Shooting Times & Country Magazine
The epicentre of gunmaking
The Birmingham Gun Quarter was a buzzing hive of innovation, says Michael E Haskew
The hammers rang and the acrid odour of coal fires permeated the air in what was then the epicentre of the world’s gunmaking industry, in the industrial area north of Birmingham city centre.
“What we now call the Gun
Quarter was the nucleation point for gunmaking in Birmingham,” said David Williams, honorary historical consultant at Royal Armouries and emeritus professor at Loughborough University. “It is an example of what economists call an industrial district, a concentration of skills and capabilities in a location that is internationally important. Gunmaking really started to grow in Birmingham towards the end of the 17th century as William III grew his standing army.”
Opportunity
Sensing an opportunity to supply muskets to this growing military force, Sir Richard Newdigate, local MP and baronet, put forth the idea of gunmaking. Thus, on 5 January 1693, the ‘Officers of Ordnance’ approved a contract for the manufacture of ‘snaphance musquets’. A consortium of five local gunmakers, led by Thomas Hadley of Halesowen, produced 200 guns at 17 shillings per musket.
From its earliest days, the Birmingham area attracted artisans and manufacturers. By the early 18th century, the area was crowded with foundries, forges and workshops producing metalware and other items. Then Newdigate’s idea took hold when rapid industrial expansion followed. The Gun Quarter sprang to life amid clouds of thick, dark smoke belching from stacks and the ever-present grind and clatter of the artisans’ tools.
“At the beginning of the 18th century, others saw this opportunity and began building premises at the north-eastern edge of the growing town in the area that became known as St Mary’s and latterly the Gun Quarter,” said David.
“The Georgian buildings with their courts ultimately became the traditional craft workshops we associate with the Birmingham trade. The Birmingham Proof House in nearby Banbury Street came on stream in 1813, and the Quarter continued to grow through the 19th century.”
Gunmaking became widespread in the area surrounding St Mary’s Church and workshops in the Black Country provided parts and specialist services. In time, numerous largescale makers established factories in the Gun Quarter, including WW Greener, Webley & Scott, Midland
Gun Company, Charles Osborne,
W&C Scott and William Cashmore.
Smaller shops filled the surrounding streets, serving larger manufacturers and bespoke specialist makers.
Significant growth in the Birmingham and Black Country gun trade occurred with supplying guns during the Napoleonic Wars. According to David, it is estimated that between 1804 and 1815 the trade supplied 1.75 million military weapons, three million military barrels and 2.9 million gunlocks, along with a million guns for the East India Company and half a million sporting guns. “There, of course, might be a little double counting, but these are startling numbers for the time,” he observed.
“Birmingham was a city of industry, with a convenient central location, good rail and canal links to suppliers of coal, iron ore and other materials,” noted Anthony Alboroughtregear, managing partner of manufacturer Westley Richards. “Gunmaking naturally grew during the 19th century as the city expanded and new factories sprung up, filled by a skilled and industrious local workforce. Gunmaking skills were often passed through families, generations following one another into specialist trades.”
Though Westley Richards was not formerly in the Gun
Quarter, it relocated near Price Street. “As a top Birmingham gunmaker, Westley Richards has always been prominent in conversations about fine guns and rifles and would certainly have had business dealings with many tradesmen and suppliers in the Gun Quarter during the 19th and early 20th centuries,” Anthony continued.
“The Gun Quarter was not directly associated with fieldsports, but the guns they created made their way to sportsmen through retail sales. The retailers were often not the makers — with several notable exceptions.
The Gun Quarter was the workshop; the swanky premises were the retail outlets, and many sportsmen had no idea who actually made their guns.”
Innovation
Nevertheless, the Gun Quarter was a centre of innovation. Westley Richards created the Anson & Deeley boxlock, a staple for the Birmingham trade, in the latter 19th century. Other developments included the Baker action that became the Lancaster ‘Twelve Twenty’ and the Scott Spindle. While the Gun Quarter has long supplied guns for fieldsports, its products were usually more affordable than London guns. “Sometimes labelled as ‘keepers’ guns’, they gave many a first taste of shooting sports, allowing access to more than the privileged few,” said David. “Key gunmakers made significant contributions: WW Greener improved the system of choke boring, while Westley Richards made and still makes sporting rifles of the highest quality.”
He added: “The techniques of interchangeable manufacturing are among the most significant things to come out of gunmaking that contribute to shaping the modern economy and our quality of life. Recent work that I have carried out with David Harding, the expert
on East India Company firearms, and Philip Abbott of the Royal Armouries has shown that the Birmingham and Black Country gunmakers were pioneers in the development of these techniques. Many of them made
New Land Pattern Musket locks with interchangeable components in large numbers from 1809, in striking contrast to the usual rhetoric that this technology was developed by French and American gunmakers.”
Convergence
The concentration of skilled metalworkers fuelling the growth of Birmingham and Black Country gunmaking further fostered a convergence of industrial technology. “The growth of this concentration of expertise was encouraged by military gunmaking and the capital it brought through the almost continuous wars of the long 18th century,” said David.
“This was repeated with the introduction of machines into the trade in the mid- to late-19th century with the formation of, for example, Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) and during wars of the 20th century, where the contribution of the Birmingham trade to the supply of small arms and other munitions was significant, especially in World War II.”
Anthony added: “Birmingham’s Gun Quarter had been the engine behind Britain’s pre-eminence in gunmaking during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. It was a warren of ad-hoc developments of residential dwellings into small workshops, from which amazing and varied guns and rifles emerged. The interconnection of dozens of craft and semi-industrial processes enabled invention, innovation and production to thrive during a period when sporting and military arms were being improved year on year.
“The trade and the Gun Quarter went into steep decline following World War II and never recovered,” continued Anthony. “Today, the Gun Quarter retains a small number of specialised businesses linked to the gun trade, but it is hanging on to its once proud identity by a thread.”
As early as the mid-19th century, the Gun Quarter was identified for redevelopment, and subsequently a major children’s hospital and new ‘Corporation Street’ were completed. Since the 1960s, the challenges of the sporting market have exerted huge pressure on the Gun Quarter and the construction of new motorways has sliced through its streets.
Rebirth
David noted: “Fortunately, some businesses were resilient, able to sustain themselves through tough times, and were joined by others so that there was something of a rebirth for the Quarter in the noughties.
One of the most significant signs was the decision of Westley Richards to relocate to new premises in Pritchett Street. Sadly, pressures on the Quarter continue. Recent gentrification means more workshops have relocated, but one of the iconic sites of the Quarter, New Building, remains a hub of active small businesses.
“As someone who was born and grew up in Birmingham, I have an attachment to the city and its trades and am pleased to promote them,” he added. “I sense that the London and Birmingham gun trades have become closer over recent years, more able to speak with a common voice, particularly on issues such as legislation and training. The two Proof Houses speak as one voice as the British Proof Authority. This likely reflects
“Many sportsmen had no idea who made their guns”
the complex web of interconnections between the locations that have been in place for centuries and the need to collaborate and innovate in order to remain competitive in today’s world.”
Though it has evolved steadily across five centuries, the Gun Quarter remains a foundational focus for the future. Its bustling heyday resonates — at times only in memory — but nevertheless with a forceful perspective nearly as powerful as the work ethic of the artisans of the past and the thunder of the factory floor.