Description:Pictured second left on the front row is Miss Christine Williams along with employees and guests standing by a buffet table during a Christmas party. This view was taken inside the wooden Bowling Clubhouse at the Lotus Ltd. shoe factory on Oulton Road, Stone. At the time there was a bowling green in front of the clubhouse. The site of the clubhouse and bowling green is now a car park.
Lotus was originally named Bostock's and was founded in the eighteenth century by Thomas Bostock, a cobbler. His three sons started their own factories in Stafford, Stone and Northampton. The original Stone factory can still be seen behind Granville Terrace. In 1919 the three factories amalgamated to become Lotus.
Lotus remained in Stone until the 1970s. The building was purchased by G.E.C. Meters in 1978 and during 1996 ABB acquired G.E.C. Meters which then became the home of ABB Meters. The old factory buildings on Cross Street and Oulton Road were demolished in 1999 and new housing built.