Keystone Road, Rugeley

Image: © Tricia Neal Taken: 19 Oct 2013

In my childhood, this was Keystone Lane, but it has morphed into Keystone Road. On this site the Key family had a factory. Now there is a small housing development, Keystone Mews. In the late 1870s John Key had a draper’s shop in nearby Lower Brook Street.In 1888 his son George set up his own business on the second floor. Later that year George introduced a new type of coat made of thick, hard-wearing material, which he had developed for the navvies who were building the Manchester Ship Canal. The coat became known as the Donkey Jacket – named after the ‘donkey engines’ that some of the navvies worked on. The mail order business, now so popular, was pioneered by George Key through his catalogue, The Keystone. Ladies’ clothes were sold by mail order after the First World War, and the firm lasted until 1984. The Wikipedia entry for donkey jacket tells none of this. I obtained it from a local heritage site for Rugeley so I hope it's accurate.

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