The Firm 1812-1913

Westley Richards

£18

A brief history of Westley Richards from 1812-1912 by Leslie B. Taylor Leslie B Taylor (1863-1930) was a great pioneer in sporting guns, rifles and ballistics during what many consider to be the Golden Age of Gunmaking. He spent his entire working life at Westley Richards and amongst other things saw the titanic transition from black powder to nitro powder which in itself revolutionised gun and in particular rifle ballistics and development. This book provides an official account of the personal characteristics and business qualifications of the successive heads of the Westley Richards Firm.

Westley Richards's own words, read from their page.

Buy from Westley RichardsPrice seen 2026-09-04. Affiliate link.

Where this comes from

The part other shops don't tell you. Three separate questions, kept separate on purpose, each with its source.

UK company
Registered at Companies House as WESTLEY RICHARDS AND COMPANY LIMITED, number 00439612. Checked 2026-08-29.
Means the business is a British legal entity, not a British-sounding name owned elsewhere. It says nothing about where anything is made.
UK operations
Stated by the company: "Housed in our Birmingham factory, on the edge of the traditional Gun Quarter, Westley Richards gunmakers today work much as their grandfathers' generation did, using files, chisels and secret potions to turn walnut and steel into supreme hunting rifles and sporting shotguns." Source.
Means people employed here, or premises they actually work from. We keep this separate from the company badge because a registered office can be an accountant's spare room, and a company can be registered in Britain while everything it does happens somewhere else. Where we have not looked, we say so rather than assuming.
Foreign-owned
Majority ownership sits in Qatar, with Shiekh Sultan Jassim M J Al-Thani. Companies House.
Read from the register of people with significant control, following the chain of holding companies. It does not gate anything: a firm can be made here and owned elsewhere, and that is worth telling you rather than hiding.
Where it is made
The maker doesn't say, so neither do we.
This is about the individual product, not the company. A British firm can sell things made abroad, which is normal and not a criticism. We would rather tell you which is which than average them into a score.