Wild Camping above Totley Firing Range

With an explosive start we walk up through the now abandoned Totley Firing Range, a little bit of Sheffield’s forgotten history.
Then its up onto the high moorland above the firing range for a wild camp hidden in the heather, with extensive views accross the city.

I hi there a wild camp and a bit of Sheffield history today if you look roughly where my finger is look half a mile Beyond into the tree line well that was in fact the target area for the totally firing range that’s half a mile over there this area here was the 9900 yard firing point so if you went back to the early 1900s you’d have Maxim machine guns set up here probably half a dozen of them and they’d be firing at Targets half a mile away unbelievable quite unbelievable it must have been a fantastic sight to see with the machine guns rattling away so what we’re going to do today we’re actually going to I’m going to take you on a little tour we’re going to walk up the firing range I’ll tell you about the history of it and point out any interesting features that are still there when we get up to the Target area the uh so uh the shelters which the target markers used are still there uh a bit dilapitated and also the big embankment that caught the bullets or the majority of the bullets that’s still there so I’ll be able to show you those and we’ll have a little look around and then from there we’re going to head up onto the high mands which you can probably make out which are above the firing Ang firing range and they basically look down on it up there we’re going to Wild camp tonight should be a great Camp it should so follow me and come on my little tour as we head down the road you can see that little Stone embankment that is in fact the 700 yard firing Point obviously it’s just overgrown now and you can’t see the target area but that would have probably be lined with menu bring guns firing into the uh Target area somewhere further up there is the 800 yard firing point but I couldn’t find that well this looks a bogy mess [Applause] we’ve just entered the range at the 600 yd firing point and this is the first indication you’ve got of what this area actually was this is like a communication post could plug a telephone in here and then communicate with the target operators 600 yards up the range so what we’ll do now going to head on up the range you can get a better view of the range from here the target area is in those trees up there around 500 yards away now totally firing range opened on the 15th of September 1900 at that time the weapon the British army was using was the Lee Enfield mark one rifle that’s the one with the big 18in biton which would obviously be used for Trench Warfare now that LE Enfield mark one basically had a a killing range of 600 yards but it would fire a bullet probably around two 2 and a half th000 yards so that is why this area was chosen so that they’d got this vast area which they could close off that would be shut and it was a safe and big enough area to operate those right and the machine guns and brain guns we talked about earlier so this was one of the main areas where the British army regiments would have trained in preparation for the first world war one of the main uh battalions that used this area was the Hamshire rifles now they fought at yeps passionale and the S and it’s uh he sad to say they actually lost I think around 50 officers and 1,400 men and all those men would have trained on this site it’s terrifying to think I have two sons that are 2327 and I am so glad I didn’t have to go through what the people did in the 1948 more the worry that you’d have if your two sons were away were away at the front doesn’t bear thinking about so we’ll make our way further up the range now so this is the 100 yd firing Point area so we’re not far off the actual Target area and the big embankment which is basically the Bullet Stop I’ll see you up there so these would be the early um shelters built for the Target markers and uh Setters as you can can see it’s just a a dry stone wall uh or a stone wall and Earth built up against it but it gave ad adequate protection um all the sort of targets and the mechanisms that’s all sort of decayed and gone but you’ve still got benches and and things like that but I would think this was in use um I gather it was preor World War I I’m not 100% sure but uh yeah this is where they’d Heist the targets up and you’d have a vica’s machine gun half a mile away pounding the area with bullets we’ll head down that way and I’ll take you to the more modern concrete shelters so this is the more modern concrete shelter for the Target markers um I’m not too sure when it was built whether it was pre second world war or post I’m not too sure but uh as you can see uh it’s the same setup where the tar Target markers would put the targets up and Mark uh Mark the targets as as required and you could also see it is uh an area where some of the locals practice their um graffiti skills and there are some amazing bits of graffiti here I’ve been up here oh for many years and it does change and I have some uh fantastic photographs uh of various uh types of uh graffiti um you could say yeah there are probably people that are very