Description: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. Edwin Bostock's original Stafford factory was on Foregate Street. The building was destroyed by fire in 1901, but was rebuilt on Sandon Road in 1903. In 1919 the three factories amalgamated to become Lotus. The Sandon Road factory was demolished in 1998.