Monument record 16098 - Site of 19th century Rifle Range, Lindow Moss

<1> Hyde, Matthew and Pemberton, Christine, 2002, Lindow and the Bog Warriors, p.63-66 (Book). SCH9548.

The Volunteer Rifle Range ran down the centre of Lindow moss. It was 1000 yards long and stretched across to the vicinity of Platt Cottage on Greaves Road. Access to the Butts and wooden platform town was from Battery Lane. The Rifleman's Arms was located on Moor Lane. Boys in their early teens joined the local Volunteers for the Rifle Brigade during the Crimean War (1853-6). They were sent for drilling, training and target practice on the moss where high stacks of peat were used as targets. In 1854 they were sent out to the Crimea as part of the Cheshire Regiment. It is rumoured that a group of returning soldiers suffering ill-health lived on the moss.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

A rifle range is depicted on OS first edition mapping on Lindow Moss to the south-west of Lindow House. Features depicted/labelled include a butt (raised elongated earthwork), a flagstaff, targets, two mantelets (square/rectangular shelters) located to the north and south of the butt. There are two ranges depicted, one stretches for 1000 yards to the north of the butt and a second, shorter range is located south-west of the butt, extending some 600 yards and including further raised earthwork targets.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

Only the butt, still depicted as a raised, elongated earthwork, features on the OS second edition map.

<4> Dr Jonathan Lageard, 2024, People & Peat: Peat cutting and other history from Lindow Moss, Powerpoint presentation, Slide 10 (Other Interpretation Materials). SCH9761.

Fears of a French invasion following the Crimean War led to the formation of part-time volunteer rifle, artillery and engineer corps by Act of Parliament. The Rifle Volunteer Grounds Act of 1860 gave Volunteer Corps the power to purchase or acquire by grant land for rifle practice. The two ranges on the eastern side of Lindow Moss are likely to have been built around this time (1860-1). The flagstaff warned that the range was in use and the mantelets (bullet-proof screens) allowed firing accuracy to be recorded by oservers close to the targets. The ranges were closed around 1895 due to safety concerns due to the introduction of more powerful rifles. A pub, the Rifleman Arms, was established on Moor Lane by 1889; it was demolished in 1938 and replaced by a new pub also called the Riflemans Arms, which was also demolished and replaced by housing.