Our History
Pinhoe Target Shooting Club is the result of four Exeter shooting clubs coming together — each with decades of heritage in their own right.
The Pinhoe TSC of today was formed on 1 April 2018 through the merger of four longstanding Exeter shooting clubs. Each contributed members, equipment, and traditions to a single, stronger club committed to building a centre for target shooting excellence in the South West.
Pinhoe Home Guard Rifle Club
Oldest of the four — formed in the 1940s. On Langaton Lane (the current site) since 1991.
Exeter Rifle Club
Formed 1925 at Higher Barracks, later at Clifton Hill. Strong competition heritage.
Fonthill Rifle and Pistol Club
Founded 1945. Long-time home under the Pyramids Swimming Pool, Heavitree Road.
Teign Valley Rifles
Formerly the Watts, Blake & Bearne small-bore rifle club at Kingsteignton.
Pinhoe Home Guard Rifle Club
Pinhoe Target Shooting Club was originally Pinhoe Home Guard Rifle Club, formed (like many small-bore clubs) in the 1940s.
The first range was in the old Pinhoe Brick Works quarry at the south end below Harrington Lane. A footpath bordered the southern edge and had to be policed during shooting activities — a red flag raised at the Harrington Lane end indicated when the range was active.
From there, the club moved to an indoor range off Station Road, near Gipsy Hill. Opposite Vincent’s Farm was an old manor house (later an elementary school) and beyond that an old barn that became the club’s first indoor range.
The club moved again to the Old Community Hall (a Nissen hut) in Pinn Lane below the railway station, sharing the site with the 1st Pinhoe Scout Group. When Bovis Homes purchased the land to build the Monkerton estate, two plots on Langaton Lane were bought and the rifle club and the scouts were relocated there in 1991–92. The club has been on Langaton Lane ever since.
Exeter Rifle Club
Exeter Rifle Club was formed in 1925 as the Exeter Central Rifle Club, following a meeting of the Exeter Rifle League where a suggestion was made to form a “super” club to provide a team to represent Exeter in National competitions. The new club was set up so as not to “cross the path of existing clubs or alter their arrangements”.
The club shot at the military range at Higher Barracks between 1928 and 1981, and enjoyed considerable success in County and National competitions.
When Higher Barracks was no longer available, the range at Clifton Hill was made by joining two army huts to form a 25-yard, 5-firing-point range and club room. Many of those original members still run through the veins of Pinhoe TSC today.
Fonthill Rifle and Pistol Club
Fonthill was founded in 1945. Earliest records show a meeting on 14 December 1944 at the home of Lieut. A. Burrow at which it was decided to form a rifle club from the nucleus of 2131 Devon M.T. Coy. Home Guard. The club started under government encouragement — a way to retain the shooting skills of returning Second World War troops. The name “Fonthill” has always been a bit of a mystery as the club was always located in Exeter; it’s believed to have come from Lieut. Burrow’s house.
In those early days, subscriptions were 3/- per annum and bullets cost 2d for 5 rounds.
Fonthill was first based in the basement of the local bus station, sharing the range with Exeter’s Police Gun Squad. Members back then were said to be recognisable by a distinctive crease in their foreheads — caused by repeatedly meeting a very low concrete lintel above the entry door.
When the bus depot relocated, the city council offered Fonthill its long-term home: the basement of the Pyramids Swimming Pool on Heavitree Road. With a million gallons of warm water above, the range was never short on heating. Members built out the firing positions, target frames, and bullet-catcher themselves, using robust steel plates from an obsolete warship purchased from Plymouth dockyard.
Fonthill members were enthusiastic competitors — at Bisley Open Meetings (often hiring a mini-coach to take everyone), at exchanges with Exeter’s twin town of Bad Homburg in Germany (including their 600-year shooting anniversary, when Fonthill members joined the parade carrying the Union Jack), and at meets in Rennes and Lille in France. On one memorable weekend a party shot in four venues — East Grinstead and Wembley on the Saturday, Chippenham and the Bromyard Cider Shoot on the Sunday — returning home shot-out but with a clutch of trophies and a few bottles of cider.
Teign Valley Rifles
Teign Valley Rifles is a relatively recent name for a club with a long history. It was previously the Watts, Blake & Bearne small-bore rifle club, part of the WBB Sports and Social Club at Kingsteignton. When the Belgian company Sibelco took over WBB and progressively closed down the social-club activities, the rifle club re-formed under a new name. The River Teign valley is close to the original location, and the new TVR initials echoed those of the famous British sports cars — fitting for a club re-establishing its identity.
The original WBB range was an indoor 25-yard range with club room and armoury at Homers Lane, Kingsteignton, behind the WBB football club premises. The club also had an outdoor range at Binney’s Pit — a disused clay pit on the old road between Kingsteignton and Chudleigh Knighton — adjacent to the WBB Clay Pigeon Shooting Club. Members shot indoors in winter and outdoors at 50 m and 100 yards in summer.
Two leading lights of the club were Mike Taylor (now Chairman of Pinhoe TSC) and the late John Abrams — a highly skilled dental surgeon equally skilled on the range, and a member of the Devon County record-winning team in the inter-county NSRA team matches. A commemorative plaque is in the Pinhoe club room to this day.
The club’s most famous result came in 2002, when WBB won the NSRA News of the World club team of six knockout competition, beating Aberdeen in the final on the new Malcolm Cooper range at the Lord Roberts Centre rigged for 25 yards. The team comprised Mike Taylor, John Abrams, Gregg Hamley, Nina Williams, Debbie Mackie, Robert Beard, and Carol McKenna (now Newman).
The merger — 1 April 2018
In 2018 the four clubs formally merged into Pinhoe Target Shooting Club. The intent was to bring together the strengths and traditions of each — from Exeter Rifle Club’s competition heritage, to Fonthill’s social and travelling enthusiasm, to TVR’s indoor/outdoor versatility, to Pinhoe’s home on Langaton Lane — and to invest in a single, stronger club for target shooting in the wider Exeter area.
Since the merger, Pinhoe TSC has invested heavily in the range — see the range extension story for what’s happened on the Langaton Lane site since 2020.