Meet The Sutlers!

Peter Veal
Sales Manager

Peter joined The Sutlers Stores when we opened our first shop in 1999. He left us in 2003 to join the army, serving two tours in Iraq and rejoined us in his old position as Retail Manager in 2007. Peter has been involved in re-enacting with the American Civil War societies plus The Great War and World War II groups. Pete has an extensive knowledge of all our products and their applications. If you need impartial help or advice please feel free to ask him.

Nancy Beardall
Director

Nancy is one of the founders of the company from 1998 and is the Director responsible for managing The Sutlers Stores. A fully trained tailor in her own right and graduate of Bournemouth University's Degree Course ' Victorian Clothing for Film and Theatre', she is a respected expert on male and female clothing both military and civilian for the periods 1700 - 1950. Nancy manages all our corporate client accounts for Museums, M.o.D. Film, Television and Theatre.

The patterns used by us were all hand drawn by Nancy using original garments for the initial accuracy and integrity of the design. Thes patterns were then 'graded' in order to allow them to fit people of today's build in exactly the same way that patterns were graded hundreds of years ago.

Richard Beardall
Consultant

Richard, the other founder of the company is an internationally acknowledged expert on tailoring and weaponry of the 18th and 19th Century. The wealth of knowledge that he has acquired can be traced back to his childhood. At the end of the 1960's Richard attended the Gordon Boys Boarding School in Surrey; which at this time was a miliitary school dedicated to the memory of Major-General Charles George Gordon CB by Queen Victoria following his death in 1885.

Richard was assigned to the Tailoring Department where he was apprenticed for the next 6 years to a fully qualified Military Tailor, Mr Parry. The Tailoring Department's main role was to manufacture and maintain the boys military uniforms that were worn for Ceremonial Parades and also the Combined Cadet Force uniforms that were worn when military training was undertaken, additional duties included taking care of the schools museum artefacts which included hundreds of items originally belonging to Major-General Charles Gordon CB (Chinese Gordon - Gordon of Khartoum).

He has put his experience and knowledge to good use over the years having consulted on countless projects for Museums, Film and Television he is now the historical consultant for the company, having passed the management reins over to Nancy.

During the last 50 years Richard has built up an impressive collection of original uniforms and accoutrements which form the basis of the products offered for resale.

Nancy and Richard were married in 2007.