Monument record MDR9825 - Rifle Range, North Lane, Chevin, Milford

Site is shown on late 19th century OS maps as 'Rifle Range', with 'Marker's Butt' and 'Flagstaff' at the west end of the range. (1, 2) Ashlar target wall with two stone/earth butts. There are steps to the flat top wall. The Rifle Range on the Chevin was known as The Battery Wall. It was built in 1803 for musket practice by the Belper Militia, raised by Lt Colonel Strutt, in readiness for Napoleon's expected invasion. It has not been used since. (3) The former firing range is a Grade II structure built circa 1800 with the target wall dated 1800. The range is comprised of a tall tapering target wall, aligned north east-south west, approximately 25 metres long and 5 metres high. The wall is built of coursed squared gritstone, with a heavy flat gritstone coping. To the south east of the wall are a group of five regularly spaced rectangular coursed stone firing butts or platforms, the first being approx 150 metres from the wall, and spaced every 25 metres thereafter. The firing range was built for the local militia, The Belper Volunteer Battalion, raised by the Strutt family who established the textile factory communities at Belper and Milford. Lt. Cl. Joseph Strutt was the battalion commander. The range was used during the Napoleonic Wars, and again in 1860, during the Boer War and the First World War. The firing range is important evidence of the part played by local militias in the national defence strategy of the early 19th century, and is a rare survival of the period. (4)