Wrekin Rifle Range Target Gallery

A rifle range target gallery, dating from the early C20.

MATERIALS & PLAN: the target gallery forms part of a rifle range which is roughly rectangular, approached from the road at its northern end. The target gallery is set at the south-eastern end behind a raised martlet. The rear wall of the target gallery and the walls surrounding the target emplacement and trench are of brick, laid in English bond and Garden Wall bond with glazed, shaped capping bricks. Supports and the target frames are of iron, apparently originally painted blue.

The target end has a high martlet of earth with square timber baulks to its north-western (firing) side, which may originally have been covered by earth. Behind this the firing gallery has twelve iron target frames of the Hythe pattern, which retain some patches of their original blue paint, and which are set in a continuous frame trench. Iron brackets and T-shaped posts support the concrete gallery roof. The rear wall of the target gallery is of Garden Wall bond at its south-western end and English bond at the north-eastern end, which may mark the extension of the gallery at some time after the 1928 OS map was surveyed. Steps lead down from the gallery at its north-eastern end to a corrugated iron target store. The rear wall turns at right angles to face south-east at each end of the gallery and square timbers are set vertically above these flank walls to form a screen. Further to the south east is a sand bank which forms a stop butt and follows the rise of the hillside.