Today is a very emotional day in my life, and gives me faith in goodness, good fortune, luck and God working in mysterious ways.
Being brought up in 'The Black Country' the Industrial area in the West Midlands of England UK as a school leaver I was fascinated by the Birmingham Gun Quarter and had many part time jobs there before settling down at Uni and my chosen engineering career.One of these Saturday jobs and school holiday jobs was at Webley's. There they had a great man who was works foreman and finisher Bert Williams.
Fifty years later I do business with a company from Birmingham the CEO happened to mention his Dad used to work at Webley's. "I think I've got his tools in the shed somewhere, you can have them if I can find them out"
Today I took delivery of the toolkit which belonged to yes you've guessed Bert Williams.But with a twist of fate there nestling amongst them was a chequering cutter with the initials on the handle PH "welcome home baby" it is irrefutabley my initials.Nice to know Bert had time for the 'little rascal'and his tool.
Also amongst the bits and bobs are numerous pins, springs, strikers, swivels etc., which will probably get one of us here on this board out of a fix one day.

Fantastic!! So much has been lost in the hands of those who "just didn't know."

Thanks for this neat post. We don't get enough of this type of thing. Glad the memories came back to youl

Daryl

The English have a word for this sort of thing, fortuitous I believe. What a great story!

Great story, and very fortunate for you.

Salopian, please tell us all you can remember about the Birmingham gun industry. And again, what do you recall of Webley's operation? Any and all fragments of information will be welcome and valuable. Too much has already been lost!

What a nice thing. Sometimes the world and time can seem so small. Thanks for telling the story. Jake

As the owner of a Webley DB 10ga it was nice to read your story. Save all those pieces, someone will need them sooner or later.

Thank you all for your kind remarks.Today was one of those days, did a little bit of travelling, jobbing and visiting old mates, like master stocker Ken Dawson, down at Bilbrook (Wolverhampton), Wisemans, Mike Dingley (Ex-Scott Checkerer) finally ending up at York & Wallin Lockmakers.Remembering the days when in the 60's the Old men would go and have a skinfull of beer at lunchtime while us young uns would go to The Surfside Stop coffee bar in Soho road.Remembering the day that Christian Ashthorpes daughter was sent to the Proof House with a load of barrels for proving, but didn't make it because every time she had gone there with her Dad, she remembered seeing a pigeon drinking from a pothole in the road full of water, but when she was on her own she couldn't find the pigeon or the street.He was not amused when she got back without delivering the barrels.

Salopian, keep it up. I suspect you've got a lot of information and stories trapped somewhere behind your eyes. We're all anxious to hear it!

Ah, god, you could live out on those stories for the remainder of your life over here.

Salopian and have I believe, much in common!The first 30 years of my life was spent in Midlands/Birmingham, both as a student and engineer.I discovered the Birmingham Gun quarter in the 1940,s arriving by Tram car at the front door of G.Bate Gun Makers,Steel House lane. This was the beginning of many interesting encounters and visits to the gun quarter. I will share one of my earliest with you! I dearly wanted to see Greener,s showroom Located in their offices and works on Saint Marys Row. It was an impressive building, quite formidable to a 15 year old.I resolved to buy some pellets for my air rifle as a means to gain access. One entered through an ornate front door, opposite was a large flight of stairs leading to a landing which housed a service wicket and access to the showroom. As I stood at the wicket, a voice behind me said "and what do you want young man?" To which I answered "air rifle pellets"! The reply was;"I think you would like to see The guns." My reply was of course, yes. The speaker was as you may have guessed,was Mr.Greener.Following a brief tour of the showroom he presented me with a small booklet entitled, "A Few Facts for Shooters"; which I still have and treasure. His last words were; "I hope one day you will buy one of our guns".
Over the years I have owned many Greener,s the last remaining in my collection being a Greener Imperial.

Salopian
There used to be a fantastic gun collection in the science museum in B`ham do you know what happened to it? I remember spending hours in there as a teenager in the sixties.I was born in Smethwick served my time at GKN before moving on.Still a Baggie supporter.
Take Care Pedler

Pedler,
The Science Museum is long gone, replaced by The Think Tank a modern technology exhibition site.I believe some of the guns may be in the Proof House Collection, but allegedly the better exhibits were taken for safe keeping by the Museum Governors and the 'favoured few'.Mike Newland the former curator of the gun collection, historian and writer is a good friend of mine.He seeths with rage if you ask him where the collection is, swears, and says that I should do something about it.I did but met a wall of silence.
Fancy you working at GKN! I used to prepare a race car for one of the development engineers there at Heath Street. Geoff Williams was his name, he passed away last year.Also was instrumental in building the GKN 48D which was a Europa with a Rover / Buick V8. I tell you it is a very small world.

Salopian
I remember seeing the Europa at GKN recreation grounds at an open house there in around 69-70? We used to have our apprentice xmas parties there also, hired Genesis for around $150 to play at one.
Take Care Pedler