"The wall that was demolished in 1991 and is referred to as the target wall was not 200yrs old. All records and press items show the wall to be part of a 30 yard safety rifle range which was constructed mainly in 1910 with final adjustments in 1913. The old Volunteer Rifle Range that was built by the Volunteer Forces (which formed in 1859/60 and went on to become the 2nd Volunteer Battalion Sherwood Foresters) was closed by 1899 on the orders of the War Office. This earlier range had its target area in the same vicinity as the 30 yard safety range was to be built
The Chapel Volunteers of 1804 were disbanded in 1809 and became part of the local militia. William Braylesford Bunting covers the volunteer movement in reasonable detail in his book "CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE" on pages 347 and 348.
From 1899 Chapel-en-le-Frith was without a rifle range until a Drill Hall was built. The Drill Hall with War Office approved miniature rifle range opened on Market Street in 1907, again the Buxton Advertiser kept us updated on the fundraising progress and eventual opening of the Drill Hall.
The Buxton Advertiser in April 1910 confirmed that a new 30 yard safety rifle range was also to be constructed at Chapel-en-le-frith and the old stone butts from the first range would be demolished and used in the construction of the new range. The wall in the new range was not to carry targets but to stop stray bullets and ricochet.
In 1991 an article appeared in the Buxton Advertiser where a few facts were mixed up and has been the source of some 'local legends' ever since.
The line of vision from the school steps to the original butts was not clear and therefore it would have been unsafe to take the shot. The 800yd marker of the old range was visible from the school steps and it could be possible that this marker was mistaken for a target by an onlooker but it is very unlikely that the designated range warden would sanction shooting other than from the rifleman's allocated marker and toward the target area. It would not count toward their drill and as ammunition was limited and the activity unsafe in terms of public safety I can only think there is little or no fact behind this tale.
The photographs on the website show the wall to consist of three sections initially but only two sections remained in the decades before it was demolished in 1991. I would be interested to know what happened to the third section which appears to have been removed by the 1950's?
There is a good amount of press coverage of the activities of the local Territorial Forces and the closure of rifle ranges and the amending of or building new ones during the 1900 to 1913 time period was regularly included.
The town of Chapel-en-le-Frith has actually had three rifle ranges but from 1900 the volunteers had to travel to Edale, Bakewell and Combs for practise on longer ranges in order to complete their musketry training
The old-maps website has an extensive collection of maps and it is possible to see the progress of the Volunteer Rifle Range on the 1883 and 1899 maps. The OS maps of the 1920's show the 30 yard safety range as an oblong and has no reference to the old range".
Liz is also researching the Chapel-en-le-Frith Drill hall and its ranges and would any help that readers might be able to provide. She may be contacted through this website and would also be happy to answer any queries on these subjects.
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Our booklet "Chapel-en-le-Frith in 1940 caught the attention of one observant buyer, Pete Goddard.
Despite attempts by the Parish Council to obtain a preservation order, the wall was demolished in 1991's by the landowner who deemed it unsafe.
The wall is barely visible in the original photograph. When we zoom in at high resolution it becomes a little clearer.
Thanks to Robin Sharp for allowing us to reproduce his photograph of the wall just before it was demolished. Robin can be seen in the picture, the young buy with a dog.
The booklet Chapel-en-le-Frith 1940: Photographs from the albums of Eric Young is available from the History Society price £2.00 plus postage. An Kindle ebook version can be downloaded from Amazon price £2.00 http://amzn.to/1bJwJUP
A collection of photographs from the albums of Eric Young, formerly of
Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. The pictures depict the town suffering
from a heavy fall of snow in January 1940. In the following summer,
volunteers parade on the town's cricket ground.
This is a collection of over 40 historic photographs.
These photographs accompany the comments below by Liz McCormick
In summer (2022) I was contacted by Frank Gaskell and David Belfield of Chapel-en-le-Frith who wished to share a selection of bullets with me, the bullets had been collected by Mr Guy Williams from the area where the Target Wall once stood. Mr Williams will be known to some for his time as a scout master and his grandson who now lives in the family home had passed the bullet collection to Frank.
ReplyDeleteWhat I initially expected to be a reasonable number of bullets turned out to be a hoard which weighed in at 1.7kg approximately.
The largest portion of the collection is Martini-Henry (M-H) bullets most of which had missed the target but there are some "coins" which are the result of hitting the metal plate (target) that sat in front of the wall. Bullets that hit the metal target disintegrated into hundreds of unrecognisable small pieces of lead splinters or ‘splash’. The majority of the bullets found are the result of ‘misses’, projectiles which hit and then stuck in the ground near the target. Some have a ‘mushroomed’ tip, while others may have hit a stone and deformed, and some have managed to survive almost completely intact.
Lead ‘coins’ are generated when the M-H bullet hits the iron target, it’s the bit of lead which does not splash into minute lead pieces, this is because during impact it is in contact with and briefly sticks to the iron plate, before gravity takes over and it falls to the ground.
The smaller portion of the collection consists of Snider bullets, again mainly those that missed the target but there are some examples that have hit the target.
Unusually Mr Williams managed to collect some plugs, these are made of wood or clay and are not easy to find as they drop away from the bullet.
The .450” calibre Martini–Henry bullets are from the 1870s & 80s whilst the Snider bullets are of .577” calibre and earlier.
The hoard of bullets is substantial but does lack examples of later bullets and whilst there are a few oddments that date to the early 1900s it is noticeable that they are few in number.
There is only one .303” calibre bullet which possibly gives an insight into the range’s use as a 30yd range from 1910s.
Unlike the earlier iron target range, the 30-yard range with its canvas targets allowed all bullets to survive in some form, as they all ended up in the backstop (a bank of earth in front of the wall). After a number of rounds had been fired into it, this earth bank would have been ‘de-leaded’. In other words, the spent bullets had to be sieved out of it. This was a safety precaution, as bullets in the sand, if struck by another bullet, can cause ‘back-splash’, i.e. the firer could be hit by his own bullet deflected from the sand. This is one possible explanation of why only one.303” bullet has been found so far, another is that there is a hoard of them waiting to be shared and a third is that very few where fired.
Frank, David and myself are grateful for the help given by Bill Flentje in identifying the bullets and explaining how they reflected the use of various rifles and of the iron target plates and the role of the area around the wall
Apologies but the weight of the lead bullets was 3st 13lb 4oz which I believe does not convert to 1.7kg, there is just over 25kg of bullets in this hoard.
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