A
short history of TONDU TARGET
SHOOTING CLUB
During 1896 the current club
property was part of the
Coytrahen House estate and the access road that we all use was the
southern driveway to the big house. It was decided that a local militia
be formed and the owner of the big house, Onslow Powell Traherne,
agreed that target practice could take place on the estate. This
commenced in 1896 on a green field site on the opposite bank of the
river Llynfi to the current ranges. What can now be seen on the other
side of the river are the remains of spoil from coal mining in the area
and that ground was in fact a flat green field at the time of
commencement of shooting. The local militia soon started to call
themselves the Tondu Miniature Rifle Club and the shooting range was
moved to the west bank of the river to the area known as Station Wood,
which is the ground that the club now owns and uses. Affiliation to the
newly formed National Smallbore Rifle Association followed in 1901, as
did serious competition target shooting. The club flourished even
through the two world wars.
Records found in the 1950's in the
old Tondu clubhouse
went back to 1905 and showed annual membership fees of two and a half
pence. The old Tondu clubhouse stood on the area immediately outside
the door of the new clubhouse. It was of wooden construction having
been built not long after the club moved from the other side of the
river at the turn of the century.
After the second world war, during
February 1948 the
Traherne family, the owners of the big house, sold all the land to the
Hurley family who were Joiners in Tondu. They quickly sold the property
on to William Aston, a newsagent from Pontycymmer in May of that year.
Reginald Bridgewater Williams was at this time the Secretary of the
club, R.S.Hayes it's President, Harold Goodwin the Treasurer and H.Jay
the Chairman. Reg Williams was instrumental in the building, during
1950/51, of the indoor range and clubhouse. He obtained the bricks,
which are fire bricks, from the Tondu Brick works and carried out most
of the work himself. Two photographs exist, from 1951, of the finished
clubhouse and the club ranges showing sleeper stop butt walls that were
tied together with railway lines. The ranges consisted of ten firing
points at 25 yards, ten at 50 yards with another ten at 100 yards. The
old Tondu clubhouse, now in serious need of repair, was abandoned and
only used as a stats office for the May and September Glamorgan County
shoots.
During the early sixties the grass firing point was concreted with the
help of monies from the old Glamorgan County Shooting Association. Up
until this time the club had paid a rent to William Aston who died in
1953 and who had mortgaged the property to the Midland Bank prior to
his death. The property then passed into the trust and ownership of
Messrs Sheppard and Sons who acted for the Midland bank with the clubs
tenancy continuing. During 1965 the opportunity arose for the club to
purchase the ranges from Sheppard and Sons and this transaction was
completed by the then secretary John Pryor, along with Malcolm Godsell,
Harold Goodwin, Domenico Moruzzi and Reg Williams, who was by then the
Chairman of the club. These five became the trustees for the club, with
the princely sum of £50 being paid for the 3.091 acres that we now use
and own.
1967 proved to be a traumatic year
for the club with
British rail threatening to remove the road bridge, that provided
access to the ranges, as it was in a dangerous condition. They wanted
to replace it with nothing more than a pedestrian footbridge. John
Pryor fought them all the way and luckily there was an abstract of
title from 1896 that gave us the right of vehicular access. It wasn't
until 1969 that the new bridge, which we still use today, was
constructed by B.R.
1968 saw Stan Gray take over as
secretary with John
Pryor now acting as the club Chairman and annual subs standing at 2
guineas. The following year John Pryor was made President as well as
Chairman of the club. The 25 and 50 yard stop butt walls, made of
sleepers, were now in a poor condition and the club decided to replace
them both with a new block wall at the new distance of 50 metres. Up
until the late sixties the serious shooting that took place at the club
was mainly of the smallbore rifle type with some members owning pistols
for fun use only. In the early seventies the small 20 yard pistol range
by the river was rebuilt as a 25 metre range with turning targets
installed - the first set in Wales. They were obtained from Bisley and
are the actual frames that were used for the 1948 London Olympics. By
the mid seventies the sport of pistol shooting was growing apace and
the turning target facility helped Mike Cockel to win the first Rapid
Fire gold medal in the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships
held in Scotland in 1974.
