The Holloway & Naughton name has been highly regarded in British gunmaking since the early nineteenth century. Thomas Naughton began working in Birmingham for Charles Maybury (1834 – 86) at a very early age and soon showed a natural talent. In due course he moved on to George Bonehill’s Belmont Works where his skills developed still further. Eager to progress, his next move was to James Carr who was in St Mary’s Row around 1888.


At that time another Birmingham maker, George Holloway, was retailing guns but was also interested in making them and saw young Thomas as the ideal craftsman.


Thomas Naughton ran Holloway & Co for several years until it was acquired by H Ludlow who owned the Midland Gun Company. In 1909 Naughton bought out Ludlow and the name was changed to Holloway & Naughton. Two years later they bought J & W Tolley who had a worldwide reputation for large bore shotguns and big-game double rifles.


Thanks to Guy Smith, Editor: The Countryman’s Weekly


Prior to World War II, approximately 90,000 Holloway & Naughton Branded firearms were made, with many of the sales going to the USA, India, Australia and the UK.


During the Second World War, production ceased and the workforce were called into supporting the war effort. The factory was annihilated in a bombing raid on Birmingham, with all plans, blueprints, machinery and records being lost. Over the following
40 years, only a few Box Lock shotguns were made.



In the early 1990’s, Andrew Harvison resurrected this long established name and recreated the Brand Values in the process, to align with the quality levels set by those early craftsmen..


Today, by utilising a team of the finest English craftsmen, Holloway & Naughton shotguns are totally bespoke and manufactured to the client’s requirements. The Company is quintessentially English. The standards achieved through Harvison’s meticulous attention to design and detail, have resulted in English shotguns which could be said to exceed the established London based manufacturers.


The Company was registered in 1996 and now trades as
Holloway & Naughton ®.