Totley Rifle Range: the Return
A 1937 map showing detail of the firing range and the many firing points. The map abruptly cuts off at the left side because this is a Yorkshire map and Derbyshire can get its own damned maps. So, yes, part of Totley Rifle Range is in Derbyshire.
Last month, I wrote a post about Totley Rifle Range, a range in the South-West of Sheffield that was in operation between 1901 and 1997. In that blog, I collected together a large number of historical pictures of the range in use to contextual my own photographs, and in doing so, I realised there were a lot of things I’d missed (or not bothered to explore) on my trip, so I resolved to return that same weekend and see what could still be found. If you’ve not already read or scanned through that post, you definitely should before you return to this one.
Strangely, this second trip was soundtracked by rifle fire from somewhere on the farmland to the North.
Click on any image to enlarge it.
First off, we went in search of the 900 yard firing point. It’s just over the fence from Lane Head Road, almost at the intersection with Baslow Road (A621). There wasn't much to see of the firing point itself, though we could feel the large stones it was once comprised of. Here I am, uncomfortably standing in front of it and looking towards where the targets would have been. Can you see them? (Answer in next picture.)
The targets are unfathomably far away. (I think the place I’ve put them in the photo above is actually on the 100 yard point, but in my defence, I was trying to work it out on my tiny phone screen. I’ll correct this at some point.) It turns out that 900 yards is quite far (almost 823 metres, in fact). In front of the targets, you can see the stretch of range that isn’t yet completely overgrown. Equally unfathomably, a footpath cuts through the hillside behind the targets. It’s a wonder that the range made it until 1997. (Edit: some kind person in the comments has informed me that there was no live ammunition used, so perhaps that’s why. I know nothing about guns or ammunition!)
A map of the area from 1909. The footpath can be clearly seen on the left of this map, running mostly parallel with the 900 feet contour, around the side of the interestingly named Brown Edge. This image also shows how the 700, 800 and 900 yard firing points, close to the road, just sneak into the boundaries of the range.
Looking back at the 900 yard firing point, you can see just how close it is to the intersection. While I doubt many people would be firing from here, it’s still bafflingly close to civilian life and passers by (though there would certainly have been far fewer when the range was first set up).
We found the gate for the 800 yard firing point, but couldn’t locate any stones indicating where it was. It was even next to impossible to figure out where there might have been a clear view to the targets given all the tree growth. I expect the firing point is probably concealed within a copse, but it was so thick with nettles and shrubs that we didn’t bother looking. Maybe we’ll return in Winter, when it’s more accessible.
We did, however, find the 700 yard firing point. As with the other long range points, it was close to the road and even has its own gate.
It looks ramshackle in its construction, but it’s quite sturdy. I’ve no idea how many people could have fired from here at the same time.
It’s beautifully rustic and barely looks out of place. Presumably, people lay down on top to fire, as they did at the closer points, because they probably weren’t trying to shoot over the tops of shrubs…
The view from on top of the firing point: at least twenty-three years of thicket. There does seem to be a sliver of an unobstructed view of grassland though.
From the 700 yard point, we went back onto the road and down to the firing range via what used to be the canteen - that’s the long structure near the middle of the map below.
A 1923 map showing the whole firing range, as well as the path of the Totley Tunnel and its regular air shafts and hills made from the excavated earth.
The original steps up to the canteen, which has since been replaced by a stone building that (I think) still belongs to the TA (which absorbed the Hallamshire Rifles).
The range is very pretty. Here, we’re looking up towards the targets, with Brown Edge and its footpath behind. I had assumed that the tracks were from other visitors or dog walkers, but they’re actually made by different creatures . . . (to be revealed later).
I had been hoping to find bullets on this trip, but this was just bizarre. This was the sight I came across at the 600 yard firing point: two bullet casings on a mole hill. Thank you, mole archaeologist!
I hadn’t even been sure that this was definitely the 600 yard firing point until spotting these. This is the younger of the bullets (I think). I kicked through ever other mole hill thereafter, but the two that had been on display were the only ones I found.
At the 500 yard firing point, we found part of the communications relay.
And then we saw the rifle range residents. A huge stag walked out in front of us, followed by a female deer, followed by their smaller relative (the only one I got a video of). Suddenly, the types of poo I’d seen made sense. I really like the fact that deer have now reclaimed a rifle range.
Another communications socket, this time in a worse state. I think it was at the 300 yard point.
On the right, the thicket of trees grows near, signalling the end of the range. On the left, the heather is charming.
Looking back down the range. On the horizon, you can see Norton water tower. To the right of the house there’s a sliver of grass: that’s the location of the 900 yard firing point.
We approached the target setting shelters from the left side of the range. It’s extremely overgrown, but the Danger signs tell you you’re in the right place.
The holey roof of the store. This is the end of the long more modern shelter.
The steps up from the store. It was so overgrown round the side that we couldn’t get round to the shelters this way and had to walk up to the stop butts instead.
The stop butts stretch far into the distance.
I knew many people had been here with metal detectors, but I brought a rusty trowel along just in case I could find something. Reader, I didn’t.
The long gallery. The paint cans are everywhere. The only indication that target setters lurked here are the strange gutter on the right, and the strange object up ahead.
Judging by the wiring that still connects this to the wall, this was part of the communications system rather than anything to do with the targets themselves.
A close-up of those electrical bits.
I’m guessing these were the original stop butts (as they’re opposite the older target setting shelter), which is probably why there’s so much more greenery here: it’s just an earth bank instead of gravel. The railway sleeper wall is riddled with bullet holes and also marks where people have tried (perhaps successfully) to gouge the bullets out.
These sheets of veneer sit over the railway sleepers (perhaps at each joint). This one was sitting free, probably removed by someone looking to dig out the bullets behind it. Someone who knows stuff about guns and bullets could probably tell you things about the weapons and ammunition that caused these holes, just from looking at this sheet. I, however, cannot.
The wall of the ‘safe zone’. Atmospheric.
But less good for retaining paint.
The textures are great though.
The trusty map (though I wish I’d spent some time looking at the ‘real’ old maps before we went) and my bullet casing haul.
The markings on the bottom of the newer bullet casing match one of these: RG 09 L18A1. This tells me that it’s a training blank that was manufactured at Radway Green ordnance factory, yet puzzlingly in 2009. Was someone firing blanks at Totley Rifle Range over a decade after it shut down? If so, I’m glad they were blanks. The other bullet casing unearthed by the mole is larger - its base is almost 13mm in diameter - but so rusted that there’s no other information. I’d even have to guess its length due to part of it having rusted away, but I’m sure it’s still possible to identify.
If anyone has access to a metal detector and wants to head back out there, let me know! I’d like to see how many bullets and casings of different eras are embedded in the ground up there.
Links
This post will make a lot more sense if you look through the images on my first post about Totley Rifle Range.
Old Maps Online is one my favourite resources. It’s useful and intuitive and lovely.
The range on a 1939 map. The Derbyshire boundary juts diagonally through the 100 to 200 yard points. The dangerous footpath that goes right through the red flag areas can also be clearly seen here.
