They were not the actual gunmaker, but does anyone know who they used? Maybe Webley & Scott, Midland or WC. Scott?

I take it that we are talking about Fletcher’s of Gloucester which became Fletchers (Sports) Ltd circa 1955.

An interwar BSA made and branded BLE (a plain gun, but quite attractive wood) is marked on the rib in front of the BSA markings “Supplied by E. Fletcher and Sons, Gunmakers, Gloucester”.

Nigel Brown does not show a Birmingham or a factory address for them so probably most Fletcher guns, at least in their later years, would have been made up in the Birmingham trade.

As they went back to 1841 it is entirely possible that in muzzle loading days they could have built guns in house.

My father bought me (and I still have) my first proper air rifle, a .22 BSA Meteor, which we had seen advertised in the Field (complete with plastic scope) from them in 1959. We had gone into Edwinson Green in Cheltenham to try to buy one there, but Dudley Green (grandson of Edwinson and then proprietor) grumbled “It’ll be months before we see any of those”.

So we drove over to Gloucester where Fletchers had a stack of Meteor boxed sets on the shelf.

Fletchers later took over Syd Tonge’s toy and model shop in Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham and opened a gun department there in the 1960’s. My mother had bought me my first air gun (a smooth bore Diana Model 1 - the British made version) at Syd Tonge’s not long after the last Coronation. I still remember how proud of it I was as we walked back home along the Promenade.

Yes from Glouchester. So are you saying they used BSA?

They used the Birmingham trade. which means just about anyone that meet their price and quality.

We know that they supplied at least one BSA shotgun, and very probably others.

As the proprietary machine made BSA shotgun was distinctive in appearance it is unlikely that they would have asked BSA to brand them as Fletcher guns as it would have been obvious who had really made them.

There were plenty of others in the Birmingham trade who could supply more conventional boxlock and sidelock guns branded as requested.

If you have a Fletcher gun, photos of the flats and under barrel markings might help identify the real maker.

My first gun (a Webley Mk III air rifle) came from Fletchers in Cheltenham - about 1972. I also remember visiting Edwinson Green in Cheltenham for small tools etc. I never bought a gun from them.

John,

That would be from Green’s last shop near the Restoration Inn. Dudley Green moved about 3 times as Cheltenham High Street was re-developed.

I wish that I could remember more about his shop as I saw it in the 1950’s. The one thing that has stuck in my mind is that on display in his shop window was a Borchardt pistol with a clip of cartridges.

I think it was displayed as a curiosity rather than just a slow seller, although I did buy at his last shop a small Dixon pistol powder flask that appeared brand new.

I can only now remember it being at the east end of the High Street quite a long way out of the centre of the town. Fletcher's was in the same end of the High Street, but more central and did 'sports' downstairs (ground floor) with rackets, bats, balls etc, and the guns section (and possibly fishing?) was upstairs.

Just found these notes to records held at Gloucestershire County Archives:-


(Sources: notes by Claude and Anthony Fletcher; Tewkesbury parish registers; Gloucestershire trade directories; Gloucester diocesan probate records; 1851 census returns)

The firm's founder, Thomas Fletcher, had gunsmith's premises in Westgate Street, Gloucester, by 1829. His father, William, may have been one of the two gunsmiths by that name recorded in Tewkesbury in 1820 (Thomas was baptised at Tewkesbury on 3 January 1808); his younger brother, also named William, worked with him at Gloucester but later set up his own business. By 1842, a Gloucester trade directory lists Thomas Fletcher at 161 Westgate Street and William Fletcher at Cross Keys Lane.

After Thomas' death in 1858, his widow Elizabeth carried on the business until her own death in 1890, when she was described in a newspaper obituary as Gloucester's oldest business woman. Their son Frederick then took over until 1909, when he, too, was succeeded by his widow, Rose. By this time, gun production had virtually ceased and orders were being put out to Birmingham gunsmiths. Claude Fletcher took over at his mother's death in 1921; his own son, Anthony, joined the firm in 1952 and became a director in 1957.

The Westgate Street premises were left in 1931 in favour of a site in The Oxbode, King's Square, and an additional Gloucester shop was acquired in 1960 in the Grosvenor House development in Station Road. Branch stores in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury opened in 1962 and 1975 respectively.

The business was incorporated as a limited company in 1938, and in 1970, management was divided between Claude and Anthony Fletcher: Fletcher (Prams) Ltd. in Grosvenor House under Claude, and Fletcher (Sports) Ltd. of King's Square under Anthony.

By the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, financial difficulties beset the trade, and both companies were put into liquidation in 1978.

The records

The only substantial record to have survived for the early gunsmith's business is a repair journal for the 1850s. The bulk of the collection relates to the 1950s-70s, although a good (if incomplete) series of accounts for 1924 onwards has also survived.”


If you have a Fletchers Ltd gun from 1950 to 1978 you might be able to get some info from the archivist at Gloucester, but it seems unlikely they will be able to help in relation to earlier guns.

We really need some photos to get much further...

HB