Category: Trade: Gun Maker

Pistol Inscribed ‘Cook, Warminster’ Is Up For Auction

Thursday 15th May 2014

An item of Warminster interest is among the lots at the next sale to be held by Adam Partridge Auctioneers & Valuers, at Unit 1, Withyfold Drive, Hurdsfield Industrial Estate, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2BD.

Lot 889 is a 19th century percussion cap pocket pistol with walnut stock, inscribed “Cook, Warminster”. The pistol (pictured above) has its folding trigger missing. The estimate is £100 to £150. Online bidding is available to persons who register before sale day. The sale will take place over two days: Thursday 22nd May and Friday 23rd May 2014.

Footnote by Danny Howell ~

In the Warminster, Heytesbury and Neighbourhood entries of the Commercial Directory for 1830, Thomas Cook is listed as one of two gun makers, both of whom had their premises in the Market Place, Warminster. Cook is not listed in the Warminster entries for the Commercial Directory for 1842.

Haden Gun, Made For Ensign Scott, Can Be Seen At The Salisbury And South Wilts Museum

Tuesday 23rd April 2013

Weapons expert Peter Shorten has contacted dannyhowell.net with some very interesting information relating to a Warminster firearm.

Peter writes:

“Dear Mr. Howell,
I have recently read an entry of 2007 in your blog, containing a reference to the death of J. B. Haden, who was an ironmonger and a gunmaker and a member of the Warminster Volunteer Rifles. Someone concerned with the history of the Haden family wondered if there were any of his guns “still around.”

There is at least one, made for Ensign Jno. Scott, of the Volunteer Rifles, now owned by the Salisbury and South Wilts Museum and currently on extended loan to the Rifles (Berks and Wilts), Wardrobe Museum, Salisbury, and due to be put on display by the end of April this year (2013). Little provenance is available – apparently it was obtained, in exchange for something unrecorded, from a pub in (I think) Lymington some years ago. It is in fair condition, but is clearly a quality piece.

The Rifles Museum has a group photograph, almost certainly including Ensign Scott, of the members of the Warminster Volunteer Rifles, but no caption is attached.

Application (if any) to view the gun should be made to the Assistant Curator, at the above Museum, 58 The Close, Salisbury, SP1 2EX.”

Danny Howell replies:

Thank you Peter for informing me and the readers of dannyhowell.net of the current location of this gun made by John Burnet Haden, of Warminster, and for the associated connection with Ensign Scott. This is sure to arouse the curiosity of history devotees in Warminster. I, for one, will endeavour to view this firearm in the near future. Once again, many thanks.

A Pistol Unearthed At Arn Hill, Warminster

Victor Strode Manley, writing in 1923, in his ‘Regional Survey Of The Warminster District’ noted:

“Item 121 – Pistol from Warminster Downs. I have placed this in the top case of the Museum in the Town Hall [Warminster]. It was unearthed on Arn Hill a few years ago. The sketch, actual size, will show the marks which might fix the date. A clay pipe is on the right side. The wood of the handle is missing. (Perhaps my sketch is a little enlarged). When it is double cocked the trigger can be swung round. Conan Doyle has mentioned that special dogs were kept at Salisbury to track down robbers on the Plain.’

Illustration of an old pistol found on Warminster Downs, drawn by Victor Strode Manley in 1923.

Addenda: Small Pistol. – Illustrated opposite. Mrs. Ethel M. Richardson in her book ‘Wiltshire Folk’ (1934) p.123, par.2., refers to Mr. H.J. Doel, of Quarry Farm, Purton, Wilts, who gave her “two tiny pistols.” “His father-in-law had used them when driving to market in the old days; they were prettily chased, and the work of a Gloucester maker.”

V.S.M. [Victor Strode Manley] thus suggests the pistol shown opposite was that of a farmer and not a highwayman. The route from the old Warminster Corn Market, for some farmers, passed across the Downs along Nun’s Path.