doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Who made the actions (British)

Dicksons did indeed make at least one sidelever 16 bore non-ejector. It is a skeleton action also.

Although being intimately familiar with the gun, sadly it belongs to someone else.

It is quite a gun.

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

Fletchedpair thank you for that information. Only two thosuand makes the DRA a very rare gun, I should feel lucky to have handled a half dozen of them. Considering only 400 were non ejectors that is some consolation in not coming across one of those.

Mike Rowe is lucky, to have seen a side pedal 16. That must be a really graceful gun. In the 12 I feel the fence tends to overpower the bar a smidge.

Eugene, the ale was to prevent dehydration in the heat of the forge no doubt. Nowadays they would be drinking some politically correct electrolyte thing.

Sure was. Even the metallurgist got a thirst on!

Eug

I wonder how long it takes a firm today to build for example an AR15- M16 from scratch? I'll bet it's a fraction of the time required to build a rifle in the traditional way from steel.
I'm omitting reference to our favorites double guns since there's no real comparison that can be made.
Jim

I was at a gunshow hear in florida this pasted weekend and picked a 12ga coach gun mfg by London arms company. I looked up that company and it said they were established in 1855 and went out of business in 1866 they said that this company supplie a lot of guns for the confedercy duing the civil war.This company was also called London armory company. I would like to find out more. This shotgun may have been used in the civil war I sure hope so. Any info would be helpful.

Eugene,
I cant believe I missed out Willenhall in my list of Black Country towns Many of the Willenhall lock makers of old developed round shoulders due to long hours working at their bench,locals used to refer to their condition as; "The Willenhall Crouch." As you say not much concern for health and safety in those far off days.
As I recall, Yale had a lock and lift truck manufacturing business located in Willenhall.

Frederick Beesley made less than 2000 guns, so Beesley's are very rare too! And his best are very fine, though that is my biased opinion!

Many Beesley guns mention Phillipson & Nephew as a supplier. This is what I have found out about them, so far:

William Phillipson claimed he established his business as an action maker in 1840 in Birmingham, but no address is known. One report states that his address was 91 Upper Priory in 1876, and another report states that in about 1878 he was at 78 Weaman Street. Neither address has been confirmed. In 1911 the firm of Phillipson & Nephew, gun and action makers, was recorded at 78 Weaman Street. In 1949 the firm became Phillipson & Nephew (Gunmakers) Ltd. In 1958 the company moved to Unit 47, 41 Richard Street. Reportedly the company closed in 1974, but others state that between 1960 and 1997 the company moved to Wesham Road, Honeyburne, Nr. Evesham, Worcestershire, where they may continue to trade. The company supplied sidelock and boxlock actions to the trade, and may have produced a few guns undr their own name. They supplied boxlock actions to Churchill Atkin Grant & Lang Ltd from late 1972.Herbert Beesley after his father's death was going to turn over, and costed out, Standard Grade SLE work to them, according to Don Masters. They also made complete guns for Harrods according to Nigel Brown.

Tim

The modern incarnation of Phillipsons remains in business, supplying actions and components to the trade, only producing them by modern manufacturing methods. They have been a godsend to some of the boutique makers as they will supply exotic actions and components in small batches. More expensive thataway but where do you go when you need to make a 32-ga? Capt. Pugwash or Fletchedpair could add more.

If Philipsons are still in business they are very hard to find. A net and UK phone book search failed to bring up any phone or address for them.

They had been on my list for an "exotic" action. If they were locatable I would not have had to learn so much about CNC etc. Every cloud and its silver lining and all that...