Nottinghamshire Rifle Association

Nottingham Evening Post 4th May 1894

THE ROBIN HOOD RIFLE RANGE

The Special Committee appointed by the Nottingham Town Council to deal with the question of the proposed new rifle range for the Robin Hoods will present a report at a meeting of the Council to be held on Monday next week. stating that they have put themselves in communication with the Secretary of State for War to ascertain whether it was the intention of the Government to aid in any way the laying out of a range for the Robin Hood Rifles The Secretary of State for War has written as follows:–

War Office, Pall Mall, S.W., 24th April 1894.

Sir.— I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to acquaint you in reply to your letter of the 20th inst. that he regrets he is unable to promise any assistance from public funds, or to recommend a grant aid, towards enabling the volunteers of Nottingham to provide a rifle range.—
I am, etc. Ralph Thompson.

The Town Clerk, Nottingham.

The committee add they have ascertained beyond doubt that it is impossible for the Robin Hood Rifles to continue as a corps unless they can secure a range for practice. The distance to which rifles can carry is so enormous that there is considerable difficulty in obtaining such a range. The Committee have, however, carefully considered the site of the range proposed by the corps, and brought before the Council on the 5th of December last, by the plan annexed to the petition presented by the corps, a copy of which was sent to each member of the Council.

It appears to the committee that the officers of the Robin Hood Rifles have done all they can by inspection of other sites to ascertain where the best and cheapest range can be obtained. The site referred to seems the only one that is available within a practicable distance of the town. The committee have gone through the offers which have been made for the sale of the lands by the owners for military purposes, and they have also had estimates before them of the costs of forming a range.

The committee believe that the land may be acquired and the range formed for the sum of £16,000 including compensation for severance and injury to other lands. They think that this is a reasonable sum in view of the injury to severed and other lands which the laying out of a rifle range entails. There will be surplus land (about 38 acres) not wanted for the range, which will be at the disposal of the Town Council, and which, until it is sold, can be let. Parliament has clothed the Town Council with powers to purchase lands for the purposes of a range, and to raise money as if a range were a "purpose" under the Public Health Act.

The net cost to the town would be as follows:– Cost of the range, £16,000; interest thereon at 3 per cent, £480; sinking fund for redemption, calculated on a 3 per cent. table, £122; total, £602; deduct annual rent to be paid by Robin Hood Rifles, £250; rental of surplus lands (38 acres), say £50; total £300; leaving a net annual expenditure of £302. The charge on the rates of the town will be less than 1-10th of a penny in the pound.

The committee, therefore, recommends that the Town Council should authorise them to enter into negotiations for and to acquire the lands, and to take all such steps as may be necessary to give effect to this report, and that the Finance Committee be requested to raise the money required by way of loan on the general district rate, or in such manner as they may think best.