Interesting but little- known backstory on Glenn Baker, Woodcock Hill and the c. 1970s influx of fine English guns into the US:
As sporting clays slowly took hold here, more and more people began to appreciate fine English guns and looked for specialty shops and especially importers to bring individual guns into the US, Woodcock Hill became a focal point in the trade. Glenn had a close friend named Bill Moravek who lived in Fairfax VA and had accompanied Glenn shooting in Great Britain and also helped organize small shooting parties for trips there for both driven and walk-up shooting.
Moravek and his son Bill Jr. owned and ran a small but high-end "boutique" style camera store in downtown Washington DC that sold quality cameras but also specialized in film processing and developing. I had dropped a role of 35 MM film off for developing that documented a railbird shoot in NJ for use in an article for the DGJ. When I came to pick up the prints, Bill Sr. interrogated me like a "person of interest" in a homicide case: "Where were these shot? How do you hunt them? What special gear do you need? What gun? What gauge? What size shot? How do I get to go?" My brother and I wound up booking our guides again for another hunt and took Bill Sr. along. We became close friends and hunted grouse and woodcock behind his GWPs for several years.
After Bill Sr. sold the photography business to his son, he opened an absolute little jewel of a gun shop in one of the small storefronts on main street in Leesburg VA, simply calling it 'Nimrod'. It was sort of an Abercrombie & Fitch in miniature; fine sporting art on the walls, overstuffed leather chairs for lounging, a small alcove for handling and examining the many fine British doubles in his inventory. It quickly became the focal point for merchandise and knowledge in the gun trade in the area.
The shop flourished for 5 or 6 years and of course I became a frequent visitor. One day I got a phone call from Bill Sr. asking me how I was then telling me, "Well, I have good and bad news for you. What do you want to hear first?" I told him the good news first; he said, "If you come over here in the next 3 days, I'll sell you whatever you want (guns excluded, of course) at my cost plus 10%." I asked him, "What's the bad news"? He said, "I'm closing the shop and moving to Florida. I met a woman from Wisconsin that I've been dating that has a nice home in Defuniak Springs down there and she says she wants to marry me. So I'm closing the shop and will run 'Nimrod' online and out of our home there."
A few days later my brother and I went over and bought his gun safe, some 2 1/2" British ammo and I bought a couple of pieces of nicely-framed wildlife art from the store's decor. I corresponded with Bill briefly for a year or so and saw Glenn a couple of times at large outdoor expo-type shows in northern VA and at Harrisburg PA. When I went up to Woodcock Hill a few years ago for a gun fitting, Glenn seemed particularly preoccupied and distant, and handed me off to one of his assistants. When I mentioned Glenn's demeanor to him, he told me that on the recent return trip of their last shoot in Great Britain, that Bill Moravek had collapsed and died while going through customs at JFK airport. He added, "I don't think he's ever gotten over it."
RIP to two of the best and most knowledgeable people I ever knew in the field of fine arms.
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