artistic in a way to provide pictures like this just with a a spray cam so from here going to head up to the the Bullet Stop Now that uh that is a big embankment that catches all the bullets that go through the targets now this is the bullet bike stop basically where probably millions of rounds of of ammunition went through the targets and were lodged in here now previously I have had quite a few days up here metal detecting uh so I’ve been all over this area with metal detector I’ll just show you just a few of the bits and pieces that I found as you can see quite a selection of bullets mostly 303 but some 5 mil and some bigger ones don’t know what they are they’re around 10 m most of the cartridge cases are blanks so I dare say they did use the area for military exercises you can see from this uh 303 cartridge it’s dated 1939 which a lot of the other cases are so they probably originate from uh beginning of the second World War quite a interesting Hall but there must be thousands of uh bullets of all calibers in there as for the range through the inter War years it was used to be various military groups um the the buildup to World War II the Hamshire regiment were again here practicing Etc preparing for World War II they they took uh part in many um operations including um dday laav uh KH and uh arnum so they were involved in a lot of the major European uh battles um of the second world war but it carried on as like a private range I think military come private and then in 1997 it did close uh one reason basically was people were getting outdoors more and probably all this area M and was shut off and people weren’t happy with that so you could say the right to Rome was part of the demise of a totle firing range well that’s my thoughts anyway it’s probably not but yeah so 19 97 the range did close but it’s certainly an interesting in place and so hidden away I don’t know if many people who even live locally know about this place uh but it’s it’s worth worth a Wonder I’d recommend it so back to Wild camping now what we’re going to do now we’re going to head up onto the mands I’ve got to pick some water up and then we’ll we’ll go and find um somewhere to pitch overlooking the uh shooting range so I’ll see here on the way up see if I can find any bullets nah I reckon somebody’s been here before me [Music] so just stopping here collect some water so I’ve got about 3 l there that should do me I’ll carry it up in that and then I’ll filter it in a camp where I’ve uh have more time in a way TR secure so we’re going to head up onto the mland now and uh I have wrecked it and I have a lovely little pitch where we can spend the night I’ll see you up at this little campsite beautiful it is a bit of a clamber up this but worth it for this fantastic little pitch it’s nestling away in the Heather hidden from everybody and a fantastic view over Sheffield and just looking down on the shooting range it’s has clouded over a little bit and I I don’t know what the the weather’s going to do it could be showery who knows so I’m going to get me I’ll show you a picture of the view before the weather turns anymore get the temp pitched and then get all my gear moved inside and then it can basically do what it wants so I’ll just show you the view that’s looking down on the Western edges of Sheffield which is basically door and [Music] totle and beyond that we have the the city of Sheffield now about banging the center of the picture just after the Heather you’ll see what is the Green Grass of the shooting range so we’re basically right above it and then as we come around it’s just more of the western suburbs of the city so I think it’s time to get settled in the tent I’m feeling a little bit peckish and it is curry night tonight so I thought we better make a start with this Curry while we’ve got the daylight got to have a few Poppa Dums aren’t you so I’ve got Poppa Dums like an onion cucumber mint relish and going to get it up a bit of mango Chu Cy so definitely got that nice taste to it I know a bottler king fisher of Cobra ale or ler would have gone down nice but it is supposed to be lightwe camping if I bring a couple of bottles of them up it defeats the object of paying a load of money out for lightweight gear so uh we’ll just stick with the food I think tonight the curry I’m going to preparing in a bit it’s one of my dehydrated meals it’s a chicken kermer with the just simple boiled rice but that I prepared that well I actually made it about 3 months ago weighs about I think it’s about 300 GS of food there but once I’ve added 700 mL of water and rehydrated it that’s going to give me two well a kilogram of food so um definitely a great lightweight option when you camping oh the these two chaste so nice so I’ll see how it go with the Buffa dos and then we’ll we’ll get the uh Curry on the go and get that rehydrated just starting to prepare the chicken coma as part of the rehydration process you boil the rehydrated meal for about a minute and then put it in a pot Co and leave it to fully rehydrate for about another 15 minutes as you can see we’ve got a new wind Master Soo stove and a new ca Summit pot uh 1300 ml pot we have been spending some money just enjoying my chicken cormer I may have