I don't know much about English guns, but do these have the Southgate type ejectors? If so, take the for-end and place the ejector kickers on the end of a wooden workbench so that the shoe end is off the bench, push down until the ejector kicker falls into the notch on the sear.
If the hammers are still down, replace for-end on gun close and they should be re-cocked also.
I have a Spanish gun with the Southgate style ejectors and taking the wood from the for-end you can see how it works. Also like Hammergun stated these guns recock the ejector and hammers upn closing, which makes them hard to close.
