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33-615: In trials, the Snider Pattern 1853 conversions proved both more accurate than the original Pattern 1853s and much faster firing; a trained soldier could fire ten aimed rounds per minute with the breech-loader, compared with only three rounds per minute with the muzzle-loading weapon. From 1866 onwards, the Enfield rifles were converted in large numbers at the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) Enfield beginning with

66-409: A Boxer cartridge after its designer. The breech block housed a diagonally downward sloping firing pin struck with a front-action lock mounted hammer. To operate the weapon, the rifleman cocked the hammer, flipped the block out of the receiver to the right by grasping the left mounted breech block lever, and then pulled the block back to extract the spent case. There was no ejector, so the firer turned

99-488: A Snider and buckshot cartridges. Should tribesmen try to get into the camp to steal rifles, the buckshot would give the sentries a better chance of hitting the thief, and unlike a .303 round, would be less likely to wound or kill a comrade should the sentry miss. The Snider was notably powerful. Rudyard Kipling gave a graphic depiction of its effect in his poem, "The Grave of the Hundred Head": A Snider squibbed in

132-731: A new factory on a larger site. The factory was to be located at Enfield Lock on a marshy island bordered by the River Lea and the Lee Navigation . The land was acquired in 1812 and the factory completed by 1816. The site had the advantages of water-power to drive the machinery and the River Lea Navigation for the transportation by barge of raw materials and finished weapons to the River Thames, 15 miles away, to be loaded onto sailing ships. Neighbouring farmland

165-529: A number of workshops at Sparkbrook were purchased and named Royal Small Arms Factory, Sparkbrook. There were also repair operations in Birmingham. In March 1893 there were 2,025 employees at Enfield and 664 at Sparkbrook, the Sparkbrook number having been reduced by ten per cent in the previous six months. In 1894, repair work was moved from Bagot Street to Sparkbrook. In 1905 manufacture at Sparkbrook

198-687: A rifle. Enthusiasts still use these rifles today, with the number in circulation boosted by the acquisition by Atlanta Cutlery and International Military Antiques of a vast quantity of antique weapons held in the Royal Nepalese Armory in the Lagan Silekhana Palace for over a century. Ammunition is reloaded into either modern production .577 Snider cases, or re-formed 24-gauge brass shotgun shells. Black powder or modern black-powder substitutes are used. The Halifax Citadel Regimental Association does live-fire demonstrations in

231-797: A short-lived Royal Manufactory of Small Arms established in Lewisham in 1807. The site in Lewisham was a mill where armour had been made since the fourteenth century. Following its purchase by Henry VIII in 1530, it became known as the Royal Armoury Mills and served his armoury in Greenwich . During the Napoleonic War , the increasing demand for large quantities of reliable weapons prompted the Board of Ordnance to look into building

264-720: A way to convert numerous muzzle-loading weapons (usually Minié rifles ) into breech-loading ones, in a process similar to that of the Snider-Enfield in Great Britain, Wänzl rifle in Austria, and the Springfield Model 1866 in the United States. The name "Tabatière" comes from the fact that the breech-loading mechanism looked like a snuff box . Most of the conversion work had been accomplished by

297-413: Is 54 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (138 cm) in length. It was issued to line infantry and has three-groove rifling with one turn in 78 inches (200 cm). The Short Rifle has a 30.5-inch (77 cm) barrel and two barrel bands with iron furniture. This variant was issued to sergeants of line infantry and rifle units. It has five-groove rifling with one turn in 48 inches (120 cm). The Cavalry Carbine

330-488: Is half stocked and has only one barrel band. It has a 19 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (50 cm) barrel, with the same rifling as the Short Rifle. The Artillery Carbine has a 21 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch (54 cm) barrel with a full stock and two barrel bands, and the same rifling as the Short Rifle and Cavalry Carbine. The Snider was the subject of substantial imitation, in both approved and questionable forms, including

363-468: Is still evidence of the factory in the immediate area, such as pill boxes , bridges and original buildings on the site such as the police house. 51°40′07″N 0°00′58″W  /  51.668738°N 0.016048°W  / 51.668738; -0.016048 Tabati%C3%A8re The Tabatière rifle was a breech-loading rifle of the French Army . The Tabatière system was developed from 1864 as

