Harold Payne arrives in Ontario
Payne’s history connects a founder’s early metalworking career with wartime production, Canadian aerospace and telecommunications, and the revival of a mid-century giftware line. Today the company’s public catalogue centres on Canadian-made copper and aluminum housewares, barware and giftware, alongside custom metal manufacturing.
A working history
Part One
1923 to 1948
1923
Harold Payne was born in Bishop’s Falls, Newfoundland, and came to Ontario with his parents. He left school early and joined the Russell Motor Car Company in Toronto, a business that later became Canadian Acme Screw and Gear.
1939–1945
During the Second World War, the company shifted from automobiles to parts and other products important to the war effort. The 1984 heritage profile says Payne’s abilities were quickly recognized and that, by the war’s end, he had been offered the role of superintendent.
Late 1940s
Payne’s jewellery-making hobby attracted a friend who saw commercial potential. Payne left his promotion behind, started his own enterprise, moved into a building near King and Jarvis streets, and a year later relocated to larger quarters on Front Street with a staff of ten producing souvenir lines.
1948
The enterprise moved again, this time into an 800-square-foot building on Bering Avenue in Islington. The heritage profile recalls the site as a former market garden reached by a muddy road from Islington Avenue.
Part Two
1952 to 1959
1952
The company website dates the start of Payne Manufacturing Canada Limited to 1952, when it manufactured metal giftware. The souvenir line grew into giftware and then into components for office equipment; IBM became an early customer that the heritage profile says remained with Payne for 35 years.
1950s
Payne made undercarriage parts for the CF-100 and CF-105 for Dowty Equipment, an Avro subcontractor. The heritage profile says this work opened the door to Avro Aircraft and Orenda Engines, brought an award for workmanship, and included the outer shell of Canada’s first satellite, Alouette 1.
Feb 20, 1959
A Canadian National Telegraphs message from Orenda Engines ordered Payne to stop all work, including manufacturing and material procurement, and to notify suppliers and subcontractors. The telegram does not name the Arrow, but it was sent on the day the federal government terminated the CF-105 Arrow program.
Principal text, with routing codes omitted: “Payne Metal Enterprises Ltd., Attn A. King, 252 Bering Ave., Islington, Ont. Pending further instructions stop work including manufacture and/or procuring materials for the fulfillment of all commitments authorized by Orenda Engines Limited. Notify your suppliers and sub-contractors likewise. Orenda Engines Ltd., J. W. MacDonald.”
Part Three
1960s to 1984
1960s
Payne produced parabolic dishes for the DEW Line and Pinetree Line early-warning systems, solid dishes for Andrew Antenna’s trans-Canada telecommunications system, six dishes for the CN Tower, and a dish for a National Research Council satellite-tracking station.
1970
After at least five expansions, the Bering Avenue plant reached about 50,000 square feet on two and a half acres. The growth marked the transformation of Payne’s small postwar shop into a substantial precision-manufacturing operation.
1970s–1980s
Harold Payne designed and built a metal-spinning machine capable of forming dishes as large as 32 feet in diameter. The company reported producing dishes up to 27 feet across, among the largest made in North America at the time.
1984
The heritage profile described a business pursuing high-technology markets and international expansion. It noted a recent contract to produce a large range of office-equipment components for Xerox’s multinational network.
Part Four
1997 to today
1997
The company says it began seeing its original barware in antique stores. Because the original tooling remained on the die racks, Payne chose to reintroduce selected products from its 1950s giftware line using those same tools.
2023
The company brochure presents a broad line of solid-copper and aluminum products, including Moscow Mule mugs, bells, cocktail glasses, ice buckets, mint julep cups, mugs, shot glasses, tumblers and wine goblets. It also highlights the company’s metalworking capabilities.
Today
Payne’s current website centres on copper and aluminum housewares, barware and giftware, while the company continues metal manufacturing in aluminum, copper, brass and steel. Its history remains visible in the original-tooling story and in designs that echo the 1950s line.
The next chapter
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