Eye examinations
Refraction, binocular vision, non-contact tonometry and a dilated view of the retina where it's indicated. The enhanced examination adds OCT and retinal photography, which is what lets us compare year on year.
21 Priestpopple, Hexham · since 1961
An eye examination you can see the whole of.
Forty-five minutes with an optometrist, OCT included, in the same shop on Priestpopple since 1961. Every fee we charge is published on this site, including the lens prices nobody else prints.
Your prescription is yours, and you leave with it. The Sight Testing (Examination and Prescription) (No 2) Regulations 1989 require us to hand you a written prescription straight after the test — NHS or private, whether or not you buy your glasses here. We print it, itemise it and explain it. You never have to ask.
Next routine appointment
Thu 6 Aug, 10:20
Sudden floaters or red eye
Seen today — call 01434 604 118
Appointment length
30 or 45 minutes
Late clinic
Thursdays to 19:00
What we do
Six clinics, one set of notes
Everything is done here by the same four people, and everything goes in the same record — so the optometrist who sees you in 2028 can read what was measured in 2026.
Contact lenses
Daily disposables, monthlies, torics for astigmatism and multifocals. Ade fits rigid gas permeables and ortho-K for people soft lenses have never suited. Teaching and aftercare are in the fitting fee.
Myopia management
For children whose prescription is climbing. We measure axial length at every visit and plot it, then fit MiSight, Stellest or ortho-K depending on the child. Not NHS funded anywhere in England.
Dry eye clinic
Tear break-up time, meibography and lid margin assessment before anything is recommended. Most people leave with a lid routine and a £9 bottle; some need intense pulsed light, and we'll say which you are.
Dispensing
Priya takes the measurements — PD, heights, back vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt — before you choose a frame, not after, because the frame you can wear depends on the lens you need.
Urgent eye problems
Flashes, a shower of new floaters, a red or painful eye, sudden loss of vision. We hold slots every morning and we have an NHS minor eye conditions contract, so for most people it costs nothing.
Published fees · August 2026
Everything we charge, including the lenses
Most optician websites publish a test price and stop. The lenses are where the money actually goes, so they are on this list too. Nothing here is a "from" price with a catch behind it.
Examinations
- NHS sight test
- No charge
- Standard eye examination
- £45
- Enhanced examination with OCT
- £75
- OCT added to any examination
- £25
- Driver vision report (DVLA / occupational)
- £30
If you're eligible — see the questions below. The NHS pays us a fixed fee for it, so there is nothing to pay on the day and nothing added at the end.
30 minutes. Refraction, binocular vision, tonometry, slit lamp, direct fundus view.
45 minutes. Everything above plus OCT, retinal photography and visual fields. Images kept for comparison.
Number plate at 20 metres, acuity to 6/12 both eyes open, and a field to 120° horizontally.
Lenses and frames
- Single vision, 1.5 index
- £65
- Single vision, thinned 1.6
- £95
- Single vision, 1.67 / 1.74
- £140 / £195
- Varifocal, standard corridor
- £145
- Varifocal, wide corridor
- £240
- Varifocal, individualised
- £320
- Occupational / desk lens
- £130
- Frames
- £59 – £340
Anti-reflection coating and a two-year scratch warranty included on every lens we sell. We do not sell an uncoated lens.
If you can't adapt within eight weeks we remake them as bifocals or single vision at no charge.
Contact lenses and plans
- Soft lens fitting, including two aftercares
- £65
- Rigid gas permeable fitting
- £145
- Ortho-K fitting
- £395
- Annual contact lens check
- £40
- Myopia management programme
- £39 / month
- The Priestpopple Plan
- £14 / month
Includes the first pair of lenses, three months of reviews and topography at each visit.
Lenses, all appointments, axial length measurement and replacements. Cancel with a month's notice; no tie-in.
An enhanced examination every year, OCT included, 20% off lenses, and repairs and adjustments for as long as you're on it.
NHS optical vouchers. If you're entitled to one, we take it off the bill at the current value for your band — A to H, or the contact lens voucher — and show you the arithmetic. We don't quote a voucher figure here because the values are set nationally and change.
The register
Four people, four registration numbers
Optometrists and dispensing opticians are regulated by the General Optical Council and the register is public. Ours are printed below so you can check them before you come in, which takes about fifteen seconds.
Ruth Ellard
Optometrist & independent prescriber · partner
Qualified 2004, here since 2007, partner since 2011. Runs the glaucoma repeat-readings clinic and the dry eye list. As an independent prescriber she can prescribe for the eye directly, which saves a GP appointment for things like blepharitis and anterior uveitis follow-up.
GOC 01-24518MCOptom · IP Check the register
Sam Roe
Optometrist · partner
Qualified 2011, joined 2013, partner since 2016. Runs myopia management and the complex contact lens list — keratoconus, post-graft and irregular corneas that high street soft lenses won't correct.
