Former Target Wall And Firing Butts

The former target wall and firing butts, built around 1800, served as a firing range for the local militia, the Belper Volunteer Battalion, established by the Strutt family, who were instrumental in the textile industry in Belper and Milford. The target wall, dated 1800, is a tall, tapering structure that measures approximately 25 metres long and 5 metres high, constructed from coursed squared gritstone with a heavy flat gritstone coping. Aligned northeast to southwest, the wall is accompanied by a group of five regularly spaced rectangular coursed stone firing butts or platforms, with the first located about 150 metres from the wall and spaced every 25 metres thereafter. The range was utilized during the Napoleonic Wars, and again in 1860, during the Boer War and the First World War. This site is significant as it reflects the role of local militias in the national defense strategy of the early 19th century and is a rare surviving example from that period.