Poole Hall Press

Proprietor
Press Profile
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Proprietor

Bill Poole composing type at Poole Hall Press Copyright/Source

William (Bill) Poole was born in Toronto in 1923. He first learned to love the smell of printer's ink in 1946, when he got a job in a newspaper office through a government training program. After his father's death, Bill was called on to run the family business, J.E. Poole Co., where he was introduced to the world of package design. Bill went on to do freelance work as an industrial designer, creating such distinct packaging as the octagonal J-Cloth boxes still in use today. In 1964 fellow designer Carl Dair asked Bill to share his skills with the students of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. For the next 25 years from 1966 to 1988 he taught Industrial Design, 3-Dimensional Design and finally Letterpress and Relief Printing in the Printmaking Department.

Four years after founding the Grimsby Public Art Gallery in 1975, Bill organized the first Grimsby wayzgoose, an annual gathering of artisans interested in printing and the book arts. He was also a founding director of the Mackenzie Heritage Printery Museum in Queenston, Ontario.

Press Profile

Poole Hall Press was "inspired by Carl Dair and his concern for legibility and clarity in communication. I helped him to assemble the hand press he had obtained from England and learned the joys of hand printing at his Orchard Press. When Carl died, I felt the need to continue private press printing and obtained my own Albion Press". The Poole Hall print shop is a converted fruit barn that Bill saved from demolition with the help of his son Michael. In order to facilitate the move, Michael cut the barn in half and gingerly carted it, one side at a time, up the Niagara Escarpment, to the Poole's home. In addition to the 1902 12 x 18 Albion iron hand press, Bill's shop grew to include a 10 x 15 Chandler & Price, a Vandercook #2 proof press, an 8x10 Craftsman table top press and a wonderful collection of wood and lead type.

The Poole Hall print shop is also home to Lyndsay Dobson Books. Started in 1983, in response to the interest shown at the Grimsby wayzgoose gatherings, Bill and his daughter Lyndsay produced The Canadian Private Presses in Print. This publication was the first of its kind to list up-to-date publications from private presses across Canada. Recent Arrivals and Other News soon followed as a mail order service for Canadian private press books and broadsides.

Between 1984 and his death in 2001, Bill Poole collaborated with George Walker, Joseph Brabant and Andy Malcolm to form the Cheshire Cat Press.

For almost 30 years the Poole Hall print shop's open door policy encouraged artists, students and printers to drop by and print. Bill Poole's welcoming nature and enthusiastic spirit affected many who knew him.