ARCHERY IN BAMPTON FROM EARLY TIMES TO MODERN DAY
Written by John Hill
Archery in Bampton om early times to modern day
A catalogue based on the exhibition hekd in the Vesey Room, Bampton om 10th May - 26th June 2010 by Gerald Mills and John Hill
www.bamptonarchive.org Registered Charity 1097295
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Archery in Bampton om early times to modern day With Bampton’s rich history dating back many 100’s of years one can imagine that archery was practiced in some form or another during the ages but unfortunately there is no record of arrows being fired om the slits or ramparts of the remaining castle wall! For the early times of Bampton archery history one has to go back to the winter of 1996. The Bampton Recreational Committee was looking to the future, the recreation ground provided an ideal location for sporting facilities with tennis courts and an all-season pitch having already been built. However the committee had a wider vision with plans to build a modern pavilion capable of housing a number of village activities. It was during this time that the committee began to encourage an expansion of new sports to use the recreation ground, a notice was placed village wide to seek volunteers interested in starting up new clubs. One person showed interest in archery. John Hill agreed to attend one of the regularly held committee meetings and following a proposal on how to establish a club, the members agreed to part fund the archery activities through the summer months. As John was already a member of an existing Oxford club, the Cherwell Archers, he was able to borrow further equipment toenhance the availability of bows and arrows for beginners. Therefore on a damp April Wednesday evening the Bampton Archery Club was born.... In those early days about half a dozen people attended on a regular basis, by the end of the summer numbers had increased to around 12. As there were no indoor facilities to use at this point, the club went into hibernation over the autumn and winter months. During the next couple of years esh attempts to encourage local people, including families, to take up the sport were made, by the end of the summer seasons, numbers had again increased. Regular faces now started to get involved with the running of the club and one of them, Gerald Mills, was to become an important figure in Bampton Archery. As well as being an excellent archer Gerald was to become the club’s first Grand National Archery Society trained coach, many of Bampton’s archers today have Gerald to thank for their ability and love of the sport. In April 1999 the Bampton Pavilion was officially opened, Bampton archers played a prominent role on the day and even managed to get their photograph in the local papers. More importantly this now allowed the club to shoot indoors and for the first time on an all-year round basis.
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Since the beginning of the new millennium the club has grown om strength to strength. 2006 saw the club celebrate its 10th anniversary and regular coaching sessions held by the club have swelled adult and junior numbers over the years, most seasons now see club membership at about 40 on average. With many of the club’s archers now reaching a high standard, the past few years have seen many participate in county and country wide competitions. Several of them have achieved high rankings as well as grabbing the occasional victory, firmly placing the name of Bampton Archery Club in the limelight. Out and About.... People generally require some form of encouragement to participate in sports. Many see Archery as a quirky but intriguing pasttime, maybe it’s our history with fabled stories of Welsh bowmen or that of Robin Hood and his merry men. However it’s clear that if you give people the opportunity to take part or ‘have a go’ at archery many will take up the challenge. The Bampton Archery Club recognised this many years ago and realised that attending local fetes and shows would encourage others to take up the sport and potentially increase membership numbers. Since the start of the club, Bampton archers have annually set up ‘have-a-go’ shoots in several places including Aston Fete, Ducklington Fete, and The White Horse Show, as well as Bampton Primary School and arranged events at the recreation ground. Competition is always healthy and Bampton Archers have always been keen to display their accuracy and skill. The club maintains and encourages the collection of scores on club nights to calculate handicaps and run a number of internal competitions throughout the year with two main trophies being awarded. These are the Foresters Trophy awarded to the best archer (calculated through handicaps) on a single individual shoot and the Indoor Handicap Trophy. Other awards are presented to encourage the most improved and for those achieving a specified score at fixed distances. Thanks to our early link with the Cherwell Archers in Oxford we now have an annual trophy competition with them as well as iendly contests with the Windrush Bowmen in Witney and Brize Norton Archers at the RAF base. The UK has a great tradition for archery and this is demonstrated by the number of countrywide competitions held throughout the year. Bampton Archers now compete in various county and country wide competitions achieving a number of adult and junior successes over the years.
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The English Longbow The earliest English longbow is dated to 2665BC
English Longbow, 6 6 in (2 m) long, 470 N (105 lbf) draw force. This was used to devastating effect at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) and om its use came the infamous 2 finger salute!
