Parker-Hale Ltd. was a British

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

air rifle An air gun or airgun is a gun that fires projectiles pneumatically with compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized ''without'' involving any chemical reactions, in contrast to a firearm, which pressurizes gases ''chem ...

and firearms accessory manufacturer, located in the

Gun Quarter The Gun Quarter is a district of the city of Birmingham, England, which was for many years a centre of the world's gun-manufacturing industry, specialising in the production of military firearms and sporting guns. It is an industrial area to the ...

of the city of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was founded by Alfred Gray Parker and Arthur Hale.

History

Alfred Gray Parker founded a rifle manufacturing company in 1890. In 1910, he invited his nephew, Alfred Thomas Corbyn Hale, to become a partner in the

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

, with the shares being taken up by members of both the Parker and Hale families. A first catalogue was issued of arms and shooting accessories and, though limited in its range, clearly showed the company's growing trend for the development of accessories. By 1914 the company's small manufacturing plant was well established and the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis of ...

ordered training equipment from Parker-Hale. The "Parkerifling" process, coupled with the Hiscock-Parker magazine, enabled

service rifle A service rifle (or standard-issue rifle) is a rifle a military issues to regular infantry. In modern militaries, this is typically a versatile and rugged battle rifle, assault rifle, or carbine suitable for use in nearly all environments. Most ...

s to be converted to

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

(.22 LR) for use as training rifles, and demand was such that the Parker-Hale factory was soon working to full capacity. In 1924, Hale's son, Arthur, joined the business, and in 1926 a family record was set up when Hale and his two eldest sons took part in the "King's Prize" at Bisley. This event was eclipsed two years later when Arthur Hale succeeded in winning the coveted prize itself. He was appointed Director of the Company in 1928. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the available resources of the gun trade had been mobilised to recondition a reserve of

Pattern 1914 Enfield The Rifle, .303 Pattern 1914 (or P14) was a British service rifle of the First World War period. A bolt action weapon with an integral 5-round magazine, it was principally contract manufactured by companies in the United States. It served as a ...

rifles, and in 1940 the Parker-Hale Arms Company was founded. Additional premises were acquired "for the duration" of the war and, under the management of Arthur Hale, a large reconditioning programme was rapidly carried through. A wide range of additional war contract work followed, principally with the manufacture of

.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...

and

.303 British The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...

drill cartridges in large quantities. After the close of hostilities, with a fall in production contracts and no permanent premises, the company had little choice but to invest in a small factory unit, erected under the Government's emergency programme to re-house bombed-out manufacturers. Meanwhile, the Parker-Hale Arms Company was transferred to the

Birmingham Proof House The Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof House is a weapons proving establishment in Banbury Street, Birmingham, UK. The building was designed by John Horton and consists of a centre bay, emphasised by a segmental parapet, which contains trophies by ...

, where it continued with the reconditioning of .22 LR weapons for junior training organisations. The company ceased to exist upon completion of the contracts. The immediate post-war years can best be described as a period of frustrated opportunity, since overseas markets were opened but materials of all sorts were in short supply. Nevertheless, by 1948 business abroad far exceeded the home trade. Positioned alongside the BSA factory sportsground and

Sparkbrook Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council. Etymology The area receives its name from Spark Brook, a small stream that f ...

, from which the local area gets its name, the Parker-Hale factory headquarter building echoes the traditions of the Birmingham gunmaking industry, since it occupies the very site that the Proof House located their testing range. Business at Parker-Hale remained relatively stable throughout the 1960s and into the 1980s, with sales of target and sporting rifles, handguns, shotguns and ammunition sitting comfortably alongside the company's comprehensive range of rifle scopes, knives, gun care accessories and cleaning kits. The company received a temporary setback in 1985 when the Chairman and Managing Director, John le Breton, who had been instrumental in consolidating the company's success in world markets, retired from the board. The founder's grandson, Roger Hale, then took over as Managing Director, and proved an influential figure in successfully re-positioning the company in what was to prove a constantly changing industry. Lacking the investment necessary to enable the company to compete effectively in newly emerging markets, Parker-Hale was eventually sold to the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

engineering group, Modular Industries Ltd. In 1992 it was purchased by Navy Arms and spun off as Gibbs Rifle Company, Inc.

Partial list of Parker-Hale firearms Parker-Hale Catalogues

Submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...

s: * Parker-Hale PDW

Shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

s: * Parker-Hale Rogun * Parker-Hale 700 series * Parker-Hale 800 series

Rifles A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with bo ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Original Parker-Hale Company website (archived)

John Rothery Wholesale Company website

Parker-Hale-Germany

Sporting Rifles based on

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's st ...

s Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Firearm manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct firearms manufacturers Defunct manufacturing companies of England