Economy
Stafford has a long history of shoe making. It is recorded as far back as 1476, when it was a cottage industry, but the manufacturing process was introduced in the 1700s. William Horton founded his business in 1767, which progressed to become the largest shoe company in Stafford, selling worldwide. He had a number of contracts with the government, through his connections with the town's MP, the famous playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The shoe industry gradually died out in the town, with Lotus Shoes being the last manufacturers. The large Lotus Shoe factory on Sandon Road was demolished in 2001 to be replaced by housing.
Since 1903, a major activity in the town has been heavy electrical engineering, particularly producing power station transformers. The works have been successively owned by Siemens, English Electric, GEC and GEC Alsthom. Alstom T&D was sold in 2004 to Areva. At the end of 2009, Areva Ltd was split between former owner Alstom and Schneider Electric. Each transformer weighs several hundred tons and so a road train is used for transportation. In the 1968 Hixon rail crash, one such road train was struck by an express train when it was crossing the railway at a level crossing.
Perkins Engines has a factory making diesel engines in Littleworth. Adhesives manufacturer Bostik has a large factory in the town. Stafford is also a major dormitory town for workers commuting to Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham.
The public sector provides a lot of local employment, with Staffordshire County Council, Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire Police all headquartered in the town. Stafford Prison, Stafford Hospital and MoD Stafford are other sources of local public sector employment.
The town is also home to the computer science and IT campus of Staffordshire University. The Beaconside Campus houses the Faculty of Computing Engineering and Technology and part of the Business School, and the adjacent Blackheath Lane campus houses the School of Health, which teaches nursing. The main campus in Stoke-on-Trent is located about 18 miles (30 km) north.
The town centre Guildhall shopping centre is the town's main shopping venue, housing more than 40 retail outlets such as HMV, Topman Topshop, River Island and JJB. There are 3 major superstores that surround the main town centre, an Asda superstore, a Tesco Extra and a Sainsbury's store. They are open 24 hours with the exception of Sainsbury's.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)