18/03/2022
Sarisbury Rifle Club History
The beginning……………………………………
Solent Home Guard (44) Rifle Club was formed in 1944 by some of the members of the local Home Guard (Dad’s Army) when the Home Guard was disbanded. The range was then situated at the Drill Hall in Park Gate. There is still a range there but now comprises an underground ‘tunnel’ formed by concrete sections. We consulted Bill Kimish Jnr. who informed us that the founder members included Eric Moody, Captain George Taylor and Gordon May. Early members were Bob Snelgar, Jim Snelgar, Jack Wilding, Ted Gardner and Bert Sawyer. Captain George Taylor was the club Secretary as you can see from the notice board and letter head below. You will note that the club was also affiliated to the NRA. This letterhead was used after the move to Sarisbury in 1952 but before the change of club name which did not take place until 1955.
We do not have good records of the early period but we do know that the club regularly used Browndown for full bore shooting and in 1949/50 attended there 8 times. There was also a Trophy called the Donegal Badge which appears to be for a combination of Full bore and small-bore competition There is no record of this today.
It seems the club had rifles ‘on loan’ from the TA – quite if that was in order is not clear.
Captain Mackie, an early stalwart, died in an horrific episode in the Isle of Wight, whilst trying to save his son when he got into difficulties in the water. A trophy was instituted to remember him and is still in place today.
Lt.Col. Hogben also gave a trophy which was destined to become the annual Club Champion award.
The notice board above was found in 1989 when the current range was being re-built and extended. It was under several generations of carpeting – it seems that members all took their redundant carpet and put it in the range to uplift the comfort therein??????????? The board was taken away and re-furbished by Alan Purser.
Regrettably we have no other knowledge of this era and must, therefore, fast forward to 1951.
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The local family, De Selincourt, had given a piece of land to the people of Sarisbury for a Community Centre – this being where the Centre stands today. They, in turn, leased a portion of the land to be used for a Rifle Club and hence the Solent Rifle Club moved to the present site. The name was changed to the Sarisbury & District Rifle Club, as far as can be ascertained, in 1955.. We only have one member who knows the background and we are indebted to Bill Kimish for his knowledge.
The President was Colonel Spencer –Smith and Vice Presidents Reg Moody, Alan Moody and Dr. Mackie. The latter three gentlemen financed the building of the new range built on the current site in 1951 and opened in 1952.
A two point range was built comprising blocks of a mixture of concrete and sawdust for the walls and a solid concrete wall behind the butt area. The main walls and the butt wall were additionally supported by buttresses of concrete suitably reinforced with angle iron (ex bedsteads) and any other material which could be ‘found’. The roof was ‘big 6’ asbestos sheets which remained in place until the re-build in 1989. To the side was a clubroom some 3 metres wide and 8 metres long. Within this clubroom was built an armoury and general safekeeping arrangements for the equipment.
These photos show Bill Kimish Sen. and Jim Snelgar laying the first block
The range was opened for use on 26th April 1952 with the ceremony being performed by Mrs De Selincourt with other local enthusiasts being in attendance. There are many at this opening whom we are unable to identify but those we can are:
Mrs W Moore, Miss M Moore (now Mrs Mary Maiden), Colonel Spencer-Smith
Mr Bill Kimish Snr and his wife Sybil , Mrs Kimish Jnr. Dr Mackie.
It seems this was quite a day for the club and well attended by local enthusiasts. The opening ceremony was performed by Mrs De Selincourt after being presented with the key by Miss Angela Moody.
Most of the work was carried out by the club members albeit they had great difficulty in ‘obtaining’ materials for the work. Emphasis had been placed on re-building housing for the population and ‘leisure’ activity was not considered to be important. However by one means or another materials were ‘found’ and the job completed. It is important to realise that achieving anything at this time was due to people’s efforts – nothing was handed out and no-one expected it to be any other way, a little different to today!
The first shot was fired by Mrs De Selincourt with Col.Spencer-Smith in attendance.
The Club became affiliated to the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs (now the National Small-Bore Rifle Association) and is Club No. 790. The local Society was the Southampton & District Rifle Association and also the Hampshire Small-Bore Rifle Association and membership of these organisations continues to this day. An early member is Peter Lutman who joined the club in 1963 and was Secretary from 1967 until 1971 when it was taken over for a short while by J Titmus. In 1972 Andrew Sculpher succeeded to the post and he continued for some 34 years until May 2006. We have complete documentation during the period when Peter and Andrew were Secretary but very little earlier.
The Club lease was granted in 1951 and continues for 99 years.
The writer first shot on the Sarisbury range in 1954 at the age of 15 (when he shot for Hedge End RC) but knows no other details. He simply remembers that the club was no more inviting than other clubs in the Southampton area. Every club seemed to be content with minimal facilities and little or no heating. At Sarisbury heating was with paraffin heaters and egg boxes around the walls as a form of insulation. He left the shooting fraternity in 1960 and did not join the club until 1986. There had been little or no change to the club building in the intervening 26 years! Another member, David Cleeve, had joined in 1971 and remains a member to this day.
