This page features an article by Diggory Hadoke and is updated monthly.

This is the AUGUST article 2010.

Westley Richards: As Good as it Gets??

Few bespoke gunmakers really make money today, so where did it 

all go right for this Birmingham firm?

William Westley Richards caused a stir back in 1831 with his improvements to percussion guns, which finally consigned the flintlock to history. In 1863 his son, Westley Richards patented the doll’s-head rib extension and locking bolt, operated by a top lever. Today, Simon Clode and rifle expert Chris Soyza preside over a modern factory, where Brummie artisans produce top-class sporting guns and rifles in impressive quantities. Having spent time inspecting the firm’s facilities, showroom and products and discussing them with industry insiders, I have to ask the question: Is anybody, anywhere in the world building better guns for the price asked today?

First some history: Westley Richards was home to some of the top men in Victorian gun-making. The founder presided over what Col. Peter Hawker described as “a splendid factory... which surpasses all the gun establishments I ever saw or heard of”. His successor developed the business enormously and his breech loader elicited this from J.H Walsh, then editor of The Field: “The Westley Richards action is opened by a top lever, which is so convenient that by public accord it has been adopted by most of the fashionable gunmakers of the day”. The top-lever and bolted doll’s head, with additional Purdey bolts is the action the firm still employs today. Westley Richards himself was responsible for developing the solid drawn brass cartridge and had twenty two patents to his name.

The firm continued to be influential into the last quarter of the 19th century. John Deeley is best remembered for his joint-patent with William Anson for the famous and fantastically successful ‘boxlock’ of 1875 and for the Deeley & Edge catch, still widely used by British and foreign makers to remove the forend. Leslie Taylor teamed up with Deeley to produce the hand-detachable boxlock of 1897, known by many as the ‘drop-lock’ and still made as a shotgun and double rifle.

We are approaching 100 years since the centenary of the company and they may have moved from their old Bournebrook factory to a renovated and extended building in Pritchett Street in 2008 but Hawker’s earlier comments would not be out of place in the modern context. 

I have visited several gun-making factories in Brescia but none had the sense of established order and confidence that I sensed in Birmingham during my visit. Your really get the feeling when talking to the directors here that they understand their craft and their business equally well. In their sister engineering plant next door, they have managed to merge the CNC work for producing gun parts with other engineering work to maximise use of expensive machinery. 

The Selly Oak Relief Road was responsible for the demise of the old factory but it provided  a little monetary compensation; enough to equip the new premises with all the production, testing, office and sales facilities that one could possibly want; all done with one eye on practically and another on style. It blends faultlessly.

The historic blood lines running through Westley Richards guns are unmistakable. Their current double gun production runs to a small range of models. They have an assisted-opening sidelock shotgun, a back-action sidelock rifle, a hand-detachable boxlock and a fixed boxlock as either rifle or shotgun, and a re-make of the over & under ‘Ovundo’ shotgun, which I have to admit is not a design I would choose to make. However, you can’t fault the quality.

All models incorporate the trade-mark Westley Richards bolting top-lever with rib extension and the box-ejector patented by Deeley in 1884, which was once commonly used in the trade, before giving way to the simpler ‘Southgate’ type now generally used elsewhere.

Most gunmakers do not like the Westley Richards top-lever system. It is undeniably attractive, elegant, and beautiful to see in operation when properly made and maintained. However, it does seem to turn up in a poor state on old guns and is a pain to sort out if it does go wrong. Chris Soyza told me that, like Greener Facile Princeps actions, the fault lies not with the design but with the consequences of ignorant gunsmiths attempting to work on it. Properly cared for, it works.

The Ovundo is a strange beast. Long out of production, some wealthy individuals asked for one to complete their collections; money no object. So, Westley Richards tooled up to deliver what the customers wanted. The current model is a good deal more attractive than the original, quality is first-rate and it is perfectly made and balanced, with an adaptation of the hand-detachable locks and a hinged plate for inspection of the locks in situ. A good modern update of a vintage design.

Westley boxlocks reach the overseas customer at £35,000, if scroll engraved. Even adding add VAT to that figure they are still competitive. I have owned a few old examples and used a lot more. However, when Mike Yardley told me he rated their current boxlock game gun as the best shooting, best finished gun for the money available anywhere, after he tested the 20-bore last year, I had to sit up and take notice.

The fixed lock and detachable lock boxlocks make excellent double rifles. I have long thought the latter the perfect companion for overseas trips as the gun can be instantly disabled for storage and transportation. A spare set of locks cover for emergencies and no gunsmith, or even turn-screw is needed. Just don’t lose them. 

Professional hunters and serious dangerous game shots have long seen a Westley Richards boxlock as a peerless practical hunting tool. Jim Corbett used one, James Sutherland used a .577, Philip Percival had two .450s and the finishing shop has several commissioned by Arab princes awaiting collection. I doubt a better choice exists today.

Engravers Rashid Hadi and Peter Spode put the scrolls and carved game scenes on the guns, so everything from fashioning of CNC parts to the finishing touch of the graver are done in-house. Somehow they look and feel like they have been produced by a single entity rather than a collection of individuals.

The on-site range is used to test and regulate every shotgun and rifle to ensure it is not just fit for purpose, but as good as it should be. Such attention to detail in the regulating of the product is by no means universal today, even among bespoke gun makers.

The 2010 guns may be built on designs that were patented when horses provided the usual form of transport but they have stood the test of time, are produced by a company with a very modern outlook and they are perfect for intended purpose. I handle a lot of guns and rarely do I pick up anything new that I would take in place of a vintage equivalent; but I want a Westley Richards double rifle! 

To go back to my question in paragraph one, the answer may lie with Simon Clode. A blunt speaking, ex-oilman: he told me “I’m only interested in doing things properly, otherwise why bother? If you invest the time and the money in the infrastructure and the people, manage them well and pay them fairly, you will build a business and a product of quality.” 

If a Westley Richards gun were a boxer, it might just be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.