page_title: Gale & Polden
section_title: Later years
hierarchical_section_title: Gale & Polden / Later years
caption_attribution_description: English: The blue plaque on the site of the former works of Gale &amp; Polden in Aldershot in Hampshire
context_page_description: Gale and Polden was a British printer and publisher. 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.
context_section_description: In 1916 Gale & Polden were granted a Royal Warrant for producing Queen Mary's Christmas card. In 1918 a fire at the firm's Wellington Works destroyed one of the building's four wings, which temporarily halted printing. As a result of the fire, the company decided to maintain its own volunteer fire crew at the Works. 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. In 1963 Gale & Polden was taken over by the Purnell Group, and in 1964 Purnells merged with another printing company, Hazel Sun, to form the new British Printing Corporation (BPC), the largest printing company in Europe.
  In 1971 The Aldershot News was acquired by the Surrey Advertiser Group, which later became part of the Guardian Group of newspapers. Robert Maxwell gained control of BPC and Gale & Polden with it in 1981, and named his new Company Maxwell Communications. In November 1981 Gale & Polden finally closed, with the Wellington Works site being demolished in 1987. Robert Maxwell died in 1991 and in 1992 Maxwell Communications collapsed, leaving many retired Gale and Polden employees without a pension.
  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. This was sponsored by Colonel David Strong TD, a local resident and a Gale and Polden historian.
caption: The blue plaque on the former site of Gale and Polden
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