Whitley Stimpson was founded in Banbury in 1931 where we were based on the High Street. Following substantial growth, we moved to our current head office at Penrose House in 1992, our expansion more recently has come through mergers with the Hale Partnership’s auditing, accounting, and taxation division in High Wycombe in 2010, Baxter Payne and Haigh in Bicester in 2014 and Morgan Harris in Witney two years later. As a result, our client base now stretches the country, employing 88 staff.

We are one of the largest independent accountancy practices and business advisors in the area and have been providing financial advice to businesses and individuals for over 90 years. We are an award-winning firm and have been recognised as one of the top ten accountancy employers in the UK. This is down to our expertise and experience in accountancy, tax, and business advice, along with our commitment in investing in our employees and their future.

A key theme throughout our history has been our commitment to friendly and personal service as well as our dedication to nurturing young talent. Many clients have been retained from their early days as start-ups through to becoming multi-million-pound enterprises. Finance director Martin Anson, who trained with us, has been with the company for more than 36 years, said: “I have seen many changes. When I started, auditing was completed with big lever arched files. Audit schedules were carried out on A3 paper, and all test headings had to have a full report attached to it. The report had to be double underlined in red pen, cross referenced, all matters arising cleared and staples had to be at an angle for easy review / turning of the working papers. You had review points for not completing these correctly. Never in my wildest dreams in 1986 would I have thought that in 2023 we would be completing audits electronically and watching a virtual stock take taking place in Hull while I sat in the Banbury boardroom.”

We are proud of our reputation for promotion from within, one of our largest promotions and changes to our structure was the promotion of six staff members to local office directors to provide greater senior support across the firm’s four offices in Banbury, Bicester, High Wycombe, and Witney. Every year we employ trainees including a mix of school leavers and graduates who have the opportunity to qualify with us. Once on-board, you will take advantage of well-established and respected training and development programmes and can look forward to a long and fulfilling career as a chartered accountant.