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Our team is highly skilled in all aspects of the manufacture and use of sporting weapons. Paul Roberts’ encyclopaedic knowledge of English guns and his life-long passion for this industry and culture have carved a remarkable path for his team to follow. Our experienced sales personnel, supported by our dedicated craftsmen, are on-hand to advise on all aspects of our new and used shotguns and rifles, and their use around the world.
The passion and enthusiasm of everyone who works here makes J. Roberts one of the most admired and respected firms in British gunmaking. Our aim is to share that passion with all of our customers.
Our close ties with a number of continental gunmakers, principally Fabbrica Armi Bosis, Battista Rizzini, Fratelli Rizzini, Fabbri and Chapuis Armes, remain an important part of our business and we’re able to offer bespoke guns from these highly respected names.
Our association with John Rigby & Co runs long and deep, and we maintain a strong working relationship with them.
Storage facilities, ammunition and all kinds of accessories are also available from us.
Managing director Paul Roberts’ passion for shotguns was ignited by his father Joseph ‘Pip’ Roberts at the tender age of six, his first air rifle was bought for him at seven and the collecting and dealing bug developed by the age of fourteen.
In the 1950s Paul joined his father in his business in London’s West End where he continued to enhance his gunmaking and dealing experience and expertise. His knowledge and skills were further honed throughout the 1960s and 70s, and in the 1980s he purchased John Rigby & Co. An affiliation with W. J. Jeffery & Co further established his expertise and continues in helping to keep J. Roberts & Son in the forefront of British gunmaking.
To this day, J. Roberts & Son’s employees continue to benefit from his virtually unrivalled knowledge and insight.
To further strengthen our business, our retail operation and workshop relocate to purpose-built premises in West Chiltington, near Billingshurst, West Sussex.
From 2000 until 2010 we had the sole manufacturing rights for W. J. Jeffery & Co, one of Britain’s most innovative gunmakers – having introduced some of the most popular big-game calibres such as the .404 and .500 Jeffery.
In 1997 the Rigby rights were sold. Under the American owners, who bought the name in 2010, we resumed the manufacture of classic Rigby rifles – such as the original pattern .416s and .275s – until the rights were sold to their current owners, the L&O Group.
By 1990 the company was producing dozens of guns a year, specialising in large calibre double-barreled and bolt-action rifles, stalking rifles, and ‘best’ grade shotguns.
In 1984 J. Roberts amalgamated with John Rigby & Co – Britain’s longest-established rifle makers – and assembled its own team of gunsmiths.
J Roberts & Co’s founder, Joseph ‘Pip’ Roberts dies four weeks after this last known photograph was taken.
By the late 1970s, the company was making rifles for John Rigby & Co.
By the mid 1970s, in addition to dealing in pre-owned guns and rifles, the company began manufacturing brand new rifles and shotguns, with the first being a .300 J Roberts & Son rifle.
Paul Roberts (third from right) first travelled to india in the 1960s to buy up guns and rifles from the huge Maharaja collections. This continued regularly well into the 1980s.
Joseph Roberts, with a pair of German Wheel Lock pistols, takes a walk in St George Street, Mayfair, London for a Daily Express newspaper article in June 1965.
Joseph Roberts’ son and the current chairman and owner, Paul Roberts, joined the business in 1959.
Pictured (from left): Angela Roberts, Joseph Roberts, Rio and Paul Roberts in their gunshop in St Martins Lane just north of Trafalgar Square, London in 1965.
Founded in 1953 by Joseph ‘Pip’ Roberts (when the company was known as J. Roberts & Co). This photograph of Joseph Roberts was taken in 1956 in Milan.
The workshop at J. Roberts & Son has produced well over 1,500 new rifles and shotguns, whilst over the decades, restoring and repairing perhaps more than 30,000.
Almost all of the team started apprenticeships with the firm in their teenage years. Their skills and knowledge being passed to them by gun makers of the ‘old school’, who themselves learnt from the master craftsmen who were producing guns during the classic period of the early 20th century.
Working closely to original designs and techniques, our workshop today produces fine rifles and shotguns in much the same style as firearms built 100 years ago. Whilst we’ve included many modern and improved methods in our gunmaking processes, most work is still done by hand.
Coupled with this, the J. Roberts team has considerable field experience, all of which is used when the workshop produces a new rifle or shotgun. We also have access to many original firearms that can be used as patterns for new builds, giving their modern counterparts a real sense of pedigree.
Not only do the team manufacture guns, we regularly repair, alter, fit, modify and refinish any guns, from a best quality London made shotgun, to a working over-and-under from Italy.
Whether you’re looking for a rifle or shotgun, an alteration, need storage or repairs, a replacement rifle case and more… J. Roberts & Son can help.