A historic weapons enthusiast told a jury he believed a walking cane firearm he is accused of owning illegally dated from “the Sherlock Holmes era.”

Richard Bamford said he did not think the ‘flimsy’ weapon was in working order and he had never attempted to fire it.

Bamford, 38, is on trial at Bradford Crown Court charged with the illegal possession of a .410 shotgun disguised as a walking cane, the component parts of an old sawn-off shotgun and two CS gas canisters.

His case is that the guns are antiques that he did not need permission. The canisters were from a house clearance and had been left in a filing cabinet for years.

The jury has been told that the weapons were seized by police when they searched the Bamford family home at Model Farm, Toftshaw Lane, near East Bierley, Bradford. Officers were called to the property by Bamford on April 10 last year because of a dispute with his father, Allan Bamford.

Bamford, now of Brookfield View, Cleckheaton, told the jury yesterday he had no criminal convictions or cautions and had held a shotgun licence since the early 1990s. He fell out with his father in 2010 and they no longer spoke.

Bamford said he had collected military memorabilia since he was a boy, out of respect for the men who fought in the First and Second World Wars and because three of his relatives had been in the armed services.

He never sold any items from his extensive collection and he hoped to open a museum one day.

Bamford said his father bought the walking cane firearm, from 1893 to 1924, and it was moved from his former bedroom at the farmhouse into the Gatehouse where he began living in 1998 after his parents divorced.

“I thought it was from the Sherlock Holmes type era. I did not think it was in working order. I kept it as a curiosity,” he said.

The sawn-off shotgun and the canisters were from a flat clearance. The gun, from the 1800s, used to be in his bedroom.

The court has heard that the hammers and firing pin are missing and only one barrel is viable.

Bamford told the court that the fact he had a shotgun licence made him more law-abiding.

He used guns for clay pigeon shooting. The police had been to the farm many times to renew his licence and they inspected decommissioned weapons in his collection of military memorabilia.

The jury is expect to retire to consider its verdicts on Monday.