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Reilly's Ranges

Questions have been asked about Reilly's ranges and testing facilities. These are addressed above but more needs to be said:

1). Reilly had a 50 yard indoor range at 315 (277) Oxford street. This was advertised regularly over the space of 40 years from the time Reilly first occupied the building in January 1859. Here is an example but there are dozens:

. . . . . . . . 1862 London International Exposition Catalog


2). However, Reilly also had a 300 yard range somewhere close to his buildings on Oxford Street. This was first mentioned in 1851:

. . . . . . . . . . .1851 London Crystal Palace Exposition Advertisement


The 300 yard range continued to be advertised up to at least the mid-1880's:

. . . . . . . . . . . . .1882 "Modern Sportsman" - but other ads continued until 1886. (Note mention of the "Hurlingham weight" - Hurlingham, the principle pigeon shooting club, limited pigeon guns to 7lbs 8oz beginning 1883)


I wondered where might this range be and speculated it might have been in Bedfordshire at J.C.'s old country estate. But that seemed some distance to travel to test fire a gun. Then I found this advertisement:

. . . . . . . . . . .02 October 1875, "Illustrated Sporting News"


Wood-Lane, Shepards Bush was open country for years:

. . . . . . . . . .1841


It began to be built up when the Wood Lane station was opened in 1863. I can't find where Reilly owned land there but it's entirely possible. And there is a history of rifle ranges being in the area - check out this one:

"A gunmaker of Bond Street owned a shooting range provided with an iron stag which ran backwards and forwards on rails. Purchasers would test their guns on this stag..".

Since this was written at a later date, I wonder if the "Bond Street gunmaker" was really Reilly - and whether they got the date it was abandoned wrong.



In 1879 the military took over Wormwood Scrubs just off Wood Lane just north of Shepards Bush. They had ranges there but were forbidden to build structures other than the range bunkers. Sometime in the 1890's the maneuver area was guaranteed to remain open to the citizens of the neighborhood.




I'll be adding to this .....looking at property records, etc. but if any Londoners know something about the area local knowledge would be appreciated.

Print of Shooting at Shepard's Bush, 1867 - obviously not a rifle range:


The buildings at Wormwood Scrubs is now a pub called "The Pavillion."

Pavilion Parade, Wood Lane
Shepherds Bush
LONDON
W12 0HQ

The pub was built in 1861 as the Rifle Pavilion, named after the surrounding rifle ranges where volunteer units trained to counter a threatened French invasion.



Here is one of the Regiments raised in the area - Reilly sold guns to them:

[img]http://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/56233_600x400.jpg[/img]

The Artists Rifles is a special forces regiment of the British Army Reserve. Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regiment saw active service during the Second Boer War and the First World War, earning a number of battle honours. It did not serve outside Britain during the Second World War, as it was used as an officer training unit at that time. The regiment was disbanded in 1945, but in 1947 it was re-established to resurrect the Special Air Service Regiment. Today, the full title of the Regiment is 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve) (21 SAS(R)) and with 23 Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve) (23 SAS(R)), it forms the Special Air Service (Reserve) (SAS(R)).

Last edited by Argo44; 02/14/19 11:07 PM.
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