Bradley Range, Bradley Road, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire
CLUB HISTORY:
The Club was formed in the 1950s by
dedicated target pistol shooters under the name "Grimsby and Cleethorpes
Pistol Club". In May 1997 we decided to change the name of the Club to
reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of target sports and to incorporate the
name of the new unitary local authority created in this area on 1st April 1996.
The Club is approved by the Home Secretary, Humberside Police and the MoD and is
a non-profit making members club. We are affiliated to the National Rifle
Association of UK and the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain.
The Club operated from a variety of sites,
varying from quarries, the local TA HQ, old commercial buildings and even an old
air-raid shelter, but made a decision to construct new purpose-built premises in
1992. The project was completed as a 'self-build' exercise between March '93 and
May '95 thanks to the sterling efforts of a number of dedicated members. With the
exception the brickwork, plastering, floor screeding and tiling, these few
members did all of the work themselves. The site is on a 125 year peppercorn
lease from North East Lincolnshire Council and the premises are owned by the
Club members. Recently the Club signed a Range Affiliation Agreement with
Killingholme Full Bore Club which grants us access to their outdoor range and
them access to our indoor range.
View
of Site in April 1994 showing over-site concrete being laid by members (66 cu. metres
of concrete!)
The project was funded from a 'Building
Fund' of around £15,000 which had been established a number of years prior to
building work commencing (£20 of the subs were lodged in a separate account).
The Sports Council were singularly unhelpful in terms of finance but did refer
us to the Foundation for Sport and the Arts whose literature specifically named
shooting as a sport they didn't support! However, after some very persuasive
correspondence they granted us £20,000 on the proviso that we mounted a plaque
acknowledging their contribution. The plaque is mounted proudly on the wall of
the Lounge. The National Rifle Association also provided us with an
interest-free loan of £5,000.
The remainder of the finance had to be raised as a bank loan. The Yorkshire Bank, with whom the Club has banked for many years and happily looked after our Building Fund, were approached for a loan using the proposed club building as collateral. After paying a surveyor to value the building to our surprise and dismay the Yorkshire Bank said they couldn't offer us a loan. This terrible news would have finished the project so we persevered and they relented insofar as they offered a personal loan of £30,000 to me, as Secretary, and the Club Treasurer, Mick Bailey.
Without a building as collateral we had to secure the loan by a number of Committee Members acting as guarantors. This proved to be a blessing in disguise though not one without its problems. (The loan is now paid off and the building now belongs to the members with almost 100 years of the lease left - at a peppercorn rent). The down-side of this is that following the police failure at Dunblane and the Government's politically expedient knee-jerk reaction in confiscating all target pistols our Club lost around 70 target pistol shooters. This left us in serious financial straights and were it not for the remaining members digging deep into their pockets and meeting the loan repayments and other Club overheads it is likely that the Club would have folded and left me, the Treasurer and the Guarantors with a huge bill for nothing!
Outer walls taking shape - May 1994
Once it became clear that the Government was determined to ban pistol target shooting in the UK we had to try hard to keep the Club alive. We purchased some .357 Winchester underlever rifles and planned to modify our Police Pistol and Service Pistol competitions to be shot with such rifles. We also decided to try and get the range approved by the MoD for black powder pistol which was not subject to the ban imposed by the amended Firearms Act. Fortunately around this time the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain and the MoD co-operated in producing a code of practice for indoor use of black powder and this gave us the impetus to modify the range.
In early 1998 we carried out the modifications
to Range 1 to enable black powder shooting to take place. This involved
providing more ventilation capacity but, following an inspection by the MoD we
were granted a new Safety Certificate allowing black powder, carbine or gallery
rifles chambered for pistol ammunition and .22 rim-fire. The Certificate allows
the use of turning targets and prone, kneeling and standing shooting from 25, 15
and 10 metres. This was excellent news and meant we could continue using pistols
albeit in muzzle-loading form.
In 2005 We obtained Community Amateur Sports Club status (CASC) which gives us a mandatory 80% off our rates. North East Lincolnshire Council gives us another 10% off in discretionary rate relief which is a tremendous boost for clubs such as ours and significantly reduces our overheads.
Shooting
Bays - 4 Positions at 25 metres
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