Winter at Sinclair!

THE SINCLAIR RANGE
... its Development and Other Range Projects of the 1980s

In the mid 1970s the Isle of Man Rifle Association obtained land near The Hope, St Johns for the creation of a permanent 50 metre outdoor range.  The site was gifted to the Association by Mr Charles Sinclair.  Prior to this shooting had taken place for decades on temporary layouts but this was becoming more difficult with increasing safety demands and it was accepted all round that a permanent location was the only sensible answer.  A permanent site, with decent range standards, was also considered necessary to permit  Manx shooters to stay competitive with the rising levels generally of British shooting around that time.

The fillip to completing the Range came when the Isle of Man was awarded the 1997 Commonwealth Shooting Federation (European Division) Championships, which covered all the popular target disciplines.  The smallbore rifle and pistol events were very successfully held at Sinclair.

Sadly, however, that winter, literally only weeks after completion of the Range, the river that runs alongside it flooded to such an extent that it washed away a considerable portion of land, including part of the firing point.  The once-in-a-lifetime flood condition that nobody had anticipated had struck!  As is the way with rivers, once it had changed its shape it gradually ate away more of the range area in following winters, outstripping repair efforts, and at the beginning of the 1980s the site was eventually abandoned.

Efforts were made to find new locations but these all fell at the planning hurdle.  Proposals were put forward for ranges on the Ayres - the Island's flat northern plain - but these foundered on objections from the conservation lobby.  A fresh site at St Johns, shooting into the old railway embankment, fell after local objections.  A move to create smallbore and fullbore ranges in Glen Dhoo, a half mile long steep sided  valley to the south of Ballaugh, which it was hoped would ultimately include clay target ranges and become a national shooting centre for the Island, also fell following objections from residents in the area.

These developments were costing the Rifle Association a good deal of money in preparatory work and considerable hours on the part of its officers, and all getting nowhere.  In each case that Association had satisfied itself as to the reasonableness of its proposals, on an informed basis, but objections won the day.  It frustrated the Association that it was losing these cases on emotive rather that factual argument.  This drew into question whether, in a relatively small island, there was any sound basis on which to formulate further plans.

Following the failure of the Ballaugh development, the Association reviewed the situation at the former Sinclair site.  The one thing it had was planning permission.  A decision was therefore taken to restore this site, recognising fully that an enormous amount of work and considerable expense would be necessary, starting with rebuilding and armouring the river banks.

Progressively, that work took place, though little of it is now obvious.  The banks were rebuilt to the original line of the river and infilled behind.  Large boulders, some weighing over two tons, were used for armouring, though expense precluded the kind of permanent defensive work the Association would wish ultimately to see.  Heavy plant was engaged to excavate and re-profile the hillside at the target end in order that the restored range may be moved as far away from the river banks as possible.

With completion of land works attention then turned to the construction of the range itself.  The concrete firing point was laid, some 50 metres long by 5 metres deep, long enough to accommodate 32 firing lanes at 1.5 metre spacing.  At the same time the foundations and concrete floor of the clubhouse were laid, raised a half metre from the surface level as a precaution against the risk of future flooding.  The clubhouse itself was to be a re-erected 'hut' from the former RAF station at Jurby.  Built during World War 2, these timber buildings were being dismantled and sold off.  Although 50 years old, they were in almost as good a condition as the day were made, and a splendid 60' by 20' clubhouse soon appeared which, in the months following, was finished off internally to a very high standard.

The firing point steelwork and roofing came next, followed by the target mountings and sand filled bullet trap.  Screens creating individual firing points were added and the Range then became operational.  By this time it was 1993 and on 16th October that year the Sinclair Range was officially opened by the Isle of Man's Lieutenant Governor, Air Marshal Sir Laurence Jones KCB, AFC.

At this point, the firing area was some 5 metres deep and open at the back.  As an interim measure screening mesh was used to form a 'back' to the firing area, pending its eventual full enclosure as a following phase.  A little later the use of screen mesh was extended to the range area itself with the construction of mesh 'walls' running 40 metres downrange every 8 shooting lanes: a measure introduced to stem wind gusting.

Meanwhile, work on the Clubhouse had continued with the provision of electricity and water services (with a tricky river crossing!), the construction of catering facilities and toilets, including a disabled toilet for wheelchair bound visitors.  On the less obvious side, members set about preparing training material, aids for new shooters and devising computer programmes with which to manage entries and results for club competitions and, in particular, open events.

One service that was not installed with the electricity and water was a phone line.  Members have scratched their heads many times trying to think why the phone was overlooked!  However, though the Range lies in a steep sided valley, the advent of cell phones, with a mast in direct line of sight about a mile down the valley, has saved the day on the communications issue.

It was in 2001 that a further upgrade took place when the covered firing area was extended back a further 3 metres to join the Clubhouse wall and become completely enclosed.  This was a precursor to the Island Games to be held in the Isle of Man that year.  At the same time all 32 firing lanes were equipped with Gehmann target boxes, which were all hard wired back to the firing point, thus elevating the status of the Sinclair Range to one of the handful of ranges in Britain able to run ISSF standard cartridge events.

Alongside the construction work, a great deal of planting has taken place both as screening and to make the setting more pleasant.  Dozens of trees, mainly Mountain Ash, are now well established, together with a conifer screen on the south side of the range.  A riverbank walk connecting the range site with an adjacent woodland area managed by the Department of Agriculture has been added in recent years, providing access to pleasant and relaxing woodland walks.

Work is planned to upgrade further the firing point and also to create an area for indoor training, especially for use during the Winter months.  The indoor training area will probably also include a 10 metre airgun range, though planning in this regard has yet to evolve.

The policy of the Club is one of constant improvement, recognising that these days, with the pace of change, standing still is actually going backwards.  The Sinclair Range is now almost complete so far as the development plan composed at the beginning of the 90s is concerned.  It is now time for a fresh vision and a fresh plan.  The cogs are turning . . .

SWW
April 2002