got too much here I’ve got I’ve got nearly a kilogram of food anyway see how we go I actually made this like I say about 3 months ago and this portion will have 200 g of tinned chicken a jar of that um is it pects cornas sauce and boiled rice so it was very easy to make and it certainly g a filling meal I’ll get on with this and then you want to see what we’ve got for a site so pleased to say my sweet is ready and we’re going for that that favorite found in curry houses all over the world treal sponge and custard well I wasn’t really sure what to have so I thought yeah trle sponge and custard just perfect I just got rid of that unsightly branch in the the picture can’t beat a bit of trle sponge and custard especially if you’ve got a sweet tooth I don’t think we have too much daylight left so and to get this uh get everything finished might have a a drink and then um settle down and I’ll I’ll have a word with you uh when everything’s sorted out and uh we’ll have a we’ll have a little chat on that right that’s uh tea all finished um all cleared up and I’m settled down for the night all wrapped up in my enlightened Revelation quilt yes I’ve gone for it quilt it’s only Tak me a year to sort it out I spoke about this last year but I decided yeah to reduce me pipe weight and try something new i’ I’d go for a quilt like I say you can see some of the new gear so I’m mentioning it but I’ll tell you more about it on another video I haven’t really time on this video to go into it now I know I’ve not done many wild camps recently um I sort of got a little bit bored doing them it was the same routine of walking somewhere camping cooking a meal having a chat bit of Photography and coming back and I wanted to alter that or do something a little bit different so I went off on my one day trips to Europe and a bit of car Campa it gave me something different to do I can quite often go off on a tangent and do something different I once went uh exploring underground drains and abandoned Railway Tunnels for probably an 18mon period um new photography and filming challenges and really enjoyed it but I did see sense and I did come back to while camping eventually so yeah I’ve done a done these European trips I still will do them but not in the summer cuz it cost too much but probably Autumn winter get back into them but they’ll be in the background it’s something I do I might put the odd short on but I ain’t going to um include them in my videos really um I intend concentrating on wild camping for the foreseeable future a few other reasons why I’ve returned to Wild camping well the European trips were good good and I enjoy them but they ain’t challenging anybody can go and get on a plane fly somewhere drink a lot of beer and then fly back there’s not a lot of difficulty or challenge there while climbing up the northern uh edge of Kinder Scout or well camping in the snow that is challenging so I miss the challenge of the wild camping and another thing doing the YouTube videos on while camping does actually keep you fit it if you know you’re going to be camping on Kinder you make sure you’re fit and you’ve got to be going out walking a decent mileage carrying a pack each week and build your Fitness up or you’re going to struggle so I found my fitness was dropping off a bit because I hadn’t got the reason or the incentive to go and do these long walks CU I were going to sit on a plane and fly somewhere so that was another reason uh for returning to to Wild camping to get myself a little bit fitter there’s still lots of places I want to explore in Wild camp like I say like bleed CL and these uh more remote places but I’ve got to be fit and I’ve got to have lighter gear so you can see how I’m uh setting me me plan out a little bit get fitter and lighten some of my older backpacking gear and then I can get to these remote places and do some different wild camps and another little reason why I haven’t been out especially this year I hurt my eilles tendem I don’t fully know how I did it I think I did it jumping over a river with a pack on me back never actually knew I’d done it but it got worse and worse and that was way back I think it was the end of January and it’s it’s not quite right yet it’s taking 12 month 12 weeks I’ve had physio acupuncture and it is probably about 90% okay now I can walk a decent mileage don’t really have any problems but you’ll want to see me in the morning when I come downstairs I look like an old man hobbling downstairs well perhaps I am an old man hobbling downstairs but yeah it does feel a bit stiff and hurt in the morning once I get going I am okay so the good thing that’s come out of that is it’s made me realize I’ve got to be more careful I can’t go jumping across rivers and stuff like that you can injure yourself and it’s going to put you out of action for months possibly so there’ll be no while camping then so I realize yeah I’ve got to be a bit more sensible and look after myself a little bit more as for my future video plans for this coming year yeah it will be while camping I still have the same old problems I always have the calendar in our house fills up very quick and I have trouble getting my two days away on a camp actually on the calendar or if something