Description:A worker operating a Stafford Tool & Die machine at the Lotus Ltd shoe factory on Longton Road.
The Lotus factory on Longton Road manufactured ladies' shoes. This photograph is of the closing room, where various shapes of leather were bonded together to form shoe uppers.
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 and is now the home of ABB Meters. The old factory buildings on Cross Street and Oulton Road were demolished in 1999 and new housing built.