| Code | DS/UK/55 |
| Corporate Name | Portals Ltd |
| Dates | 1712 - 1995 |
| OtherFormsOfName | De La Rue (1995 - ) |
| Activity | Henry Portal (Henri de Portal), a French Huguenot, established a papermaking business at Bere Mill, Hampshire in 1712. Portal was awarded a contract in 1724 to provide the Bank of England with paper for all of its bank notes, and Portals subsequently continued to supply this paper throughout its existence. In order to try and ensure that its interests in regarded to the supply of bank note paper were protected, the Bank started to buy shares in the company from 1949 and by 1968 it held a 30 per cent stake. The Bank's shareholding was disposed of in 1989. Portals was taken over by De La Rue in 1995. |
| Source | 'Portals. The church, the state, and the people. Leading to 250 years of papermaking', Sir Francis Portal (1962). |
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