The ENFIELD PATTERN ROOM
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A 1987 Brochure of the Pattern Room
while it was still at Enfield Lock, where it had been associated with the Royal Small Arms Factory having developed over several centuries as a record of the pattern example of each British firearm brought into service that included those held at the Tower of London.
The Collection was increased hugely at Enfield to include arms from all over the World by Herbert J. Woodend during his time there from 1969. As curator he oversaw the removal of the collection from Enfield during the mid Nineteen Eighties to the then home of the Royal Small Arms Factory in Nottingham, where he continued his remarkable work until his retirement after thirty years due to ill health.
Herbie Woodend put together a catalogue of British Rifles
that was published by HMSO in 1987.
Long out of print, now only rare used hard copies can be found,
but a searchable facsimile is available via the link at the top of this page.
The collection was removed from the control of the Ministry of Defence in 2005 and transferred to the custody of the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, where it now forms the National Firearms Collection - an independent department from the main public museum, but remaining available to military personnel and historians as a research facility.
For security reasons, the brochure offered the only publicised photographs of the original Enfield facility until the time of its removal to Nottingham and subsequently to Leeds.
Photography of the inside of the buildings was forbidden, and only imagery of individual arms was then permissible. An article carrying many of the photographs taken as the collection was disassembled was put together by the staff of the Small Arms Review journal.
THE COLOUR BROCHURE
The late Herb Woodend is pictured on page 7
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