THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE - The Cissbury Rifle Range

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

The Rifle Range on the southern side of Cissbury Ring... looking north towards the butts. Artist unknown.

THE CISSBURY RIFLE RANGE

It seems that Cissbury Ring has always been a good place for shooting.....and not only the wildlife. As far back as 1898, the Findon artist, Edwin Douglas, had problems with bullets whizzing over his property, Fox Down. I assume during that era the soldiers were on the summit with their rifles, having not yet discovered the advantages of the southern coombe. See In The Line of Fire.

A little prize came to light in October 2007. John Linfield in Horsham alerted me to the photograph below taken pre 1906 at the Rifle Range...... and this is the earliest image I have been able to locate of the Rifle Range on the southern side of the Ring....

The Rifle Range looking northwards over a hundred years ago.

It appears that at least one of the men has pedalled by cycle to the range. I wonder who they were on that day? Let us get a little bit closer if we can.....

The participants appear to be at the 200 yard mark and a couple of them are on the ground at the back of the group (behind the man smoking the pipe) and taking aim.

.... and here are the ones in the far distance also taking aim at the targets....

The area is far more wooded today..... and I often scramble up the bank behind the targets — through tall trees.

Andrew Miles then emailed to me........."Brilliant, Valerie! It's odd that there were no bushes or trees back then (I would have thought the opposite).

Also the bikes a century ago were real "bone shakers" - it's amazing to think that someone actually cycled up to Cissbury.

They look like recreational target shooters and I would swear that one of them (nearest, standing) is using a muzzleloader (a gun that is loaded with powder and projectile from the top of the barrel)".

John J. Fisher in Worthing emailed in November 2007 ..."Here is a copy from a section of a Geographia Footpaths Map, not dated, but probably about late twenties.

Offington Park has not been developed and neither has Findon Valley nor the slopes of Salvington Hill.

The Rifle Range is shown with a broken line to the left. Is this supposed to indicate the length of the Range?"

1938 — a more detailed map of the area of the Rifle Range sent to me by Andrew Miles. He points out ... "This shows both the target area and 100 yard markings up to 600 yards along the range. It is interesting that in 1938 the Rifle Range was indicated as being "disused"..... I guess that no one realised then that once the Second World War got underway, this would dramatically change".

Here are two photographs of the Rifle Range in 1954 forwarded to me again by John J. Fisher. These show the steps down and the mechanisms for the targets used in 1944. John remembers that the "The walkway had wooden seats, since rotted, fixed to the brickwork on the right".

The broken, rusty roof indicates the general state of decay in 1954.

1st May 2007

Remains of Butts

Hi Valerie...There used to be at the northern end of the old Cissbury rifle range an elaborate brick and concrete structure which housed the mechanisms for winching targets up and down.

I remember in the 1970's exploring these old butts, which stretched 30 or 40 yards perpendicular to the axis of the range at roughly the location of the modern day fenceline.

The butts featured a submerged tunnel-like passage (well below the level where bullets would have whizzed overhead) and a square concrete underground bunker at one end. In the seventies these structures were quite decayed and overgrown with brambles and weeds. The bunker could only be appreciated by clambering through the stinging nettles and using a torch as it was always completey pitch dark in there (and rather spooky, too!) Various bent and rusty metal frameworks were also found, presumably the remains of the target holders that were suspended above the butts.
I'm not sure when the demolition occured, but when I explored the area in 2004 there was no sign of the old butts at all. All the structures had been either removed or bulldozed into the ground, and a sturdy fence placed across the area.

This April in 2007 Nigel and I returned to Cissbury Ring and we made a special visit to the old rifle range. How surprised I was to discover the last visible remnant of the butts - a section of brick wall half-buried in weeds, running parallel to the axis of the range and at right angles to the fenceline.

The two photos attached show what we found.

On the sloped ground behind the target area (towards Cissbury) we found numerous spent bullets, which we collected and photographed. An empty .303 case was also found. I will send you more photos and details of these finds shortly. Andrew

1st May 2007

Hi again Valerie, Here are some photos of the objects we found at the rifle range.

One shows a collection of spent .303 bullets, some in good shape, with an empty .303 cartridge on the right.

In one photo I have positioned a bullet with the empty so as to convey what a live round what look like.

A photo of the headstamp of the empty case is included. The date 1928 is visible, plus the Roman numerals VII, meaning this was a Mark VII round (I did some research!).

The fat-shaped bullet is from an automatic .45 calibre gun and in perfect condition. The rifling marks are easily visible.

I have other photos of some other relics, but I have to get them from my brother (I borrowed his camera). Andrew.

Andrew Miles, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

2nd May 2007

Hi Valerie, Here are two more photos for your archives, showing the various war-time bullets we found at the rifle range. In the line up, from left to right, the calibres and types are as follows: (Also indicated are the types of gun probably used for each one).

.303" pointed..........................Lee Enfield rifle, Bren gun
.303" round nose..................... " "
.45" FMJ (full metal jacket).......Automatic Colt pistol, Thompson SMG
9mm FMJ...............................Sten gun
.38" solid lead.........................Service revolver
.65" (approx) solid lead............?????

