Webley
& Scott
With roots in Birmingham’s late-eighteenth-century gun trade, Webley & Scott became one of the best-known names in British arms manufacture — producing sporting shotguns alongside the revolvers, rifles and airguns that made the Webley name familiar around the world.
From the workshop
to large-scale British production.
Webley & Scott occupies a different place in British sporting history from the small London “Best” houses. Its story combines traditional gunmaking with the industrial strength of Birmingham — a city capable of producing everything from individually finished sporting guns to military and police arms in significant numbers.
Within that broader history, Webley & Scott’s sporting shotguns became particularly important. The company built guns under its own name and for other members of the trade, leaving its work spread throughout the history of the British double gun.
The Webley family enters the gun trade.
The modern company traces its origins to William Davis, a Birmingham maker of gun implements and bullet moulds whose business operated in Weaman Street. During the nineteenth century the business passed into the Webley family, including Philip Webley and his brother James.
The Webleys expanded into percussion sporting guns and later became particularly well known for revolvers. Thomas and Henry Webley joined the family enterprise during the 1860s, helping carry the name into a period of much larger production.
Another Birmingham name joins the story.
W. & C. Scott & Son was itself an important Birmingham gunmaking business. Like Webley, Scott supplied the wider trade and developed a reputation for sporting guns and gunmaking skill.
In 1897 P. Webley & Son and W. & C. Scott & Sons were brought together as the Webley & Scott Revolver & Arms Company. The combination joined two established Birmingham traditions under the name by which the company would become internationally recognised.
A Birmingham name across generations.
Selected moments in the development of Webley & Scott, with particular attention to the sporting arms associated with the house.
Craft and production under one roof.
Birmingham’s gun trade was built around specialist skills, but firms such as Webley & Scott also developed the ability to coordinate those skills on a much larger scale. The company’s factories became places where traditional fitting, stocking and finishing existed alongside increasingly organised production methods.
This ability to combine skilled hand work with repeatable manufacture helped Webley & Scott serve military, police and sporting markets while maintaining a substantial shotgun business.
The post-war English boxlock.
Introduced in 1947 after a brief post-war period of Standard and Special models, the Model 700 became one of the most recognisable British boxlock ejectors of the twentieth century.
It was not intended to imitate the ornament or complexity of a London sidelock. Its appeal lay instead in proportion, utility and the straightforward qualities of a Birmingham-made sporting gun.
Produced in substantial numbers across several decades and gauges, the 700 placed an English side-by-side within reach of a far wider sporting audience than the small-volume “Best” houses could serve.
- Introduced 1947
- Boxlock Ejector
- Post-War British Sporting Gun
- A Signature Webley & Scott Model
The scale behind the name.
Webley & Scott’s significance lies partly in scale. Where the most exclusive London houses built relatively small numbers of best guns, Webley & Scott operated across a much broader spectrum of the arms trade.
The company produced sporting shotguns in large numbers, supplied actions and complete guns through the trade and, at different periods, manufactured revolvers, rifles and airguns. This breadth makes Webley & Scott an important part of the industrial as well as the sporting history of British gunmaking.
Catalogues, advertising and the Webley & Scott identity.
Period catalogues preserve the breadth of sporting arms offered under the Webley & Scott name.
Historic advertising reflects a company whose reputation extended far beyond Birmingham.
The firm’s old advertisements connect its mechanical history with generations of sporting use.
A Birmingham name of unusual breadth.
Webley & Scott cannot be understood only through a single model or a single branch of gunmaking. Its history stretches from nineteenth- century percussion arms through sporting shotguns, service revolvers and twentieth-century airguns.
For the student of the English double, however, the sporting guns remain especially significant. Models such as the 700 represent the practical, well-made Birmingham boxlock at its most recognisable, while the wider Webley & Scott story reveals the industrial strength that stood behind generations of British arms production.
Continue exploring British gunmaking.
Discover the histories, craftsmanship and traditions of other celebrated British gunmaking houses.