Just a follow up to Roy's post regarding the Black Country which I thought was spot on.
It's no coincidence that gun locks are called gun
locks. They were often made by common or garden locksmiths; the techniques, machinery and skills required were common to both applications. Willenhall in particular was a centre of lock making (still is) and has a Lock Museum which references guns. I once had a look at the 1901 Census for Willenhall and it was stiff with gun lock makers.
Forging is indeed a noisy thumpy business which explains my current deafness; as a young man I was a metallurgist at Garringtons Forge amongst others. No regard to hearing protection in those days.
Going deaf was merely a hazard, but running out of mild ale was clearly a disaster in a forge. "The shift kid" always trotted over to the pub with a tray full of cans for the guys on th'ommers. A big forge could literally shake the earth, and in the days of real live beer delivered in barrels and allowed to settle for a couple of days that couldn't be allowed. Many pubs were built with thick rubber floating floors to insulate them from the nearby forges. "The Boat" just off Darlaston Green was one; supped many a pint of Banks's in there.
In the 1834 census the licensee of "The Vine" just round the corner from "The Boat" was William Wilkes, gun lock maker, together with nineteen others in the district. In the Classified Directory of 1774 there is listed one Francis Chandler, Gun Lock Maker, so it's a long lived tradition.
There is a Black Country chap named Steatham who in researching his family history found out that his forbears were gun lock filers and makers. Lo and behold,a Kentucky type plains rifle held in a North Carolina museum turned up with "Steatham" stamped on the lock.
Eug