Stone Church, aptly named as the rock upon which Church's was founded, was born in 1675 and trained as a cordwainer or master shoemaker. His skills were passed down to his great-grandson Thomas who opened a small factory with his sons and his wife Eliza in Northampton, on 1 May 1873, at 30 Maple Street. Northampton is a town not far from London with a history steeped in shoemaking dating back to Cromwellian times. In the space of a few years, Church's was tranformed from a craft workshop into a benchmark firm for high-quality footwear, both locally and for the most demanding shoe shops in London and elsewhere in Europe.