PARTNERS
Carl Russell & Co. Gunmakers Ltd., established in 2014, is situated alongside other fine shops in the Stableyard at Hatfield Park in Hertfordshire. With more than 60 years’ combined experience in the gun trade, Carl Russell and his team specialise in fine shotguns and can advise on all aspects of guns and shooting. The attractive retail shop is well stocked with shotguns, rifles and air rifles (new and used) as well as best country clothing and leather goods. Carl Russell & Co. also has a full workshop for gun servicing, repairs and renovation. Anglo American Shooting Society members and guests shop here to round out their fieldsports needs.
The centerpiece of Hatfield Park, 35 minutes north of London in Hertfordshire, is Hatfield House, steeped in more than 400 years of history, and its gardens that offer 40 acres of tranquility. Built by Robert Cecil on the grounds where Queen Elizabeth I spent much of her childhood, Hatfield House is home to centuries of historical treasures collected by the Cecil family. The picture-perfect gardens date from the early 17th Century, when Robert Cecil employed John Tradescant the Elder to collect plants from all over Europe for his new home. The trees, bulbs, plants and fruit trees, which had never been grown before in England, make up the inspiring and fragrant gardens visitors can explore.
The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers is one of London’s 110 prescribed livery companies. Like the medieval guilds from which they evolved, livery companies protect their members’ livelihoods by keeping out the unskilled and the frauds, and setting standards for quality. By royal charter, issued in 1637, the Company of Gunmakers is responsible not only for the manufacture of firearms in Britain, but also for their safety, ascertained by the London Proof House. The first Proof House was built in 1657 in Aldgate; the present Proof House, on the Commercial Road in Whitechapel, dates from 1757. The Company also fosters gunmaking through training regimens—apprenticeships—and by admitting only known, proven individuals.