I'm sure that anyone interested in military history will find these interesting.

Many years ago I had the pleasure to fire a few rounds from a vintage 303 Lee Enfield rifle at a shooting range, which was extremely thrilling. At the time I easily imagined some young recruit lining up his sights for the first time at the Cissbury rifle range back in the "40s.

Well, Valerie, that's just about exhausted my rifle range subject! Next subject.......................I'm not sure. Hopefully I won't wear you out with my constant correspondence!! I'll try to keep a lid on it. Andrew.

Quick P. S. I've just thought that maybe some of your readers suspect that a metal detector was used to find all the objects (which is illegal, apparently).

It may come as a surprise, but all the bullets were found just lying on the surface of the ground. And here's a picture to prove how easy it was.

Those are my brothers and our nephew - I got everyone hooked on the pastime! Perhaps not many people know that this patch of ground on the southern slopes of Cissbury, at the end of the rifle range, is just laden with such relics.

Anyone with a keen eye poking about there, before the weeds take over, will find a bullet or two in no time. But I doubt whether many are interested in such oddities - afterall, little bits of metal found on the ground don't mean much unless you know what they are and what part of history they belong to.

As you know, Valerie, I love the little details of life and tend to become rather obsessed with them.

Right! - that's enough for now. I'm sure everytime you check you inbox and see more emails from me flooding in you think "that guy in Canada just can't stop. A.

Andrew Miles.

5th May 2007

Hi Valerie, I did a bit more research concerning the headstamp of that .303 cartridge case. The faint but discernable letters "D A C", meaning "Dominion Arsenal, Canada", are stamped above the numbers 19 and 28.

Inside the letter "C" is the tripod-shaped symbol of the War Department (see photos). I was researching obsolete .455 Webley cartridges when I stumbled upon this information. The Canadian origin of this cartridge makes a nice coincidence.

All the best. Andrew.

Andrew Miles.

In the autumn of 2007, I decided to include in my daily dog walk on Cissbury Ring, a search of the old Rifle Range. This was to find the residue of the foundations of the butts that Andrew had told me were still there.

So I set out on a bright and sunny October morning with just a bit of warmth in the cold air.

Fox Den Valley (so named by me because two years previously I had seen a fox laying outside its den here).

The Rifle Range with the shadows of early morn (looking south).

After crashing around in the undergrowth and clearing away the stinging nettles ..... at last, the hand made bricks of the original butts are revealed .......

Another word from Andrew...."Hi Valerie - The area, which you have aptly named Fox Den Valley, is not exactly "walker friendly" - I remember trying to penetrate the undergrowth and almost breaking a leg when my foot disappeared down a burrow.

Originally this area was behind the targets which means that the ground is full of spent bullets of many different calibres. You have already documented my bullet finds elsewhere on your website, but here's a photo of a .303 bullet as it appeared embedded in the earth before picking it up. It doesn't look like anything special and unless the eye knows what to look for it would be easily missed.

When you start poking around at the old rifle range, Valerie, you get me going. As you know this is one of my favourite places at Cissbury and like you - I get all excited about a few old bricks! It's fascinating to learn that they were handmade bricks - I wonder when they were laid down and what part of the butts they were originally part of? Andrew".

In November 2007 I heard from Anthony Crawshaw in York......"Dear Valerie Martin, I will try and attach 3 items to this e-mail. The first is a photo I took on 16/5/04 that tries to duplicate the view. The photograph remains my copyright.

The second is a very short, and necessarily incomplete, note about the history of rifle ranges, whilst the third is the record of my visit to the site. You will see from that that I think that there may well have been a second butt further up the hill, on the level where the present bridal path arcs round the head of the valley. In support of this, I note that the bridal path is not on the map shown on your web site, nor is it on the photograph of the shooters in action. Is the bridal path an adaptation of a path put in to serve the upper butt? Cissbury is of the type called a gallery range.

The bullets shown on your web site, from Andrew Mills of Canada, were interesting, in that they, like my finds, are firm evidence of WWII activity, and probably also of machine-gun use. In the first bullet photo the 6th. from the left is probably a tracer round, whilst the secventh from the left is definitely \'lend-lease\' ammunition from the USA or Canada.

The .45 ACP bullets are from either the Thompson sub-machine gun or a US service pistol and point to the use of the range either by the Home Guard or US forces, perhaps in pre D-Day training (The Home Guard were issued
with US arms initially).

The large plain lead bullet shown in the second photograph comes from an earlier gneration of rifles, which were muzzle-loaded, and is the first I know of from Cissbury. Up to now I had assumed that Cissbury was a replacement for the earlier Volunteer range on the beach at Worthing. There is a comment in your article on Edwin Douglas, of Fox Down, that suggests that there may have been one or more earlier ranges at Cissbury; a brief look on the north side of the ring during my visit did not show anything obvious. Such an earlier range may well have used rifles firing bullets
like the plain lead one. We would need a weight for the bullet, together with more dimensions, to be able to date it more exactly. I trust the above is of interest, Anthony Crawshaw

Here are Anthony's attachments ... although I haven't included his photograph ......

