 The Rifle Range on the southern side of Cissbury Ring... looking north towards the butts. By Hugh Warren Williams (1860-1941). |
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
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The Rifle Range on the southern side of Cissbury Ring... looking north towards the butts. By Hugh Warren Williams (1860-1941). |
THE CISSBURY RIFLE RANGE
Copyright Valerie Martin 2010
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....
It appears that at least one of the men has pedalled by cycle to the range. I wonder who they were on that day?
 click to enlargeThe Rifle Range looking northwards over a hundred years ago. 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. |
The area around the actual butts 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)".
 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". |
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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.
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
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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
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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
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.
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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.
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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 .......
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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.
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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".
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THE RIFLE RANGE in the frost early one November morning in 2007. The only targets on the Rifle Range...... were the grazing sheep.... |
Just prior to Christmas 2010 I came across another vintage photograph looking down the Rifle Range from the ramparts of Cissbury Ring (looking towards the sea). Date unknown. It could be a contester for being the oldest pictorial evidence of the Range. Here are some clues..... tell me what you think........
What is the strange triangular marking on the floor of the rifle range? (There may even be two of these, one behind each other If this is something to do with the range, it must mean that the photograph is of some antiquity?
The hillside to the left of the range is much more wooded than I have ever seen it...... leaving me to believe the picture was taken many years ago.
The slew-off path from the main track (still in use today) is no longer visible. I wonder what this cutting could have been in the past?
Bruce Elston in Botswana emailed...."Marks at the range: Presumably the two "horizontal" lines / objects are firing points at set distances from the butts and targets.
The butts, I presume were more or
less directly below the point at which the picture was taken.
Having fired their group of rounds the riflemen would then walk from the firing
points to look at their targets. If the firing points were fairly steep or high
they would naturally tend to walk from behind and around the ends towards the
butts which over time would produce the two worn paths converging at the nearer
firing point and then on to the butts.
Best I can dream up.
Regards, Bruce".
I told Bruce that the butts were (and the remains still are) directly below the point at which the photographer was standing.
Below is a spectacular aerial of the Rifle Range site on the southern slopes of Cissbury Ring in 2010...... you will note that I have given the track the title of Chalk Track.... this is not the official name and will not be found on any maps (except mine)...
click to enlarge pictures
Katie gives us a nice view straight down the old Rifle Range in the spring 2011.
Continue if you would like to read The Cissbury Ring Mystery with Hugh Warren Williams
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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Do let me know of anything you hear about Findon - not too controversial. Please note that opinions expressed in the Findon Chronicles are not necessarily reflective of my own thoughts.... but sometimes they are! |
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