Unbelievable Rare and almost certainly the one only in existence
Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Fazakerley L1A1 manufactured Service Rifle
UF59
The headlines may seem over the top but this rifle is rarer than any X8A1Trials rifle and by far the rarest British Service rifle and even rarer than the P13 we have coming in a few weeks time.
In collector terms this is the holy grail of L1A1's, it was thought that R.O.F Fazakerley never manage to manufacture any L1A1's and no records that we can find indicate that Fazakerley got into production stage before the British Government shut them down in June 1960.
This Fazakerley L1A1 factory date code UF59 is in stunning condition and has been built to 'Museum Standard' as it would have left the Fazakerley factory in mid 1959.
It has just come back from the London Proof House fully tested and proofed.
R.O.F. Fazakerley was famous for it long running labour troubles even in the Trade unions movement of the time, the Fazakerley factory was notorious for its strike actions.
Fazakerley even put Red Robbo, the convenor and shop steward at the car manufacturer British Leyland Plant to shame.
In the end the Conservative Government under Harold Macmillan had enough and in April 1960 it was announced in the House of Commons that the closer of R.O.F. Fazakerley and by June 1960 the factory was shut completely down.
The factory was sold to the Pakistan Government and in mid November 1960 145 containers were sitting on Liverpool dock yard waiting to be loaded onto cargo ships.
Four weeks later those cargo ships were unloading those same containers in Pakistan and so P.O.F was born ( Pakistan Ordnance Factory ) and is still going strong to this day.
By the end of WW2 the world had moved on, the whole concept of warfare had changed . The German MP44 semi /full auto assault rifle had made all bolt action rifles obsolete and most country's saw the writing on the wall.
The British Army adopted the L1A1 as its service rifle but needed time to for British Government factories to tool up. R.S.A.F Enfield informed the Government that were bogged down with the Mk3 Bren gun .303 contracts until 1957 and R.O.F Fazakerley were told to stop all production of the Number 4 Mk2 by May 1955 and start tooling up for the 'New L1A1 Service rifle '.
In the end R.S.A.F Enfield Finished there Bren gun production in February 1957 and had already started tooling up for the new L1A1 service rifle in early 1956. In July of 1957 R.S.A.F Enfield has started the first batch of L1A1 service rifles as troop trails had been completed a year earlier.
The BSA Small Arms Company were also contracted to manufacture the L1A1 service rifle but labour problems and tooling issues at BSA made a delay in full production until late 1959.
This was not the same as R.O.F Fazakerley as Labour relations took a very bad turn for the worst. The tooling up program was in tatters at R.O.F Fazakerley Factory and by 1958 R.O.F Fazakerley had only just started manufacturing all the parts to manufactured the L1A1 service rifle.
After the factory was closed in June 1960, the offices were stripped out and all paperwork were skipped and dumped in a local landfill site.
It did not take long for the Land to be sold off for a housing estate
So for the record R.O.F Fazakerley did at least manufacture a few L1A1's in 1959 if not many. We suspect that this rifle was dispatched to the Army before the factory was shut down as after the factory was shut down in 1960 R.S.A.F Enfield used all spare parts left at the fazakerley factory in it own product of L1A1's.
It is not uncommon to find UF marked parts on any L1A1 as the parts had to be used up.
The Army did not care if a part on an L1A1 was marked UE or UF or UB they just need the rifle.
But for the collectors that is another matter
This an opportunity to own a very rare British L1A1 service rifle built to Museum standards.
We expect this rare R.O.F Fazakerley L1A1 will end up in a large US Museum's collection somewhere.
USA Museum's are exempt from the 'The Firearm Owners' Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986 on the Ban automatic firearms' and do seem to 'hoover up' rare firearms from around the world.
We would prefer that this L1A1 stays in the UK
This is a Section one firearm so anyone in the UK with a section one FAC can own this rifle.
£4500.00
$5470.00
