Pools lathes were commissioned by the Pools Tool Company of Carlton Street, Nottingham, England and manufactured by Slack and Parr of Kegworth (a company still in existence in the 1990s) and Ross and Alexander of London whose lathes were also sold under the Randa label; the machines were frequently mentioned and advertised in the amateur-engineering press before World War 2 - but failed to reappear afterwards.
With just three models on offer the maker's range was simple: a lightweight 3-inch Special, a much heavier 4-inch  "Special" and the more-fully developed and sophisticated  4-inch "Major" (introduced in 1935) with power cross feed. The Pools Tool Company did not make the lathes themselves but bought the 4-inch models from Slack & Parr and the 3-inch from Ross & Alexander of London - who also marketed their own lathes using the "Randa" brand.  The Slack and Parr "Special" had a useful 4" of centre height, a gap in which a piece of material 11.5" in diameter and 1.5" thick could be turned and a between-centres' capacity of 17". The bed, of seasoned-iron and finish-ground, weighed 50 lbs and was arranged in a "cantilever" form (exactly like of the Drummond 31/2") with four widely-spaced mounting bolts in the region of the gap. The long-bed version had an extra mounting foot at the tailstock end - an arrangement shown at the top of the page on the company's logo that used an illustration of  the rare "Major" model, rather than the more popular and affordable "Special".
Raised at the front to be level with the centre of the bearings the headstock casting was of a generally more robust construction than found on most other small lathes of the time. The ground spindle was 11/8" in diameter, carried a No. 2 Morse taper and was bored through 5/8"; it ran in split phosphor-bronze bearings, the front one being 21/4" long. The tumble-reverse mechanism was unusual in being carried inside the headstock (and so away from swarf dropping from the hollow spindle) and employed noisy but reliable steel gears.  The large bullwheel on the spindle was released and re-engaged from the pulley by an eccentric and spring-plunger arrangement - hence no (lost) spanners were needed to engage the 7 : 1 ratio backgear and it was thus more likely that the owner would be tempted to employ it and use the correct speed for the job in hand.
Unusually long at 8" the saddle carried its adjustable gib strip at the front which allowed the solid casting at the rear to bear against the bed and take the cutting thrust.  The 71/2" x 4" cross slide was (in the best tradition of the English amateur's lathe) T slotted and the top slide could also be supplied with two transverse and two short longitudinal slots for an extra ten shillings and sixpence (10s 6d, or just over 52p). The cross and top slides were both driven by Acme-form screws with 41/2" and 4" of travel respectively.
At 0.75 inches in diameter the 8 t.p.i. leadscrew, was generously proportioned and drove the carriage through a pair of bronze clasp nuts which were closed by a circular guide. A dial-thread indicator was built into the front right-hand saddle wing - the Pool may well have been the only small, pre-war lathe ever to have sported this useful design feature. Eleven changewheels were provided of  96t,  90t,  60t,  57t,  42t,  36t,  33t,  30t,  27t and 2 x 24t with, available as an option at around six-shilling each, a further three: 66t, 78t, 84t plus (at ten shillings and sixpence) a metric translation wheel of 127t The carriage was fitted with a rack-and-pinion drive operated by a large handwheel on the right of the apron - away from burning-hot turnings - but its movement was counter-intuitive and turning the handwheel to the right caused the carriage to move to the left. (One can quickly get used to a foible like this, but it then causes further problems when you switch to a lathe arranged in the conventional manner). Of marginal strength the apron was just sufficient to carry out it duties - but unable to add any stiffness to the carriage assembly.
In 1939 the standard lathe cost £13 : 7 : 6; however, more than 50% more had to be added for the luxury of the all V-belt countershaft unit which (complete with a 0.25 hp motor) retailed at £7 : 15 : 0. Alternative drive systems included a cast-iron stand carrying a treadle-operated 230 lb flywheel at £6 : 15 : 0, a wall-mounted countershaft for direct drive with a 9.5" pulley (as shown below under the stand illustrated below) for £2 : 2 : 6 or a 'fast-and-loose' version with 7" or 5" diameter pulleys at the same price. A cast iron stand and chip tray was a modest £3 : 0 : 0.
Early machines were fitted as standard with 3 flat pulleys on the headstock spindle and driven either from a treadle stand or from the maker's countershaft, driven by a 1.25" wide flat belt from a 3-inch wide pulley on the motor,  incorporated fast-and-loose pulleys 7-inches in diameter..

A standard bed-length Pools 4" x 17" of the early 1930s on the maker's treadle stand. Between the legs of the lathe sits is the standard fast-and-loose countershaft supplied for wall or ceiling mounting. Later machines were offered with the further option of a neatly-built-on but very expensive all V-belt drive countershaft . The long-bed version of the lathe retained the four bolts in the region of the gap but added a foot at the tailstock end. Some of the later cast-iron chip trays were provided with a deep stiffening rib which ran along the full length of their underside.