Our history

In 1859 Britain once again faced the threat of invasion from France, this time under Napoleon III. On 12 May that year the War Office issued a circular to the Lord Lieutenants of counties, permitting the formation of Volunteer Rifle Corps under the Volunteer Act of 1804.

Among the units raised in response was the 5th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps. Like every new corps, it faced an immediate problem: where to practise. Major Bousfield arranged a month-long camp for his corps on Crosby shore in August 1860, where the men shot at temporary calico targets. The markers stood a few yards to either side of the line of fire, with no mantlet or protection of any kind.

Meanwhile, a committee in Liverpool had been raising money to clothe and equip a Liverpool Artillery and Rifle Brigade. When that plan was abandoned, the £800 left unspent was put towards a rifle range for all of Liverpool's volunteer units.

On Saturday 28 July 1860 the range at Hightown opened with a single target and a firing point at 1,100 yards. The first round, from a .577 Enfield muzzle-loader, was fired by the Right Honourable the Earl of Sefton. Expansion was rapid: by 25 August there were fifteen targets, and by 15 September twenty firing points from 100 to 1,100 yards.

Lord Sefton gave the land to the volunteers in 1862, and the range has been in use ever since. Long known as Altcar Rifle Range, it was renamed Altcar Training Camp in 1970 and is run today by the North West of England and Isle of Man Reserve Forces and Cadets Association.

1860 Rifle Club, founded in 1997, takes its name from the year that first shot was fired.