On September 10, 2017, a father and son magnet fishing team—Neil and Billy Hopkins—pulled a massive cache of degraded firearms and components from the Kingsweston Sluice along Grey Lake near Street in Somerset, UK.
The recovery yielded over 30 separate weapon assemblies, including World War II-era infantry weapons, Cold War assault rifles, and submachine gun receivers. Subsequent follow-up operations conducted by the Avon and Somerset Police Underwater Search Unit recovered dozens of additional components, raising the total number of weapon fragments retrieved from the site (including a prior 2015 recovery by local children) to over 100 firearms.
1. Tactical Incident Breakdown
- Date of Recovery: September 10, 2017 (Publicly Reported September 12, 2017)
- Location: Kingsweston Sluice / Grey Lake, River Cary tributary system near Street, Somerset, United Kingdom
- Recovery Method: High-strength Neodymium magnet fishing & police underwater search operations
- Discoverers: Neil Hopkins & Billy Hopkins (Local residents) / Avon and Somerset Police Dive Team
- Items Recovered: 30+ major weapon assemblies (Initial Magnet Find) | 80+ additional components (Police Dive Operations)
- Material State: Severely corroded, partial assemblies, stripped receivers, and demilled or heavily degraded barrels/stocks.
- Legal/Safety Disposition: Handed over to Avon and Somerset Police for ballistics examination, render-safe clearing, and eventual disposal under UK firearms legislation.
2. Identified Firearms Matrix & Typology
Analysis of the recovered components revealed an unusually diverse, cross-era collection spanning World War II, Cold War, and modern arms:
[WWII Era Arms] ──► [Cold War / Modern Assault Rifles] ──► [Specialized Submachine Guns / Light Machine Guns]
- StG-44 - Kalashnikov AK-47 / AKM - Bren Light Machine Gun
- Lee-Enfield No. 4 - Colt M16 / AR-15 Platforms - M1919A6 Light Machine Gun
- M1 Garand - PARA FAL Folding Stock Variant - MAT-49 SMG Lower Receiver
- MG42 - Czech Vz. 25 SMG - Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)Visual Identifications & Hybrid Mock-ups
During initial handling, the discoverers attempted to fit mismatched components together, creating several misidentified hybrid configurations before police surrender:
- “AK-Lee-Enfield” / “StG-BAR” Hybrids: Incompatible receivers and buttstocks wedged together (e.g., StG-44 receiver mated to a BAR stock; Bren gun barrel aligned with M1919 receiver components).
- Cold War Assault Components: Lower assemblies, buffer tubes, and stocks from Colt M16/AR-15 variants alongside FN FAL (PARA) folding stocks and French MAT-49 submachine gun housings.
3. Provenance & Origin Analysis
| Theory | Context & Expert Evaluation |
| World War II Surplus / Local Factory Dumping | Unlikely as a primary source. While WWII arms (Lee-Enfield, StG-44, Bren) were present, the heavy inclusion of post-1945 designs (MAT-49, Vz. 25, M16, AR-15) rules out a 1940s military dump. |
| Paramilitary / IRA Cache | Unlikely. Local police initially speculated potential paramilitary connections, but the wide variety of obsolete and mixed-caliber historical weapons does not match standard paramilitary logistics patterns. |
| Illegal Private Collection Disposal (Primary Hypothesis) | Most Probable. The diverse collection of select-fire assault rifles, submachine guns, and antique bolt-action rifles strongly points to an illicit private collection. As UK firearms laws tightened (e.g., Firearms (Amendment) Acts of 1988 and 1997), the owner likely dumped the collection into the rural sluice to avoid prosecution. |