Description:Selecting grinding wheels for delivery in the packing department at the Universal Grinding Wheel factory. 70 year old Albert Kington checks an invoice whilst 77 year old Ted Byrnes and 76 year old George Howes examine grinding wheels ready for despatch. The Universal Wheel Grinding Co. factory was established in 1913 on Doxey Road.
The origins of Universal go back to Rooper & Harris Ltd’s Castle Works factory, founded in 1893. They produced a number of abrasive products, including some for finishing processes in the shoe industry, and in 1913 a new works was opened on Doxey Road to make vitrified grinding wheels. By the 1970s they had become Europe’s largest manufacturers of grinding wheels and in May 1977 employed 1,600 people in Stafford. Over the years the company changed hands on several occasions and around 1997 it became part of Saint-Gobain Abrasives.
Reproduced by kind permission of the Staffordshire Newsletter who retain copyright.