Croft and Graves Optometrists

Croft and Graves Optometrists Independent Opticians - Contact lens, Sunglasses and sports eyewear, Myopia management, Dry Eye This is the philosophy at Croft and Graves Optometrists.

Your eye health and vision matters to you and it matters to us too – there is no compromise. An independent business, providing you with a unique and personalised service, reassuring clinical expertise using the latest state of the art technology and being the first optical practice in Tynedale to offer the very latest optical diagnostic technology, the Optical Coherence Tomography Scanner or OCT.

Our team is entirely focused on you - your eye health, your visual needs, your individual lifestyle. If you want to have the very best in quality eyewear, and superb vision, choose us. Wearing high quality frames does make a difference – it makes a statement about you – the way you look and feel, coupled with premium lenses ensures that you get the best possible vision, every time. Our expert dispensing team are trained to style you, giving you the look and image you want. You can expect to be in style with affordable quality eyewear and premium designer glasses and sunglasses. That’s the beauty of being independent, and why our clients choose us and recommend us again and again, no matter what your needs are or budget. Experience our expertise in:
• Clinical Eye Care
• Dry Eye / Red Eye Management
• Contact lenses’ fitting
• Real designer eyewear
• Bespoke and made to measure eyewear
• Childrens’ Eye Care
• Contact lenses for children
• Colour deficiency assessment
• Eyewear for active sport
• Corporate Eye Care
• Home Visits
• Low Vision aid assessments

Come in and experience the difference.

Whether you're escaping to warmer shores, enjoying lazy afternoons in the garden, or simply making the most of an Englis...
14/08/2026

Whether you're escaping to warmer shores, enjoying lazy afternoons in the garden, or simply making the most of an English summer, the right sunglasses make every moment look and feel a little brighter.

Until 31st August, you can also enjoy our Seasonal Sunglasses Event:-

• Up to 70% off end-of-line designer sunglass ranges*
• Prescription and ready-to-wear sunglass offers available*

Take your time, try on as many as you like, and let us help you find the pair that feels unmistakably you.

The best sunglasses aren't just for summer; they're the pair you'll reach for, year after year.

*Exclusions apply.
This promotion cannot be used with any other offer and while stocks last.



[Image description: A gold aviator-style sunglass perched on ripe mangoes in a tray]

13/08/2026

Genuine question for everyone north of the eclipse line: did you also cut up a cereal box and tinfoil, or dig out a colander, for a 92% eclipse that gave us... marginally greyer grey?

And today’s “guaranteed sunshine”? Also cloud. The colander’s just a colander again now.

Anyone else’s craft project go completely to waste, or is Corbridge just cursed this week?

Imagine living 2,000 years ago. Someone's vision slowly becomes misty. Faces blur. Colours fade. Eventually, they can ba...
13/08/2026

Imagine living 2,000 years ago. Someone's vision slowly becomes misty. Faces blur. Colours fade. Eventually, they can barely see at all.

You can't look inside the eye. You don't know what a lens is. You don't even know that light must pass through it. So how would you explain it?

People noticed that as vision disappeared, a pale white cloud seemed to appear behind the pupil. To them, it looked as though something had flowed into the eye. Like water.

The word cataract comes from the ancient Greek katarraktēs, meaning 'waterfall'. The Romans later adopted it as the Latin cataracta, and that ancient image has stayed with us ever since.

Doctors imagined that a cloudy fluid had cascaded down behind the pupil, blocking sight, just as a waterfall hides whatever lies behind it. They were wrong, but they weren't unreasonable. They were trying to explain what they could observe with the knowledge they had.

Today, we know a cataract isn't a waterfall at all. It's the eye's natural lens gradually becoming cloudy as we get older. Yet the name has survived for nearly two thousand years; a reminder of one of humanity's earliest attempts to make sense of blindness.

The clever bit?
Sometimes, the most fascinating part of science isn't discovering the right answer, it's discovering how people first tried to explain the mystery.

Look closer
The next time you hear the word cataract, don't just think of an eye condition, think of a waterfall. For nearly two thousand years, that single word has carried the story of how our ancestors tried to explain blindness.

Sometimes, the oldest words are museums in disguise.

[Image description: Large eye inside a waterfall]

Here's a word you've probably heard, but have you ever wondered what it actually means?The answer takes us back more tha...
12/08/2026

Here's a word you've probably heard, but have you ever wondered what it actually means?

The answer takes us back more than two thousand years to the ancient Greeks. The word glaukos (γλαυκός) described a pale blue-green or grey colour. It was often used to describe the sea, the sky, or light-coloured eyes.

Ancient physicians noticed that some people who had lost their sight developed eyes with a cloudy, bluish-grey appearance. Without being able to see inside the eye, they believed this strange colour was part of the disease itself. So they named it after what they could see: Glaucoma.

Today, we know glaucoma isn't really about colour at all. It's a disease that damages the optic nerve: the cable carrying visual information from your eye to your brain. Often, it develops so gradually that people notice no change in their vision until permanent damage has already occurred.

The name, however, has remained. A tiny linguistic fossil from a time when careful observation was the closest thing medicine had to a microscope.

The clever bit?

Sometimes a medical word isn't describing the disease, it's describing what our ancestors thought they were seeing.

Look Closer...

The next time you hear a medical word, ask yourself: "Why that word?"

Some are named after colours, some after shapes, some after the people who first described them, but each one carries a little piece of history.

