What a spectacular Lockfast, Mbatten. The epitome of Victorian gunmaking is the double rifle, and that Lockfast is a superb example. Non-rebounding hammers, I think? 1886? Dougall was making about 40 guns a year at that time, both smooth-bores and rifles. You have a rare ‘Best.’
Thinking about the Dougall Lockfast action made me think about actions in general. Britain gave us the sidelock and the boxlock, and a great many tweaks of these over the years (along with improvements to trigger-plate actions). The evolution of sidelocks and boxlocks took us through rebounding hammers to hammerless; intercepting sears; ejectors; second- and third-bites; top-, side- and under-levers, levers that were pushed or pulled, and occasionally push-buttons, to name a few. While the British were not the only ones to build these, they nonetheless remained the standard against which other countries were measured. Birmingham, Liège, Suhl, St. Étienne, and the Basque region, were all gunmaking centres largely due to proximity to coal and iron deposits. London, Paris, Brussels, Vienna and other capitals had their own elite gunmakers, with proximity to wealth being the main determinant. In Britain, closeness to London’s competitive pigeon shooting grounds, and clusters of great shooting estates in Norfolk (think Sandringham) and Scotland also played a factor, especially in providing provincial gunmakers with a wealthy (and demanding) clientele.
The nostalgic image of the British gunmaker, in a combined shop/workshop with workbenches cluttered with hand tools, staffed with a few workers and apprentices, and the Master living above with his family, is in large part fairly accurate. The larger operations might include more workers, more bench space, and perhaps some water- or steam-driven tools. Barrel and action forging were usually done elsewhere, and off-site outworkers would engage in activities such as making locks, forging metal parts, engraving and barrel browning/blacking. The notion of factories came fairly late, as mentioned previously. For the most part, the gunmaking industry was carried out in a very decentralized way, more like dispersed home-based cottage industries supplying parts and services/workmanship to gunmakers who applied oversight and quality control over the final product.
Take this Boss & Co. 12-bore, built for Charles-Cecil Martyn, ordered on 22 December 1862 and completed on 3 April 1863, a rapid turnaround. The barrels were made by John Portlock of 2 Globe Yard, South Molton St., in the fashionable Mayfair district of London (probably with tubes imported from Belgium). It was stocked by Daniel Holliman, of Great Hampton Street, Birmingham. It was actioned by Edwin C Hodges, at 8 Florence St., Islington, London. The back-action locks were made by Joseph Brazier of The Ashes, Great Brickkiln Street, in Wolverhampton. The gun was put together (screwed) and finished by William Byrne of 25 Chamber street, London. The gun was engraved by John Thomas Sumner, of 10 Queen Street, Soho, London. The final product was overseen by Boss & Co.’s foreman and managing director, Stephen Grant; this last step might have been the only time the gun was at the Boss premises at 73 St. James’s Street, London (where Thomas Boss’s widow and two nephews were still living, above the workshop/shop). At the time, the firm employed 10 men, including the foreman, nephews and other relatives. Their ability to sell some 95 guns a year, a very big operation by London standards, depended on using outworkers, who were paid for the work done, as opposed to a daily wage. Apart from the names mentioned for the gun pictured, Boss & Co. also depended on John Stanton for locks; Hutchison, Amos Elvins, Henry Squires, Thomas Parkin, Christopher Aston, Thomas Smith, and Joseph Brazier for barrels; John Portlock and Atkins for actioning; Henry Glazier and Whitehouse for stocking; and for finishing, Finucane, Groves, McEvoy, Edwin Wilkes, and Edward Paton, the latter from 108 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London. The firm used the Red House Shooting Ground at Battersea Park, London, for testing and regulating their guns. Guns moved around a great deal as they were being built, before finally ending up in the happy client’s hands.
8 Florence St., Islington, London (behind the Mini), where the gun was actioned (courtesy Google Maps).
The scattered production system in Britain still mainly depended on Birmingham workbenches until factories set up by the likes of W. W. Greener, W & C Scott, and co-operatives like the Abington Gun Works and BSA. The Gun Quarter of Birmingham was a city district that was for many years a major centre of the world's gun-manufacturing industry, specialising in the production of military firearms, trade guns, and sporting guns. It was bounded by Steelhouse Lane, Shadwell Street and Loveday Street, and was close to the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.
Historically, Birmingham had many water mills, and starting in the 16th century, mills initially used for grinding corn were switched over to industrial uses. By the 17th century, mills were used to grind blades for agricultural and military purposes. In time, the aggregation of skilled metal workers led to gun production, and the mills were used for the grinding and polishing of barrels. Gunmaking gradually centered on the Weaman estate around Whittall Street, located near Kettle's Steel Houses, factories dating from the 1730s that processed steel (for which Steelhouse Lane was named). The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was completed in 1789, facilitating the route from the 'Black Country' (the West Midlands region west of Birmingham known for its coal, iron and steel). In 1767, there were 62 workshops involved in gunmaking in the Quarter, but by 1815, there were 125, by 1829, there were 455, and by 1868, 578 gun firms were operating in the Gun Quarter.
There were also quite a few trades associated with the gun “trade,” as the parts, and putting together of the parts, requires specialist attention. An 1861 directory for Birmingham listed the following gun-related trades: gun and pistol makers, barrel makers, barrel smoothers, barrel browners, barrel riflers, break-off fitters and forgers, breech makers, finishers, furniture makers, implement makers, implement and barrel filers, lock makers, nipple manufacturers, rib forgers, gun and rifle sight makers, screwers, stockers, stock dealers, stock finishers, stock polishers and varnishers, and gun wadding makers. Moving into breech-loading would have seen some aspects of work disappear, while new ones emerged. Showell's “
Dictionary of Birmingham” (1885) summarized the following:
“...it may not be uninteresting to enumerate the manifold branches into which the trade has been divided till late years most of them being carried on under different roofs: The first portion, or "makers", include “stock-makers, barrel welders, borers, grinders, filers, and breechers; rib makers, breech forgers and stampers; lock forgers, machiners, and filers; furniture forgers, casters, and filers; rod forgers, grinders, polishers, and finishers; bayonet forgers, socket and ring stampers, grinders, polishers, machiners, hardeners, and filers; band forgers, stampers, machiners, filers, and pin makers; sight stampers, machiners, jointers, and filers; trigger boxes, oddwork makers, &c. The "setters up" include machines, jiggers (lump filers and break-off fitters), stockers, percussioners, screwers, strippers, barrel borers and riflers, sighters and sight-adjusters, smoothers, finishers makers-off, polishers, engravers, browners, lock freers, &c., &c.”
This fascinating production history, traceable to actual individuals and places, is a big part of the allure of the British gun.
It’s certainly going to give my Purdey a run for its money!
