SSA Peddle Scheme conundrum

[Alan de Enfield]

no edit option so canot edit post #8

Edit to amend the statement :

I do not believe that the SSA body parts were shipped to BSA - SSA obtained the BSA parts from the 'rifle pool' (see above post) and assembled their 'bitsas' at SSA / NRF

The SSA rifles were assembled in the old bayonet fatory at Enfield (bayonet production having been moved to Wilkinson & Sanderson) using SSA bodies and any other parts from the 'pool'. SSA did not produce or assemble the rifles, they simply supplied, as a 'subcontractor', the 4 components listed.
Which would explain the Enfield inspectors markings



From the records of the ‘National’ factories :

The National Factory Scheme

In August 1914 the state-owned ordnance factories were providing the Army with about a third of its weapons and at this time there were only sixteen firms tendering for War Office munitions contracts:
WG Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd.
Harper Sons & Bean Ltd.
William Beardmore & Company
Head Wrightson & Co.
Cammell Laird & Company
Kings Norton Metal Co.
Coventry Ordnance Works
The Projectile Co. (1902) Ltd.
Dick Kerr & Company
Rees Roturbo Manufacturing Co.
The Electric & Ordnance Accessories Co.
Vickers Ltd.
T Firth & Sons
J & P Hill
Hadfields Ltd.
Watson Laidlaw & Co.

The first few months of the Ministry’s existence saw the establishment of an imposing group of national factories so that by the end of December 1915, there were 73 new sites. The new factories would be Government property and the armament firms were responsible for the design, construction and to provide managers to run them as agents for the Ministry. These were in addition to the Royal Factories conceded from the War Office at Enfield Lock, Farnborough, Waltham Abbey and Woolwich. By the end of the war, this array of national factories had increased, both in number and in the variety of the products. Over 218 new or adapted factories .(so, for example as the Standard Small Arms factory failed to achieve its targets it was ‘taken over’ by the Government with the old SSA managing it) were in operation and covered not only every kind of munitions, from cannon and aeroplanes to small-arms ammunition, but also centres for the production of ball-bearings and concrete slabs.


Birmingham NRF No.1 (Lench Street)

Management: Standard Small Arms Company Ltd. Products: Farquahar-Hill automatic rifle. Notes: abandoned in October 1918 before production started.

Birmingham NRF No. 2 (Garrrison Lane)

Management: Standard Small Arms Company Ltd. Products: Fraquahaer-Hill automatic rifle. Notes: abandoned in October 1918 before production started.[/QUOTE]