Archery, medieval style.

NEWS

Archived from Tuesday 22nd January 2008

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Rain

 

Sadly I’ve been told that this week’s shoot was cancelled due to rain.  I’m told this because I couldn’t turn up myself due to having my spine ripped from my back with a pair of blunt salad tongs a.k.a. I damaged a muscle in my lower back.  At the moment of damaging this muscle I asked myself the traditional question that’s queried by Companions whenever a new hardship is encountered:- “What would they have done in medieval times?”  The answer is of course “Roll around on the floor like and swear like an early 80’s Eddie Murphy.”  All Challenges and Trophy shoots will be transferred over to next week.

 

Companions Anniversary & President’s Shield

 

Yes, nearly a whole year as gone by again and it’s time to announce the Second President’s Shield (currently held by Le Chat Noir … booo!) and the Companions of the Longbow Second Anniversary Banquet.

 

The President’s Shield will be held on Saturday 5th April 2008 at Roves Farm and the subsequent banquet will be held in the evening on the same day at the Gloucester Old Spot.  Last year we had a great time with medieval entertainment, medieval food and a talk from Pip Bickerstaffe.  Has the bar already been set too high?  Find out when more details are announced later …

 

A Challenge of a Very Different Sort

 

The Companions recently received the following communiqué:

 

 Sir,

 

I throw the gauntlet down to your Companions!

 

We 8 Traditional Archers who shoot at Wye Valley Archery have this wet and windy day decided that we can take all comers on a specially laid out course at WVA, using both the 3D targets and various "Challenges" of skill and cunning in the "Roving Field" and beat soundly any competition, and that would include 8 of your best Yeomen.

 

 Rules are simple, No Plastic Nocks to your Steeles, No Parabolic Fletches to your Steeles, Only Long Bows to be used.

 

 If your Archers are "Game" and, or, "Good" enough, will they make themselves known to be counted for the afore said "Lesson In Archery" on the 10th Day of February this Year Of Our Lord 2008, at the Unlordly hour of 10 00 hrs.

 

 Confirmation by email to this address as soon as you are able please.

 

(usual round fee at WVA applies, shooters will shoot in pairs from each side drawn by lot, loser of each pair to forfeit a drink in the Ale House post shoot)

 

I await your answer

 

Henry Longshank.

 

To which our reply was:

 

Your Lordship,

 

Us humble archers no not the way of chivalry and is wondering why you dropped your glove.

 

Still you mention ale houses and wanting us to give you a good thrashing, so why not.

 

We will arrive on mass, and we will select our winning tam at the appointed hour.

 

Robert of Arle

 

So, if you fancy chancing your arm, please assemble before 10:00am at Wye Valley Archery (directions available in Locations & Maps) on Sunday 10th February 2008.  Alas your friendly neighbourhood webmaster cannot make the specified date however I can offer the loan of twelve 32” arrows, spined to a 50lb bow and matching the challenge requirements.  I know you’re all good shots and I’ll get all of them back in one piece ...

 

Next Week’s Companions Challenge

 

With the absence of what I like to call a full news update due to rain, this week there’s space available for those who are interested in the background behind the next Companions Challenge  (i.e. hit the “backpage” button or the off switch on your PC now if you’re not into reading history).

 

This Challenge is a rehash of the challenge first called “The Siege of Abergavenny Castle”.

 

Most histories of the longbow mention at some point the writings of a man called Gerald.  Reputedly born in 1146 at Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire, he was of mixed Norman and Welsh blood and was known at the time by his Norman name as Gerald de Barri.  In Wales he was known as Gerallt Gymro and in Latin, Giraldus Cambrensis.  We know him today as Gerald of Wales which in my opinion isn’t as good as his other names as it makes him sound a bit like a bank manager.  But moving on …

 

Gerald, having received a church education, was selected to accompany the Archbishop of Canterbury, Baldwin of Exeter, on a tour of Wales in 1188.  The object of this tour being in effect a recruitment campaign for the Third Crusade, something that was desperately needed after the total failure of the difficult Second Crusade.  This personalised approach was especially important when, unlike the zero star rated Second Crusade, the Third Crusade had the big names already signed up and ready to go; names like Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and Kevin Costner as Robin Hood.

 

As an off shoot from this tour Gerald wrote a couple of travel books;  Itinerarium Cambriae (1191) "Journey through Wales" & Descriptio Cambriae (1194) "Description of Wales".  These were a sort of Rough Guide to Wales but with fewer gap year backpackers in mind.

