for ways to improve the efficiency and quality of the service we offer to our clients.

Our History

Stevens & Willey was established in 1955, making it years in the business. Thank you to all our clients and colleagues (past and present) for helping to make us the firm we are today.

Stevens & Willey was founded by Cyril Stevens and John Willey on 1 September 1955 and whilst Cyril retired a number of years ago, John carried on as a part time consultant to the firm for some 15 years after his formal retirement as a partner in 1989 and only put away his calculator whilst in his 84th year, to coincide with the firm’s 50th anniversary!

The firm started its business life working out of two rooms off Barnstaple High Street, before moving to Litchdon Street in 1961 as the firm expanded, and then relocating again in 1995 to the current premises at Grenville House, 9 Boutport Street, Barnstaple. Just a stones throw from the Green Lanes shopping centre in the heart of the town, the current building offers plenty of space to accommodate the firm’s increasing staff numbers and has ample public car parking space nearby.

With the exception of the founder members, all Partners have first served their apprenticeship as employees, thus providing the firm with continuity and stability. Six of those partners (David Pitick, Brian Howe, Terry Chaplin, David Stubbs, Philip Kelland and Dave Holmes) have since retired, and those currently at the helm are Helen Mansford, Ian Mansford, Nick Beaumont and Amanda Hicks.

Obviously, not all the employees go on to become partners, but many have been part of our working ‘family’ for a very large part of their lives. Mary, Les, Jan and Jackie of our current staff have all been with us for more than 20 years, and previous long serving staff include Clarice Willey and Judith Chapman, who notched up 70 years between them, whilst John Knill completed 42 years before he retired.

We believe that we provide a happy, friendly and professional environment for our staff and also our clients, which has been the cornerstone of our development strategy. We feel privileged to have served our loyal client base over such a long period, which has resulted in our providing ongoing services to not only the original individuals, but also to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. The strong personal relationship built up with many of our clients, and our sustained investment in Information Technology, has meant that a move away from North Devon does not necessarily bring our services to an end. We are proud to continue to act for a large number of clients who now reside in other parts of the world, including some as far away as Australia.

The firm has a long and rich history, experiencing many changes throughout more than six decades. Throughout that time, however, there has been a consistent aim to provide a sound, friendly and professional accountancy and taxation service to its many clients. Looking forward into the future, that aim remains unchanged.