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Built on the West Beach at the end of a spur line of the Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway in 1886, the remote location overlooking the Solway Firth permitted the live firing of important new weapons systems that proved vital to winning the arms race in World War One.

The targets were all near the sea, and after high water the practice shells were recovered from the estuary for analysis and eventual recycling.

It was opened by Armstrong's – the giant armaments manufacturer based in Newcastle. They built a firing range to proof-test their state of the art long range artillery and naval guns.

Amongst others it was visited by the King of Afghanistan who was on a shopping trip for weapons and by other wealthy customers who sensed the world was about to go to war.

It was ideally located at the end of a branch line, among the sand dunes and the facility faced the miles of mudflats on the remote Solway estuary.

It was possible to safely test fire ordinance and top secret weapons far away from prying eyes. The shells were recovered at low tide and examined to check on the rifling and effectiveness of new designs of shell cases and fuses.

Such was the quantity of blank shells fired off the coast of Cumbria they were dredged up and returned to the East Cumberland Shell Factory in Carlisle to be re-processed.

Little remains of the site which is now part of the golf course – other than the 16th hole that is named after it. However, a reinforced concrete bunker that served as the arsenal is still buried in the sand.

But contemporary photographs and first-hand accounts of life on the range illustrate a little known aspect of the important part the popular holiday village of Silloth played in WW1. In particular the development by Armstrong’s of new hydraulic recoil dampers, greatly improved accuracy, and the rate of fire of heavy guns, which gave us an edge in the battle at sea and on land.

Location: Blitterlees Bank, Silloth-on-Solway, Cumbria CA7 4BL
Image: The testing ground at Silloth, courtesy of Peter Ostle

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