Stan Gray finished his duties as
secretary in 1975 and
took on the roll of Chairman, with John Pryor still the President. Subs
were raised from 2 guineas to five pounds as Henry Laazer took over as
the club secretary for one year until Bill Phelps was appointed in
1976. Early in 1976 the old Tondu clubhouse was burnt down by vandals
and the club name was changed to the Tondu and District Small Bore
Rifle club as it was felt that the title of Miniature Rifle club was
now a bit archaic. During 1977 Domen Moruzzi died and in Dom's memory a
new cup was obtained to be shot for as a combined Pistol/Rifle
competition in the club annual championships. In July 1978 a very
successful shoot, with 168 entries, was held to celebrate Eley's 150th
anniversary.
1979 saw the subs go up to £10 and
at a higher level
there were plans for Wales to host the Commonwealth Shooting Federation
Championships for the second time, in 1983, and mainly at Tondu. The
first Welsh hosting took place in 1976 with all the shooting ranges
being set up on a temporary basis within Cardiff Castle. A lot of work
and money had gone into the event at Cardiff Castle at the time when
Bill Phelps was the secretary of the WSSU as well as the club. Plans
were hatched to further improve the Tondu ranges to provide a permanent
facility that could be used for the games - the 50 metre wall was
heightened to accommodate International Free Pistol and a brand new 25
metre range was built to house two sets of turning targets for some of
the other International pistol events. One problem that arose was from
the fact that the club did not possess any safety certificates for the
ranges. These had been issued pre-war and had been lost over time. The
NSRA, who would have had copies, had also lost all their records during
the war time blitz, so there was nothing for it but to apply for a
completely new set of safety certificates. The new range safety
criteria meant that improvements needed to be carried out to all the
ranges, one of which was to the 100 yard wall. You can still see the
old red brick stop butt wall on the 100 yard range with the new block
work now extending all around it. The work was only just completed in
time and the certificates obtained for the club to host the
Commonwealth Shooting Federation event in 1983.
Subs were increased in 1982 to
eighteen pounds to try
and help pay for the new facilities with the AGM also offering five
year memberships in order to try and raise capital quickly to pay for
the project. After the event the club had some facilities that were
second to none in Wales and all were to International standards.
Subs increased to £30 in 1988 and
saw the death of
John Pryor who was the club's President at that time. Derek Perriam was
elected as the club President. 1988 also saw the Welsh Water board
disrupt the seasons shooting by laying a new mains sewer along the
Llynfi valley and through our property. However, compensation for the
disruption and right of access to the sewer saw the club eventually
receive enough compensation to finance the building of a new club
house, which had been under discussion for some time. That also gave us
a kitchen and a set of toilets.
In 1990 the club name was changed
to The Tondu &
District Target Rifle and Pistol club, whilst Stan Gray handed over the
Chairman's role to John Chapman. A year later the club's name was
changed to the Tondu Target Shooting Club and the club then started to
think about upgrading the new 25 metre range to cover full bore pistol
with the work being completed and new safety certificates obtained in
1992. At the same time plans were made to build the new clubhouse - the
one that we use today, however it was to take nearly eight years for
the plans to reach fruition.
By 1994 the subs had reached £50
and in our centenary
year, 1996, Jerry Howells took over as secretary after Bill Phelps 20
years, whilst John Chapman continued as Chairman with Idris Davies
being elected President.
A sad time occurred
during February 1998
when all pistols, with the exception of Air Pistols and Black Powder
Pistols, had to be handed in for destruction under the new firearms
legislation. Pistol shooting had grown, as a sport, within the club to
an extent where there were two pistoleers to every rifleman. Our club
had turned out, over the years, many Welsh International Pistol and
Rifle shooters with Bill Phelps and Stan Gray making the Great Britain
squads in the 70's. There was an expectation that membership would fall
as a result of the new 1998 legislation, however the interest and
participation in rifle shooting increased and members showed a steely
determination to continue with a growing interest in Black Powder
pistols and Air pistols.
In 1999 Tony Davies took over as
the Chairman of the
club and Eric Rowlands became the secretary with the subs having now
reached £80. Our club Rifle Captain, Fred Brown, represented Wales at
the Commonwealth Games in the year 1998, and there is every expectation
that the next millennium will see the club continuing to produce top
ranking shooters with the rest of the members enjoying their chosen
sport.
August 1999
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