GOC 01-31904BSc (Hons) MCOptom Check the register
Priya Nandra
Dispensing optician
Twenty-two years dispensing, eleven of them here. Children's frames, difficult varifocals and low vision. If a lens can't be made in the frame you've fallen for, she will tell you in the shop rather than four weeks later on the phone.
GOC D-14722FBDO Check the register
Ade Coulthard
Contact lens optician
Fits rigid gas permeables and ortho-K, and teaches every new wearer himself — nobody leaves here with lenses they can't get in and out on their own. Also the person who repairs frames the manufacturer has given up on.
GOC D-19086FBDO (Hons) CL Check the register
The instruments
What the machines are for
An OCT takes a cross-section through the retina at roughly five microns of resolution. It shows the layers under the surface — which is where macular change and glaucomatous thinning start, before anyone notices a symptom and before it shows in a photograph.
We bought ours in 2019 and we scan everyone on the Priestpopple Plan annually, because a single scan is a picture and a run of seven is a measurement. The comparison is the whole point, and it only works if somebody kept the first one.
- Practice on this street since
- 1961
- Clinicians
- 4
- OCT scans on file
- 11,400
- Glazing, in house
- 5–8 days
Your prescription
The card you leave with, decoded
This is a real prescription layout with a worked example in it. If you can read your own card you can price it anywhere, which is exactly why we explain it rather than folding it into an envelope.
| Eye | SPH | CYL | AXIS | ADD | PRISM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right | −2.25 | −0.75 | 150 | +2.00 | — |
| Left | −2.00 | −1.25 | 015 | +2.00 | — |
Interpupillary distance 63mm. Recommended review two years. Signed by the optometrist who tested you, with their GOC number — a prescription without both isn't one.
- SPHSphere, in dioptres. Minus is short-sighted, plus is long-sighted. This eye is moderately myopic.
- CYLCylinder — the amount of astigmatism. Under −0.50 is usually left uncorrected.
- AXISWhere the cylinder sits, 1° to 180°. It is an orientation, not a strength; 150 and 015 are entirely normal.
- ADDThe reading addition. Appears from about 45 and is the same in both eyes almost always.
- PRISMOnly where the eyes need help aligning. Most prescriptions never carry one.
- PDInterpupillary distance, in millimetres. You need it to buy glasses anywhere, so it goes on the card.
The NHS, and how often
Questions we get asked at the desk
Am I entitled to a free NHS sight test?
You are if you're under 16; 16–18 and in full-time education; 60 or over; registered partially sighted or blind; diagnosed with diabetes or glaucoma; 40 or over with a parent, sibling or child who has glaucoma; told by an ophthalmologist you're at risk of glaucoma; eligible for an NHS complex lens voucher; or on a valid HC2 or HC3 certificate, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Pension Credit Guarantee Credit or qualifying Universal Credit.
Bring proof if you can. If you're not sure, ring and ask — it takes a minute and we'd rather sort it before you arrive.
How often should I be tested?
Every two years if you're eligible on the NHS, and more often if we recommend it clinically — which we will put in writing on the day along with the reason. We send a reminder when you're due; it isn't a marketing letter and you can opt out of it without opting out of us.
Can I take my prescription elsewhere?
Yes, and we'll print it whether you ask or not. It's a legal requirement, not a courtesy, and a practice that makes you ask twice is telling you something. Your PD is on it, which is the number online retailers need.
My child squints at the board. Do they need to be seen?
Yes, and it's free — under-16s are NHS eligible whatever your own circumstances. Come before you buy anything. If the prescription is climbing year on year we'll talk to you about myopia management, and we'll also tell you if we don't think it's warranted yet.
What if something's wrong between appointments?
Ring us the same day. Flashes, a sudden shower of floaters, a curtain across the vision, a red painful eye or sudden loss of vision all need looking at that day, not next week. We hold slots every morning and our NHS minor eye conditions contract covers most of these at no charge.
The frame room
Four hundred frames, and one of them fits
We stock British and Danish independents alongside the ranges you'd recognise. Nothing on the wall is priced above £340, and the £59 shelf is at eye level rather than by the door.
Patients
What people said afterwards
"Sam spotted a tear in my retina on the scan in March. I had no symptoms at all. I was lasered at the RVI eight days later and I still have the sight in that eye."
"Our daughter's prescription had gone up every year since she was seven. Two years on the programme and the axial length graph has flattened. They show us the numbers every visit."
"I'd been told varifocals weren't for me by two other places. Priya put me in a trial frame for twenty minutes and worked out my old ones had the heights wrong by four millimetres."
Book an examination
Ring the shop and you'll speak to somebody who works here. If it's urgent, say so when you call — the morning slots are held back for exactly that.