So spent another day today at the Royal Armouries at Leeds. Yesterday did the tourist thing and I have to say that it's not only the finest museum of its type in the world, it is one of the finest museums of ANY type! The collection is amazing, it's largely bereft of Politically Correct B.S. (though has the 'peace room' which I think was a concession to the turd-stabbers.... and is about the size of a broom closet!
I'll post some pictures, perhaps after dinner.
Today, however, was the real purpose of the trip to Leeds, which is to research a carriage that I am going to try and reproduce. To visit that Vickers carriage, it meant a trip into their firearms vault, hidden under, well, stuff. Very serious non-disclosures, so no pictures even of the street it is on. But it's right out of James Bond. Ex-Forces guy greets you at the museum entrance... and you head off museum grounds and walk through a bunch of streets to an unmarked steel door in a wall. Three more steel doors in walls later, you're getting wanded and ID-Checked... and then it's through another steel door. And into a room full of every gun in the British Inventory since the 1600's! Most of them brand-new. Many of them patterns, sporting Royal wax seals and everything. Right up to AAA-sized pieces. Prototypes. Captured weapons. Guns that don't exist. Guns that never existed.
I've seen some of the NRA vaults. The FBI reference collection at Quantico. The 'back rooms' belonging to several amazing U.S. collectors. And nothing compares to this. It's utterly amazing.
And to think that due to a lack of interest and funding... in the 1990's it ALMOST all got taken out into the North Sea and dumped. Fortunately, the Royal Family stepped in and funded the collection being moved to the Royal Armouries. Where it is a reference for the whole world. God save the Queen! I'll be toasting her tonite for sure!
I will admit, too, that it was fun to go through the collection with my host/guide and be able to say to him. Yup, I've got one of those. And one of those. A PIAT? Yup, got one of those. And that. And those. Unfortunately, they get to curate them, not shoot them. So I got to talk to him more about how they handled in many cases... Perhaps we need to to start a Go-Fund-Me page to fly the curators over to the USA to show them what the Second Amendment is for!
Tomorrow the bike trip starts in earnest. Off the M Roads and onto the two lane tracks through Yorkshire and Scotland.
Cheers,
Sirhr
I'll post some pictures, perhaps after dinner.
Today, however, was the real purpose of the trip to Leeds, which is to research a carriage that I am going to try and reproduce. To visit that Vickers carriage, it meant a trip into their firearms vault, hidden under, well, stuff. Very serious non-disclosures, so no pictures even of the street it is on. But it's right out of James Bond. Ex-Forces guy greets you at the museum entrance... and you head off museum grounds and walk through a bunch of streets to an unmarked steel door in a wall. Three more steel doors in walls later, you're getting wanded and ID-Checked... and then it's through another steel door. And into a room full of every gun in the British Inventory since the 1600's! Most of them brand-new. Many of them patterns, sporting Royal wax seals and everything. Right up to AAA-sized pieces. Prototypes. Captured weapons. Guns that don't exist. Guns that never existed.
I've seen some of the NRA vaults. The FBI reference collection at Quantico. The 'back rooms' belonging to several amazing U.S. collectors. And nothing compares to this. It's utterly amazing.
And to think that due to a lack of interest and funding... in the 1990's it ALMOST all got taken out into the North Sea and dumped. Fortunately, the Royal Family stepped in and funded the collection being moved to the Royal Armouries. Where it is a reference for the whole world. God save the Queen! I'll be toasting her tonite for sure!
I will admit, too, that it was fun to go through the collection with my host/guide and be able to say to him. Yup, I've got one of those. And one of those. A PIAT? Yup, got one of those. And that. And those. Unfortunately, they get to curate them, not shoot them. So I got to talk to him more about how they handled in many cases... Perhaps we need to to start a Go-Fund-Me page to fly the curators over to the USA to show them what the Second Amendment is for!
Tomorrow the bike trip starts in earnest. Off the M Roads and onto the two lane tracks through Yorkshire and Scotland.
Cheers,
Sirhr
