The story begins in rural Surrey
in the late 1800’s, at this time Woking was still
very much a village and relatively unknown. It was from
this location that a Mr Dowsett, who had been established
in the insurance field, made his decision to diversify
his business to estate agency.
It seems that Mr Dowsett was a particularly enterprising
character and it was not long before his path cross
with a similarly minded person by the name of Frederick
Mann.
A partnership was formed in the name of Dowsett &
Mann, trading from Guildford Road, Woking.
Eventually Mr Dowsett bowed out and Frederick Mann
continued the business as Messrs Mann & Co.
The 1980’s were, like every other decade in the
history of the Company, an amazing time and in 1986
Mann & Co, along with Bairstow Eves were the first
two estate agency groups in the Country to be listed
on the Stock Exchange and were acquired by Hambros PLC
and merged to form Hambro Countrywide.
The largest acquisition took place in 1994, when Hambro
Countrywide took over 300 estate agency branches from
the Nationwide Building Society.The Mann & Co South
East subsidiary then acquired 8 Austin & Wyatt branches
which has resulted in a 22 branch successful subsidiary
in the Hampshire area.
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