There is a lack of clarity about the club activities in the 60’s and 70’s but we do know that Bill Stubbington, our President joined early in July 1973 and that the club was affiliated to the Hampshire and Southampton Associations during that time. Bill, Arthur Coleman, David and Monica Gray and Brian Martin all joined Sarisbury when the Dowding and Doll Rifle Club became defunct. David and Monica moved away in 1985 but Arthur remained until his retirement in about 2004. Bill stayed to the end, as our Club President for many years, until he had a heart attack and succumbed to pneumonia in April 2013.
The photo shows left to right..
Ron Heasell, Bill Stubbington, David Gray, Andrew Sculpher, Arthur Coleman and Jim Kilner
It is interesting that several clubs ceased to exist in the area over the period namely, Hedge End in 1960 when the land on which the range stood was sold for building. Similarly the Bishops Waltham Club, Curdridge Club, Briggs Motor Bodies, Alexandra, Ordnance Survey also disappeared during the period. The writer, who started his shooting experience at Hedge End can also remember shooting at Curdridge when the only form of lighting was by acetylene lamps. Can you imagine it…………………
In the archives there is also reference to ‘Strachans Rifle Club’ and the ‘Plessey Rifle Club’. If anyone has information on these it would be welcomed. Find info to insert here – speak PeterL Bill S and David CCarry on from here……………………
Reference to
A vast change took place in 1987 after the new Committee was elected in May of that year.
The club had languished for many years with no enthusiasm at all to progress the club or bring it into the 20th century. The club room was no different when the writer joined the club in 1986 to that which he had last seen in 1960. At that time it was a two point range with the range dropping over a metre between the firing point and the butts. The range was covered in old discarded carpeting and was in no way in a condition to encourage newcomers to look upon the club as a pleasant place in which to learn the sport.
At the first Committee Meeting following the AGM in 1987 a proposal was put forward to update the club, particularly the clubroom, and for this an amount of £250 was agreed to do the work. What followed was just the tip of the iceberg when compared with the work carried out over the next two or three years.
The clubroom was fully battened and lined with a fibreboard to partially insulate and to give a sound surface to paint and generally brighten the place up. The two windows in the clubroom were bricked up such that access was made more difficult. A new electric cable was run from the Centre to the club (the existing cable was run over the roof and was not able to satisfactorily cope with the demand) and in the same trench a gas and water supply was also laid. The heating to date had been paraffin heaters (until mobile gas heaters were donated by one of the members) and the gas supply allowed of a considerable update to the comfort for members and visitors. One member, David Yerbury, supplied a second hand domestic warm air heater which was cannibalised, removing the domestic water heater, such that warm air heating could be used for the clubroom allowing the mobile units to be used in the range. This heater is still in place and serving the club very well.
Over the winter season 1988/89 the club had to endure many comments from visiting clubs about the work including, of course, many who expressed their appreciation. As said above, this was just the beginning. Ideas were now being actively discussed on improving the range facilities. Many hours were spent deciding the way forward with the outcome being that sketch plans were made to increase the range from two firing points to four or five. Clearly this would take some financing and a general design and costs were sought. This resulted in an estimate of £19000 which was always a non-starter.
Subsequently it was agreed that if this was to go ahead we would have to do the work ourselves. A brief was given to a local architect and a design produced. Budget costs were sought from suppliers and the plans submitted to the Fareham Borough Council. Agreement was reached and we then had something positive to address.
Within the club there were various trades and expertise which could be tapped. This is not the time to name names as subsequently most members did what they could to assist the progress of the work.
27th December 1988
On 27th December 1988, after getting the agreement for our design from the Community Centre (our landlords) the building area was cleared and prepared for the new build to start. This happened on 1st April 1989 and, as can be seen, from the following photos taken during the work, proceeded until the middle of July at which time the integrity of the ‘old’ range was breached and the range closed.
This photo taken on 8th April 1989 shows Colin Heasell urging on the workers to get the concrete into the footings ready for the Surveyor on Monday morning. His son, Jonathan, was also full of energy and helped enormously.
The footings were fine and then the building really started. The work continued apace and from 1st April until the range was re-certified at the end of September only one weekend was not fully utilised due to the club representing Hampshire in the Astor Trophy Competition. Our wives had begun to think we had left home except for the remnants of their husbands arriving back each Sunday evening.
May 1989
Mid June 1989
Work continued at a fairly brisk pace and the range building completed externally over the next two months. In July the original range was breached and we were out of business. Over the next two months the butts were built and the range made available to the MOD for inspection.
Early September 1989.
28th September 1989
This was carried out on 28th September 1989 and a certificate issued. We were back in business and had a fully functional 5 point range. What was lacking was a ceiling and a concrete floor. We had no finance for this and it had to wait until 1990. We were at a point which we all hoped could be achieved but were never quite sure.
The range ceiling and floor were completed during the summer of 1990 and, generally, the range is as it can be seen today. The range soon became the one which the Hampshire Association and the Southampton Association use for representative matches and continues to this day.
Two years later the clubroom was ‘extended’ by removing the armoury and building a new one to the side of the entrance still only accessible from the clubroom. Nothing much has changed since then except for general maintenance and the occasional paint job.
It is an excellent club and continues in a very friendly, if business like, atmosphere. Newcomers are made welcome and we continue to be forward looking to bring more people than ever into a sport which is unlike any other.