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396-638: The Gun Quarter, Birmingham by a number of independent manufacturers and then hand-assembled to produce muskets. These component makers eventually combined to become the Birmingham Small Arms Company . The Enfield factory was intended to improve the quality and to drive down costs. Almost all the weapons in which the Royal Small Arms Factory had a hand in design or production carry either the word Enfield or

429-592: The Halifax Citadel ; they have around 60 of these rifles. In addition, the Fort Henry Guard at Fort Henry, Kingston also uses the various variants of this weapon for their re-enactments. Royal Small Arms Factory The Royal Small Arms Factory ( RSAF ), also known by the metonym Enfield , was a UK government-owned rifle factory in Enfield , adjoining the Lee Navigation in

462-572: The Lea Valley . Some parts were in Waltham Abbey . The factory produced British military rifles , muskets and swords from 1816. It closed in 1988, but some of its work was transferred to other sites. The factory designed and manufactured many famous British Army weapons including the Lee–Enfield rifles which were standard equipment during both World Wars. The RSAF had its origins in

495-636: The Martini–Henry , beginning in 1871-1880. Volunteer and militia forces continued to use it until the late 1880s. It stayed in service with the Indian Army until the mid-1890s, because between the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and 1905 the British kept the Indian Army one weapon generation behind British units. The Hunza Scouts may have been the last to use it in action (in the carbine version), in

528-775: The Chitral campaign of 1895. The Indian units received the Martini–Henry when the British adopted the Lee–Metford . The Ijeshas used large numbers of Snider–Enfields against Ibadan during the 16-year-long Yoruba Civil War (1877 to 1893). Frank Richards , who served on the Northwest Frontier between 1902 and 1908, records in Old Soldier Sahib that the British army still used Sniders during that period. Sentries on night duty in camps and cantonments would carry

561-615: The Nepalese Snider, which was a nearly exact copy, the Dutch Snider, Danish Naval Snider, and the "unauthorised" adaptations of the French Tabatière and Russian Krnka. There were also "Trade Pattern" Snider–Enfields, being Snider–Enfields made for private purchase by various English gun-makers. These were often intended for sale to members of volunteer military units, or simply to anyone who might wish to purchase

594-668: The RSAF Interpretation centre which can be viewed by appointment only. The Rifles public house originally known as the Royal Small Arms Tavern was compulsorily purchased by the government during the First World War. It closed down in 2004 after a large fire damaged the structure. The partially destroyed building is currently standing (2015). Other pubs which had been built for local works remain standing including The Greyhound just west of

627-519: The River Lea and The Plough in Sewardstone . In 1895, the community had long had its own school (demolished), and a church (demolished in the 1920s), a police station—with three sergeants and nine constables in 1902. A fire brigade was manned by one professional and 32 amateurs. Housing conditions in the mid 19th century were poor in the area. The extant Government Row a terrace of cottages

660-486: The initial pattern, the Mark I. The converted rifles received a new breechblock /receiver assembly, but retained the original iron barrel , furniture, lock , and hammer. The Mark III rifles were newly made. They featured steel barrels which were so marked, flat nosed hammers, and a latch-locking breech block instead of the simple integral block lifting tang. The Snider–Enfield used a new type of metal-cased cartridge called

693-694: The jungle— Somebody laughed and fled, And the men of the First Shikaris Picked up their Subaltern dead, With a big blue mark in his forehead And the back blown out of his head. The Snider–Enfield was produced in several variants. The most commonly encountered variants were the Rifled Musket or Long Rifle, the Short Rifle, and the Cavalry and Artillery Carbines. The Long Rifle has a 36 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (93 cm) barrel and three barrel bands. Its total length (without bayonet)

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726-549: The letters EN in their name; For weapons manufactured at Enfield before 1853, see British military rifles#Early Enfield rifles The RSAF, Enfield, was famous for its Pattern Room which was a collection, or master set, of every weapon made at RSAF Enfield. After closure this collection was moved to ROF Nottingham , which has since closed. The collection is now held at the Royal Armouries Museum , Leeds . Local government boundary changes meant that

