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The gun
trade is probably the industry that the city of Birmingham is best known
for and most of this activity was centred around what was called the Gun
Quarter.
By the
middle of the seventeenth century Birmingham was becoming established as
a gun-manufacturing centre and in 1689 a Government contract was
undertaken to produce military small arms. Later in 1693 a larger
contract was awarded whereby Birmingham gunsmiths agreed to deliver 200
weapons per month for a year.
From 1690
to 1713 during the wars against the French the industry was able to
supply 40,000 flintlocks to the government. During
the Napoleonic wars 1803-1815 Birmingham gunmakers supplied two thirds
of the guns used by the British army with 1,743,382 guns being made for
the Board of Ordnance. It also supplied large numbers of swords and
cutlasses for the army and navy.
By 1750 gunmakers Farmer & Galton were exporting
12,000 guns a year to Africa, however an extract from Lady
Shelburne’s diary doubted the quality of some of the guns destined for
Africa.
Refining of gold and
silver, and gun making to a prodigious amount for exportation are
likewise another branch of their trade, of which they send annually
above a hundred and fifty thousand to the coast of Africa, some of which
are sold for five and sixpence a-piece, but what is shocking to
humanity, above half of them from the manner they are finished in, are
sure to burst in the first hand that fires them. If an Act of Parliament
was passed ordering a proof-master to be settled at the expense of the
manufacturers themselves, for one shilling more the barrels might be
properly bored and finished, so as to secure the buyer at least from
certain danger, the trade by this means assured and confirmed in its
present channel, and the moral infamy in the individuals who are thus
induced to multiply gain, suppressed. This trade, great as it is, is not
above twenty or twenty-five years’ standing.
By the end of the eighteenth
century the development of the flintlock had been perfected and
Birmingham was the foremost arms producer in the world, manufacturing a
million items more than London, its nearest rival. Firearms making was a
very specialised trade and the production of a gun involved many stages,
from the forging and manufacture of component parts to the assembly,
finishing and decorating of complete weapons. Initially all the
operations were carried out by individual gunsmiths, but as production
methods changed and different styles of weapons were introduced, people
began to specialise in manufacture of the various component parts.
By the 1820s there were several
thousand people employed in the gun trade, with most working in an area
lying between the foot of Steelhouse Lane and Aston and around St Mary’s
church in Whittall St. This area became known as the Gun Quarter.There
was a mixture of factories of moderate size, small factories and
"shoppings", the name given to workshops which were let out to
individual out-workers. A gunsmith who wished to set up a business of
his own would rent a space from either the Council or another gunmaker.
It was close, cramped and higgledy-piggledy, with early Victorian
tenement buildings pushing in between buildings of an earlier time and
function.
Samuel Galton’s gun barrel proof house was in Weaman
Street and the
factory of Webley
and Scott was in Slaney St. Gunmaking was also
carried out in small workshops on the Weaman estate around St Mary’s
Church in Whittall Street.
William Tranter was at 29.5 Whittall Street from 1839
to 1849. He was in partnership at 10-11 Weaman Row between 1844 and 1849
and he also had premises at Loveday Street between 1854 and 1860. By
1851 Tranter had a factory at 13 St Mary’s Row and in 1867 completed a
new factory at 31 Lichfield Road, Aston Cross. George Kynoch took over
the factory in 1885 and it was renamed The Kynoch Gun Factory. It was
again renamed in 1888 to the Aston Arms Factory. In 1900 the factory was
occupied by the Clipper Automatic Tyre Co. and then by Dunlop Rubber. In
1926 it was sold to Hercules Cycle Co. and was demolished in 1961.
In Price St were the firms of Bonehills and Benjamin West along with
numerous other small establishments.
Price Street appears to
have developed in two sections, firstly the old street on the corner of
which stands the Bulls Head pub at number one and then the second
section called New Buildings, also starting from number one. The older
section certainly went back to the eighteenth century and in its
fifty-nine houses and seven courts there were several shopkeepers, two
cow keepers, a kettle and tea urn manufacturer, a coal dealer, a marine
store dealer, an earthenware dealer and two beer retailers to name but a
few. There were also twenty-two tradesmen associated with the gun trade,
working in domestic workshops. The newer section developed as a result
of the rapidly expanding firearms industry. Gunmakers and allied trades
occupied all twenty-eight buildings.
In the middle of the nineteenth
century it was common for the employers in the gun trade to pay their
employees wages in the Bulls Head pub in Price St. This practice
inevitably led to much drinking and subsequent brawling on the sawdust
covered floor. At this time there was a strong Catholic community in the
Gun Quarter and often the landlord would summon the local priest to sort
out the fighters while the resident fiddler continued playing, rather
than enlist the services of the law.
The 1767 Sketchley’s
Directory of Birmingham lists a total of 62 workshops involved in
gunmaking. There were 35 gun and pistol makers, 8 gun barrel makers and
filers, 5 gun barrel polishers and finishers, 11 gun lock makers forgers
and finishers, and 3 gun swivel and stock makers. An 1860 trades
directory listed 48 different gun related trades.
By 1861 Birmingham had
overtaken Manchester to become the third largest city in Britain and by
1881 it had overtaken Liverpool to become the second largest, a position
it still holds. In 1851 there were 2867 workers in the Birmingham gun
trade. This had grown to about 6000 by 1860 and by 1865 nearly ten
thousand workers were employed in the gun trade. Kelly's directory for
1874 lists 329 names connected with the gun trade in Birmingham, 210 of
which had premises in the Gun Quarter.
Birmingham Gun Barrel
Proof House
As early as 1637 the London Company of Gunmakers was
established by royal charter, which effectively marked the introduction
of proof in England. Gun proofing was not compulsory and although
private proof houses run by individual gunmakers existed in Birmingham
and were available for use by others, they were not used by the less
reputable gunmakers. Many saw the need for independent proof as in
London. As a result the Birmingham Proof House was established in 1813
by Act of Parliament, at the request and expense of the Birmingham
trade. Situated in Banbury St, the proof house is a two storey brick
building with an impressive relief display of heraldry over 3 metres
wide and including the Hannoverian coat-of-arms, the Birmingham shield
with the crossed swords proof mark and a profusion of muskets, pistols,
cannon balls, flags and drums above the front entrance. Between 1855 and
1861 six million arms were tested and proofed. The Birmingham Proof
House still operates to this day and is the only official proof house
outside London.
This history is from The Firearms Technology
Museum in Australia
Check their link on the Links Page
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