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The Birchley Hall Press 2010
A brief history of the Birchley Hall Press
A printing press was first set up in Birchley Hall, Lancashire in the early 1600's. About 19 titles published between 1620 and 1650 are associated with the Birchley Hall Press in the English Short Title Catalogue of the British Library.
For more information on Birchley
Hall see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birchley_Hall
My grandfather, Vincent Wood bought Birchley Hall in 1945. At the time he owned and managed the St Helens Reporter, Wood Westworth & Co Ltd, a printers in St Helens that had been in the family since about 1860, and a stationery shop with a small library in St Helens town centre (now the site of a LloydsTSB Bank).
The Birchley Hall Press was resurrected by my father, Bernard Wood, and formally named as such, in 1951 in the same building as the original press, with the publication of This is the Faith. The actual printing, however, was done by Wood Westworth & Co. A few further titles were published up to at least 1960, including A Flame for Africa (1953) and Liverpool's Hidden Story (1957).
Birchley Hall is now a care home for the elderly run by Sue Ryder Care.
The Birchley Hall Press was resurrected a second time in 2007 to keep alive the name.
Harry Wood
Managing Editor & Owner
The Birchley Hall Press