dandydany, I have found many old Winchesters as well as other firearms with that leather "washer" you mentioned installed. A lot of oldtimers installed them to change the "tension" or "fulcrum" point on a spring thereby giving a lighter or heavier tension depending on where it was installed and what was needed. I have seen a lot of springs that had been "doctored" as mentioned above and the washer was added to try and bring back the "original" tension. Be aware that when you order parts for a Webley from Numrich, you are getting "used" parts taken out of usually, well worn guns. It has been my experience that you often times need to order 6 or 8 of the same part in order to get one that has "less" wear than "your" part! This gets "expensive" to say the least. I used to call them first and hope that the guy handling the call would be "willing" to sort through the parts and get a "good" one for me and put it aside for "my" order. Sometime the guy would do this and other times not! It's a "crap" shoot when ordering "used" parts! That's why I recommend shooting the gun "as is" as long as it is functioning ok and safely!...............Dick