A brief history of rifle range development. Prior to the start of the Volunteer movement, in 1859 - 1860, ranges seem either to have been associated with barracks or created on an ad hoc basis, when and where required. The Volunteer movement created a considerable demand for target practice, leading to the creation of many ranges. Sometimes these ranges were later found to be unsuitable, so that a fresh location had to be found for the same military unit.

From about 1853 metal targets were introduced into use, which were thick plates of iron or steel, six feet high by two feet wide. The targets were made wider for shooting at longer ranges (often as great as one thousand yards) by lifting more plates into view. The impact of lead bullets on these target plates results in a central disc of lead and several flattened shards of lead, which can fly tens of yards from the target. These characteristic lead fragments are the most usual indicator of a range using metal targets.

Protection of those marking the targets from these lead fragments was a problem, initially solved by shelters to the side of the line of fire and some distance in front of the targets. Flags were used to indicate the score and location of the shot. Later the markers were given strong metal cabins right next to the targets or below them, when the shot was indicated direct on the target itself or on a dummy target.

There was a gradual movement away from metal targets towards the present wood and canvas ones, which change received a great impetus with the introduction of the .303 rifle in 1889. The faster .303 bullet resulted in worse fragmentation on hitting the metal targets, together with damage to the targets. Both of these problems were solved by wood and canvas targets, which were mounted on vertically moving frames. In turn, these frames and the markers were usually protected by a bank called a mantlet, although some ranges had the markers and frames sunk into a trench.

Initially shooting was done from a standing or kneeling position at most distances, only switching to a prone position at long range. At about the time of the introduction of the .303 rifle, tactics changed to emphasise prone shooting at all distances. This change was reflected in the design of ranges, which often now had firing point banks at all distances, by contrast to the earlier scarcity of such.

Dating of military bullets. The muzzle-loading Enfield rifle (0.577” calibre) was introduced in 1853 and the Snider breech-loading conversion of these rifles in 1866. The Snider was, in turn, replaced by the Martini-Henry rifle (0.45” calibre) in 1871. The .303 rifle was introduced in 1889 and the sharply-pointed design of .303 bullet was introduced in 1910. All of these dates refer to the introduction of the design into front line service; reserve troops, such as Volunteers, would receive the new design later. The .303 bullet was the first one to be made of lead with a copper alloy jacket, the earlier ones being lead or lead alloy without jackets.

Worthing/Cissbury Ring, ground check, 16/5/04. Approaching the site on the present bridleway, on the south-east side of the Ring, there appeared to have been a possible gallery butt, at the level of the bridleway, in the head of the valley. The shelf upon which the bridleway passes was wider, with different vegetation, exactly at right angles to the valley’s long axis. A collection of bullets, mostly jacketed and including one .45 ACP, was picked up from the slope above the would-be gallery. If this idea is correct, the present bridleway passes behind the former mantlet (bank protecting the markers and target equipment) and in front of the bullet strike area.
In the bottom of the valley were the remains of a probable gallery, with its own embanked bullet stop bank, now much reduced. There was no sign of a mantlet, so it might have been bulldozed into the target area, which was marked by different vegetation, mostly nettles. Alternatively there might have a subterranean marker’s trench, now filled in. There was a short length of engineering brick walling at the eastern end of the gallery area, parallel to the line of fire. This could have been the end wall of a target frame trench, or of a sunken gallery. Bullets picked up from the reduced stop butt were mostly jacketed, including one .45 ACP. Soil pH 7.1.

I examined the area of the sloping end of the valley, between the would-be upper and lower galleries, for bullet debris, with little success. Were the bullet debris found at the upper site to have originated from ricochets out of the lower butts then I would have expected to have found much more bullet remains between the two. I suspect that there were two butts, one above the other, i.e. the upper gave a longer range from the same firing point. The butt in the watercolour postcard held by DH is the lower one, at about TQ 143078. A 1” map, published in 1940, revised in 1933, marks the range with the butts at about the 380’ amsl level, whilst the upper butts would be at about 142 m. (466’) amsl, TQ 143080, from the 2003 mapping. The similarity of the bullet remains from both suggested similar periods of use. There was no clear sign of iron target use. No sign of firing points found.

We have seen some years of the military publication that listed ranges available to the Regular forces and the Volunteers. Cissbury is not listed as being available to the Regulars, but is given for the Volunteers. In 1903 Cissbury (number SE 38) is listed as having two targets at distances up to 800 yards. By 1913 Cissbury now had four targets and was numbered E 107. The last reference we have seen was in 1932, when the range had been reduced to 600 yards, but still with four targets and now numbered E 45.

The range may well have existed outside these dates – we have not found the relevant publications to be able to check. In particular, the situation was fluid in the Second World War, with there often being no documentary evidence for Home Guard or temporary ranges.

THE RIFLE RANGE in the frost early one November morning in 2007. The only targets on the Rifle Range...... were the grazing sheep....

Continue if you would like to read The Cissbury Ring Mystery with Warren Williams

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