 

Gerald’s writings remain the source for early Welsh folklore, history and stories during the Norman period and it’s from these that we get a couple of good longbow tales, both of which involve the Marcher Lord William de Braose.   Marcher in this context means border, and as such the Welsh Marcher Lords were appointed by the English King to protect and provide a buffer between free Wales and Norman England.  As a Marcher Lord William de Braose had almost as many rights as the King and so had carte blanche to do what ever he wanted inside his allotted territory.  This is probably why he felt it was okay to murder Seisyllt ap Dyfnwal in 1175.

 

The story goes that William de Braose was celebrating a Christmas Feast at Abergavenny castle, a castle who’s ruins by the way are still commanding views over the river Usk in Monmouthshire to this day.  The chieftains and princes of Gwent were invited to this Christmas Feast including among others Seisyll ap Dyfnwal (in case you’re wondering, “ap” means “son of”).  Seisyll ap Dyfnwal was not only lord of Upper Gwent but also, in William de Braose’s opinion, the murderer of his uncle Henry.

 

Now you know what Christmas’ are like.  Too many people in one room, the central heating is turned way up high because of granny, too much food, too much alcohol, and way too much sugar and you end up arguing over the exact wording of a Trivial Pursuit question.  Back then the argument was over bearing arms in William’s domain according to a pledge made by the Welsh to King Henry II at Gloucester.  Rather than packing up his allegorical Trivial Pursuit board, getting out the cheese and biscuits and settling down to watch the Bond film in peace, William decided he’d just slaughter all his Welsh guests.  This at the time was seen as being a bit of an over reaction and not really on, so henceforth this incident was known as the Massacre of Abergavenny.  William then went on to ravage Seisyll’s lands, capture Seisyll’s wife Gwladus and kill Seisyll’s seven year old son Cadwaladr while still in the arms of his mother.

 

Seven years later in 1182 Welsh lord of Caerleon, Hywel ap Iorwerth and Seisyll’s surviving sons (presumably all with the moniker of ap Seisyll) besieged Abergavenny and burnt all but the keep to the ground in revenge.  The story of the 1182 siege was recorded by Gerald of Wales along with one of the earliest recorded incidents involving the performance of the longbow.

 

Here’s the gist of the tale; during the siege a couple of the Norman soldiers ran across a bridge to take refuge in one of the towers (like any sensible person would).  Welsh archers, shooting behind them, had their wayward arrows strike the door of the tower with such force that the arrow heads penetrated the full thickness of the wood.  The wood was said to be a hands thickness of oak, that’s 4 inches!  Because of this amazing feat the arrows were preserved in that door as a memento.  Of course a cynic might suggest they were preserved in the door because it was too difficult to pull them out and then even if you did you’ve got a couple of arrow holes letting the draft in and then of course any Tom, Dick or Harry passing by can have a peep into your castle so it’s not really worth pulling them out really etc.  I’ve read differing accounts of what sort of poundage a longbow would need to be to penetrate 4 inches of oak but it could be anything from 70lbs to 100lbs.

The original Companions Siege of Abergavenny Challenge involved the Mark I Abergavenny Castle Door Simulator which was a puny 4 inches of cardboard or 2 inches of hardwood board.   This was acknowledged at the time as a bit of a liberty seeing as you could probably poke a hole through it with the pointy end of an umbrella.  Therefore this time the Challenge has been beefed up a bit.

 

Not everyone in the club shoots a 70lb – 100lb longbow and so to keep everyone involved this Challenge will be a team effort.  First every archer will have six arrows to shoot long range at the centre stack of the hay bail back stop.  This represents the castle door and this first part of the Challenge covers accuracy (although it might seem from Gerald’s original account that accuracy didn’t factor much).  Every arrow that lands on the “castle door” can be used in the second part of the Challenge.

 

The second part of the Challenge involves a block of compressed paper.  As the Chinese saying goes “a closed book is a block of wood” and this is where power and penetration of our archers is tested.  Each successful arrow from the first part of the Challenge can be shot into the block of compressed paper with the depth of each arrow’s penetration marked on the shaft before being withdrawn.

This depth will then be chalked off a stick the length of a clothyard arrow (which no-one really knows how long a clothyard arrow is so we’re saying for this Challenge it’s 32 inches long).

 

Collectively then, the Companions must shoot their arrows to a combined depth greater than or equal to 32 inches.  The archer who contributes the most penetration to the Challenge wins the Prize of Dubious Worth.  In case you’re wondering why use paper instead of wood its simple – you can unbind the paper and get an arrow out of it much easier than a block of wood.  Find out how we do next week ... if it’s not raining again of course.

 

And Finally...

 

As always … got a suggestion for the club?  Send it to suggestions@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk or send them direct to any of the committee members e-mail address (see Contact Us page for these).