crops up I’m the first one to get shunted off um so yeah hopefully I’ll be able to get out each month how people go camping every week and put a video on I just don’t know but yeah I will try and keep a a regular supply of videos coming in probably one a month something like that I still like to Camp up at my local Clara what I call ringing low and hounder uh I’ve got various uh little pictures up there that some are quite secluded and I still enjoy camping up there but I’d like to venture a bit further a field like I say up doing um out onto bleow places I’ve never really been before and of course Kinder Scout I’m sure we’ll get couple of camps up on uh up on Kinder I mean today’s Camp um has been interesting today’s video has been interesting because it it’s combined a bit of an explore and the camp so it was a little bit different uh I first came to this shooting range uh probably about four five years ago uh I came across it and then I found this little booklet um I I bought this on eBay it’s called if I get it right a short history of the rifle range at totley Sheffield it’s by Steven Johnson now I was looking at it uh the other few other days obviously refreshing me um information on it when I was going to do the video and I opened it up and it says inside I I bought it on eBay this he says Barnsley libraries reference only please leave on the table after use so it would appear it might belong to barnesley library but I bought it on eBay um I did have a look I hope it’s not overdue Christ anyway I did have a look to see if I could see it and I couldn’t see it available anywhere but you never know you might find it it tells you all about the uh um rifle range it’s got a lot of pictures in it uh from the 1900s and more lots of maps I would have liked to use some of that information but I was a bit worried about copyright so I heard on the cautious side I didn’t put anything on but yeah it’s a useful little book you never know you might find it in a library somewhere but um perhaps not barnesley I don’t think they’ve got a copy anyway uh yeah very useful book and it it made today a lot more interesting cuz I I learned a lot I I I managed to find out a lot more about the the shooting range which obviously I could use in the video so I think I’m nearly done for tonight uh I’m want to make myself a cup of hot chocolate and settle down for the the night soon before I go to sleep uh we’ll have a look outside and uh see what we can see of the lights of Sheffield I had a little look not long ago and it’s it’s as if there’s uh some low clouds so it’s not fantastic but we’ll have a little look see what we can see and uh after that I’m uh I’m going to go to sleep hopefully in my new quilt and try it out and I’ll see you in the morning but we’ll we’ll look outside first so that’s looking down on the sort of western suburbs of Sheffield uh mainly dor and totley um it’s not as clear as I’d have liked it you should have been able to see all the city but there seem to be uh some low Ling Cloud but you can see you see all the lights twinkling anyway I’m going to settle down now get that drink and hopefully have a good night’s sleep so I’ll see you in the morning night then [Music] good morning and it is a nice morning the wind’s dropped it’s warm and it’s dry it’s a long time since I’ve been able to sit outside to have my breakfast although to a little bit uh cloudy and Misty over Sheffield they lovely these little camping spots if you take all this uh sort of mland overlooking Sheffield right over to ringing low what I tend to do I go out for half a day have no heavy Rook sack on me back and I just mooch about walking around the the sort of the high spots looking for little locations like this you don’t want to arrive here with a heavy Rook like and then start trying to find a camp camping area it’s nice to know you found a great little pitch so all this area I I must have walked all of it and have so many of these little locations they’re not big you can just get a small tent with a small footprint or a bivy bag in uh but you you’re so hidden away and with them being on the sort of high mall and over looking Sheffield you fantastic views day and night so just a cup of coffee I’ve got some porridge on the go down there I’ll be having that soon and then uh just a matter packing up I’m in no rush I can spend an hour having me breakfast have have nothing to to rush back for so I see you in a little little bit right that’s everything packed up and time for me to do my Long Walk Away hope you enjoyed the W around the uh shooting range uh just something a little bit different and I bet there is loads of people don’t even know that place existed never mind it history now may as usual is a very big busy month uh holidays birthday another one and Barrow Hill beer festival so we’ll be very busy through May but I will be back in June I’m intend doing another local camp and hopefully I’ll have got most of my uh New Gear sorted then so we do a little bit of cooking and we’ll have a look about have a look at some of my new gear and I can chat to you in a bit more detail about it so thanks for watching hope you enjoyed it and I’ll uh I’ll see you in June bye then [Music] [Laughter] [Music]