Gale & Polden

Founded in Brompton, near Chatham, Kent in 1868, the business subsequently moved to Aldershot, where they were based until closure in November 1981 after the company had been bought by media mogul Robert Maxwell.

[1] In 1873 Gale printed and published his first book, Campaign of 1870–1: The Operations of the Corps of General V. Werder by Ludwig Lohlein, late Captain 1st Baden Bodyguard Grenadier Regiment.

By 1880 the bookselling side of Gale's business was very successful, and Gale publicised it by announcing that "A selection of several hundreds of most modern and popular books will always be found in stock and, having made arrangements for receiving parcels from the principal London Houses daily, the book that should not happen to be in stock could be obtained immediately".

At that time Fleet Street, St. Paul's Churchyard and Paternoster Row were the centre of publishing in London, and it was here that T. Ernest Polden looked for an office for the growing company.

[1] Polden suggested to the board of directors that it was necessary to build a new factory at Aldershot, then the largest British Army base in Great Britain, and close the Brompton Works.

Polden had located a suitable site in Aldershot for the building of the new factory in an ideal position near to the town's railway station.

Then the machines at Brompton were stripped down, loaded into Pickfords containers on horse-drawn drays, taken down to the railway goods siding at Chatham Station and sent to Aldershot in special trucks where they were unloaded and taken across to the new factory nearby.

In 1956 Gale & Polden acquired a number of smaller printing firms including Know Publications, producers of the Woking Opinion newspaper; Paines of Worthing and John Drew Ltd, an Aldershot-based rival.

[2] On 6 June 2014 a commemorative blue plaque was unveiled on the block of flats which now stands on the site of the former print works.