Description:A sign over the door (centre left) states “Fowell and Jones, Cork Sock Manufacturers”. The building was also known as the Cork Soles Factory.
Fowell & Jones were manufacturers of cork socks (linings for shoes) and lambswool slippers in the 1920s and 1930s. They occupied the Forward Works in Rugeley, a former corn mill in Mill Lane. Among other products, they made ‘Baggaley’s Premier’ damp-proof socks, the ‘Stanley’ sock, the ‘Forward’ sock, boracic lint socks and ‘Thermol Capsicum’ lint socks. As well as cork, they used wool, horsehair and swansdown.
The company was acquired in 1935 by Mundet Cork Products Ltd., an American company with offices in London. The outbreak of war in 1939 saw production change from shoe fittings to gas masks and bomb-proof and gas-proof shelters. In 1940 another company, Andamite Ltd., took over, manufacturing ventilation and poison gas filtration plant. The firm went into liquidation in 1942.
The building in Mill Lane remains (April 2019) next to the Trent & Mersey canal.