759-587: The majority of the site was now within the London Borough of Enfield . The necessary outline planning permissions were obtained for site redevelopment, making closure of the site attractive to its new owners. Closure was announced in August 1987, shortly after privatisation as Royal Ordnance . The site closed in 1988. The machinery was auctioned off in November 1988. BAe then formed a joint venture with

792-492: The property company Trafalgar House to redevelop the site. The majority of the site is now covered by a large housing development called Enfield Island Village . The original machine shop frontage and the older part of the rear structure has been retained and was converted into workshops and retail units by the Enfield Enterprise Agency, making use of European Union (ERDF) funding. The buildings house

825-677: The rifle to the right and upside-down to allow the case to drop out. The Snider first saw action with the British/Indian Army at the battle of Magdala (Aroghee) in Ethiopia on 10 April 1868, against the forces of Tewodros II of Ethiopia ; during the battle the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot alone fired 10,200 rounds. The Snider–Enfield served throughout the British Empire , including Cape Colony , India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, until its gradual phaseout by

858-500: The site entirely from Epping Forest District to the London Borough of Enfield . The original ambitious plans by Captain John By included three mills. Later, the engineer John Rennie recommended the construction of a navigable leat . The leat was made, although only one mill with two waterwheels was completed. In 1816 the barrel branch was transferred from Lewisham . By 1818 the lock and finishing branches had been moved to

891-584: The site was closed. The Royal Small Arms Factory was privatised in 1984 along with a number of Royal Ordnance Factories to become part of Royal Ordnance Plc . It was later bought by British Aerospace (BAe). They closed the site in 1988. The factory was set up because of disappointment with the poor quality and high cost of the existing British weapons used in the Napoleonic Wars. At this time in Britain, individual components were made mainly in

924-474: The site, enabling the closure of the Lewisham factory. A sword -making department was set up in 1823. The factory fought off the threat of closure in 1831. It remained quite modest in size until the Crimean War of 1853/1856, which resulted in vastly increased production. In 1856 a machine shop was built on American mass-production lines, using American machinery powered by steam engines . The shop

957-669: The time of the Franco-Prussian War . By July 1870, roughly 358,000 rifles had been converted, while 1.4 million muzzleloaders stayed in their original configuration. The ammunition was a center fire cartridge closely resembling a shortened 12 gauge shotgun shell. This weapon system was recognized as ballistically inferior to the Chassepot rifle, therefore it was used by second line troops and in defensive roles. These are commonly encountered today as "Zulu Guns", after rifles were converted into shotguns and sold cheaply in

990-599: Was acquired to become a restricted area to test ordnance from the Royal Gunpowder Mill. The RSAF was originally all situated on the east side of the Lea, in the Sewardstone hamlet of Waltham Holy Cross parish, in Essex . The course of the river was diverted during the life of the factory, and part of the site then fell in Enfield parish. Local boundary changes initiated by SI 1993/1141 after it closed transferred

1023-553: Was based on a design by Sir John Anderson and built by the Royal Engineers . The workforce increased to 1,000. By 1860 an average of 1,744 rifles were produced per week. In 1866 another major expansion took place, when the watermill gave way to steampower. The total number of steam engines grew to sixteen. By 1887 there were 2,400 employees. After the liquidation of the National Arms and Ammunition Company in 1887,

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1056-405: Was built between two watercourses to house some of the factory's workers. Several public houses were opened close to the complex including The Royal Small Arms Tavern renamed Rifles in the late 20th century, The Greyhound , Ordnance Arms and The Plough . The latter two still survive (2021). The brewers Truman & Hanbury became responsible for the catering within the factory. There

1089-614: Was ended and the factory acquired by BSA in early 1906. Production of the new model rifle designed by James Paris Lee began in 1889. The famous Lee–Enfield rifle was designed in 1895. The factory expanded during World War I and World War II . Two other Royal Ordnance Factories were set up in World War II to manufacture rifles designed at RSAF Enfield, to increase arms output in areas less vulnerable to bombing: ROF Fazakerley and ROF Maltby . Both of these have long been closed. Decline set in after World War II. In 1963 half

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