The world is full of remarkable things...hidden in plain sight.



[Image description: A large eye in a waterfall]

Your retina has no pain receptors. That's the problem.Tomorrow evening, the UK sees its deepest solar eclipse since 1999...
11/08/2026

Your retina has no pain receptors. That's the problem.

Tomorrow evening, the UK sees its deepest solar eclipse since 1999: up to 96% of the sun disappearing behind the moon, right around sunset. It's a genuinely special thing to witness.

But here's the part most people don't know: solar retinopathy, the damage caused by looking at the sun, doesn't hurt. There's no flinch, no warning, nothing to make you look away. By the time you'd notice anything (a blur, a dark patch, colours looking off), the damage is often already done. And it can be permanent.

So this isn't really about "being careful." It's about knowing your own eyes won't tell you when to stop.

The simple version: proper ISO 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses, checked for scratches, on for the entire time the sun is even partially visible. No naked eye. No regular sunglasses. No phone camera, binoculars, or telescope: even with glasses on.

If you don't have certified glasses, a pinhole projector or a livestream (Royal Observatory Greenwich are running one) is genuinely the safer way to enjoy it.

And if anything about your vision feels different afterwards, even something small, don't wait it out. Come and see us.

Rare event. Ordinary precaution. Enjoy it properly.

[Image description: solar eclipse]

Whether you're escaping to warmer shores, enjoying lazy afternoons in the garden, or simply making the most of an Englis...
06/08/2026

Whether you're escaping to warmer shores, enjoying lazy afternoons in the garden, or simply making the most of an English summer, the right sunglasses make every moment look and feel a little brighter.

Until 31st August, you can also enjoy our Seasonal Sunglasses Event:-

• Up to 70% off end-of-line designer sunglass ranges*
• Prescription and ready-to-wear sunglass offers available*

Take your time, try on as many as you like, and let us help you find the pair that feels unmistakably you.

The best sunglasses aren't just for summer; they're the pair you'll reach for, year after year.

*Exclusions apply.
This promotion cannot be used with any other offer and while stocks last.



[Image description: A pair of blue sunglasses perched on a granite wall, overlooking a golden sandy beach with palm trees and the blue sea]

It's a strange question. But once it's in your head, it's surprisingly difficult to stop thinking about. After all, if o...
05/08/2026

It's a strange question. But once it's in your head, it's surprisingly difficult to stop thinking about. After all, if one eye can see... wouldn't one really big eye see even better?

As it turns out, no.

Having two eyes gives us something remarkable that one eye alone never could. Each eye sees the world from a slightly different angle. Your brain takes those two separate pictures and combines them into a single image, using the tiny differences between them to judge distance and depth.

It's how you know where to place your foot on a step, catch a ball or pour a cup of tea without thinking about it.

Close one eye and try threading a needle, reaching for a door handle or judging how far away something is. Suddenly, those everyday tasks become much harder.

A single giant eye would certainly collect more light, but it would still only have one viewpoint. Two smaller eyes give your brain something far more useful. Perspective.

The clever bit?

We don't see the world in three dimensions because we have big eyes. We see it because our brain quietly compares two different views and turns them into one beautifully.

Look Closer...

Close one eye and reach for a mug. Then try it again with both. Your brain has been performing astonishing calculations all your life... So quietly you've probably never thanked it.



[Image description: Cute cartoon cylops horned monster reading a book]

04/08/2026

ROUND 1: FIGHT!
This year’s team is going full Street Fighter mode over ONE pair of sunglasses... and honestly? We don’t blame us.

High kicks, victory poses, the lot — because that’s the level of commitment these Ray-Bans deserve.

Seriously though... these are everything. The fit, the finish, the way they just work with anything — no wonder the whole team’s fighting over them.

Come find your own pair (no combat required, we promise) at Croft & Graves Optometrists, Corbridge.

Choose your fighter…or just choose these!

Whether you're escaping to warmer shores, enjoying lazy afternoons in the garden, or simply making the most of an Englis...
31/07/2026

Whether you're escaping to warmer shores, enjoying lazy afternoons in the garden, or simply making the most of an English summer, the right sunglasses make every moment look and feel a little brighter.

Until 31st August, you can also enjoy our Seasonal Sunglasses Event:-

• Up to 70% off end-of-line designer sunglass ranges*
• Prescription and ready-to-wear sunglass offers available*

Take your time, try on as many as you like, and let us help you find the pair that feels unmistakably you.

The best sunglasses aren't just for summer; they're the pair you'll reach for, year after year.

*Exclusions apply.
This promotion cannot be used with any other offer and while stocks last.



[Image description: A pair of bronze aviator-style sunglasses perched on a beige towel on a sunbed. There are blue and white sunbeds with raffia parasols in the background, with the sea and a blue sky]

30/07/2026

ROUND 1: FIGHT!
This year’s team is going full Street Fighter mode over ONE pair of sunglasses... and honestly? We don’t blame us.

High kicks, victory poses, the lot — because that’s the level of commitment these Ray-Bans deserve.

Seriously though... these are everything. The fit, the finish, the way they just work with anything — no wonder the whole team’s fighting over them.

Come find your own pair (no combat required, we promise) at Croft & Graves Optometrists, Corbridge.

Choose your fighter…it just choose these!

Address

Woodburn House, Hill Street
Corbridge
NE455AA

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 7pm
Thursday 9am - 5:30pm
Friday 9am - 5:30pm
Saturday 9am - 1pm

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