A short update on the state of Woodward at the time of sale to Purdey's. I checked the account of the sale in Richard Beaumont's book on Purdey's (page 160) and need to make a couple of corrections. Purdey's board originally rejected Charles Woodward's offer to sell. The description sounds like there was very little to sell. Later, Tom Purdey paid Woodward 300£ for the name and goodwill, about 145£ for the Woodward O/U, and 10% of cartridge and repair orders for a specific customer list for five years. Woodward production peaked in the 1892-97 era at 103 guns/year, ran at around 30 guns/year through the 1920's and early 1930's, dropped to 23 guns/year for the late 1930's and was down to 5 guns/year for the 1940's.
I'm going to stick with my conclusion of a failed business. The production rates were too low to support a London address. The purchase price was too low for what should have been a high value brand name to indicate a viable company.
