Traditions die hard
Shooting recently with Richard Gray at Scrivelsby with a team I had not met, as usual people enjoy showing me their various guns. One in particular was a Robert Churchill with 25” barrels, a self-opening premier model being used at the end of the season with 32 grams and 5 shot to some effect. Note the fine detailing and fancy back action, imagine how difficult this gun was to stock!
I have recently been delivered a hammer gun by WR Pape. It has a single Damascus 28” barrel, 12 Bore, carved percussion fence, rebounding sidelock, snap fore-end with a buffalo horn finial, weight 5lbs 12oz. This gun was nearly out of date when it was built to order, sadly we don’t know who for but surely he wandered around the hedges with this beautiful gun just as we can now – £200-300.
William Rochester Pape retailed his guns from the powerhouse that was Newcastle. Most famously he invented and was patentee of the choke boring system, which WW Greener went on to develop. He won the London gun trials of 1858, 1859, 1866 and 1875. He registered several other patents extractors etc. Intriguingly he found time to invent draught excluders for doors and windows in railway carriages. He would certainly have known this gun as he retired in 1888.
Most unusually a Darne V22 12G has arrived. This gun, ‘see the photo’, is a snap opener; it ejects if you hold the gun upside down. Made in France most commonly as a 16 gauge, to assess the quality apart from the engraving and finish you count the dots around the flats of the action – in this instance 22, making it high quality and quite rare. They are famous for only having 44 working parts and also for catching your hand in the action as it flies backwards! £1,500-2,000.
Anyone wishing for a free valuation should contact me, Simon Grantham, Holt’s Auctioneers, on 07860 300055. My next Valuation Day is at Walcott on 14th April.
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Grantham school joins Carol Service in celebration of town’s hospital![]()
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Pupils from St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy are taking part in the first Carol Service to celebrate the special relationship Grantham and District Hospital has with the town and surrounding communities.![]()
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The school children will join in the singing of favourite Christmas Carols as well as perform their own set musical piece at the Carol Service on Thursday 11th December at 7pm, in St Wulfram’s church, Grantham.![]()
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Deputy Head Teacher Olivia Mumford said: “The Carol Service is a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to share the joy of music while showing appreciation for the incredible work done at Grantham and District Hospital. It’s a privilege to support such an important event in our town."![]()
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The Carol Service has been organised by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Charity, who work closely with staff at Grantham and District Hospital and provides those extras for staff and patients that NHS budgets are unable to fund. ![]()
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Further details on the Grantham NHS Carol Service can be found by visiting www.ulhcharity.org.uk/news/christmas-carols-at-grantham-st-wulfram-church-in-thanks-for-towns-sup...