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The Bampton Archery Club by Jeff Dando One of the lesser known sports clubs in the village, the Bampton Archery club started in 1996. It was one of the first clubs to use the newly acquired Sports field and eventually the pavilion. Indeed the club helped to obtain lottery funding for the pavilion’s construction. Currently we have around 35 members, including around a dozen juniors, boys AND girls (between 10 and 16 years of age). The club specialises in target archery which means the use of the more modern bows, usually made of aluminium and carbon fibre as well as wood. However many of our members also have a longbow and the appropriate traditional arrows. These are very much more difficult to use than the modern equivalent; the local deer are fairly safe, believe me! Today, we shoot on most Wednesday evenings throughout the year. During the winter months, we use the pavilion for shooting indoors. We have room for only a 15 yard range inside but by using a small target, it can be as tricky as the outdoor shooting. However, come April (weather permitting), we venture outdoors. Here we can put up multiple targets to match everyone’s skill level. For instance, juniors tend to shoot at 20 and 30 yards whilst some of the more experienced members shoot at 50 or 60 yards. We have one member who represents the RAF at archery and thinks nothing of the 80 yard target!! You’ll note at this point that the Archery world is one of the last bastions of good old Imperial measures; yards, inches, dozens (and the odd pint) are very close to our hearts! Shame that we also use 40cm targets! The club has a substantial stock of bows, arrows, targets and so on for members to use if required. This is rather scarily referred to as the Armoury. In fact the Armourer who looks aer this is a vital member of the club; he/she is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all the kit. We have a wide range of bows suitable for the smallest beginner to the burliest experienced archer, though once someone is bitten by the archery bug, getting one’s own equipment is the norm. 6
The club is fortunate to have five fully qualified coaches to the standard set down by the governing body GNAS (Grand National Archery Society). In this way, we are able to offer beginners courses at the Pavilion. These courses are required by GNAS due to the obvious safety requirements that the sport requires; it consists of a six week course, normally held on Tuesdays at the Pavilion for an hour or so each night. The course covers safety, use and maintenance of equipment, etiquette and of course shooting itself. All equipment is provided during the training programmes. The standard of Archer in Bampton varies om the rather impressive (viz Neil om the RAF) to the cheerful optimist (yours truly). We have the entire ability range; if you do want to improve, the coaches are always on hand to help. If you just want to shoot for fun, that’s fine as well. It really is extremely iendly. We have annual competitions with the Windrush Bowmen of Witney, the Cherwell Archers of Oxford University and also take part in the County Archery Championships. Indeed, one of our juniors is Ladies Indoor Junior Champion two years running, whilst another junior was runner up in the Boy’s section. We also run regular “Have a Go” sessions at various fetes. This year we will be appearing at Aston and Ducklington fetes and also on the Bampton SPAJERS day. Here we use low powered bows and one to one supervision to let members of the public try it out. It always proves very popular and we have attracted many new members in this way (including me). So if you are interested in joining, please give us a call: Gerald Mills, Chairman 850670 Jeff Dando, Secretary 850643 7
PERSONAL EQUIPMENT 1. Recurve Target Bow 2. The String 3. A Stringer 4. Arrows 5. The Quiver 6. Bracer 7. Finger Tab 8. Finger Sling
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Recurve Target Bow
The target recurve bow comprises a central riser, upper and lower limbs, a string, a sight and a stabilizing long rod. It is also known as a take-down bow as all the above components are separate. The stabilizing rod assists against upwards and sidewards movement while on the shot. The illustration show the bow resting on a bowstand which is made of light aluminium. The component parts of the stand unscrew and ďŹ t neatly inside the tube.
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The String The bowstring is made om a continuous strand of Dacron, for wooden handled bows, or Fastflight, for aluminium risers with carbon limbs. The loops are served with nylon thread as is the centre serving. Brass nock-sets are in place to identify the nocking point for the arrow.
The Stringer A useful piece of equipment to help with stringing the bow is the stringer. The pouch is placed over the end of the lower limb and the saddle is placed over the upper limb.
Arrows A common material for modern arrows is aluminium formed into a tube for the sha. The fletches and nock are plastic and the pile is of steel.
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The Quiver The quiver is usually made of leather and ďŹ tted to the waist with a belt. The tassel is for wiping clean those arrows that missed the target and stuck in the ground.
Bracers Bracers are to protect the arm om being hit by the string. The black bracer is for gentlemen and the white one for ladies. When a lady draws a bow the elbow tends to move inwards towards the string hence the upper part of the arm requires protection.
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Finger Tabs Using a finger tab protects the fingers om blistering by the iction of the string. Above are shown le and right handed platform tabs.
Finger Sling The finger sling is to prevent the bow om jumping out of the hand when the string is loosed on a shot. The bow is not gripped at all but held in the U made by the thumb and fingers of the outstretched arm. With the bow in hand one loop of the sling is placed over the thumb while the other is moved round the back of the bow and placed on the forefinger.
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ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT 1. Bracing Height Guage 2. Bow Scale 3. Bees Wax
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Bracing Height Guide This instrument is for measuring the distance between the string and the handle of the bow, known as the Bracing Height. Bow makers will specify the correct measurement for their bows depending on the bow length.e.g. for a 68inch bow, the recommended bracing height is 8in to 9in.
Bow Scale This instrument is for measuring the force required to pull the string normally 28inches om the handle, known as the Draw Weight of the bow. Junior weights are in the range of 16lb to 26lb @ 26in while Senior weights range om 25lb to 50lb @ 28in.
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Bees Wax With the string braced on the bow bees wax is applied to the string then rubbed into the string with a piece of leather. This binds the strands of the string together and also preserves it om the weather.
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ARROW MAINTENANCE 1. Fletching Jig 2. Glues
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Fletching Jig The fletch is placed in the spring clip and fletching cement is layered on the spine of the fletch in a thin stream. The arrow is placed horizontally on the jig under the clip and the nock is pushed onto the retaining spike at the le hand end. The clip is then lowered so that the fletch is in contact with the sha. Aer a minute or two the spring clip is removed and the sha is rotated using the knurled end of the retaining spike which indexes every 120 degrees.
Glues The tip of the arrow, known as the Pile, is fixed to the sha with hot-melt glue (shown at the top of the picture) obtained om DIY shops. Due to the flexible nature of the glue (unlike Super Glue) it does not shatter and leave the Pile behind when withdrawing the arrow, say, om the target stand leg. The arrow cement (shown at the bottom of the picture) is fast drying and used for gluing the nock and fletches to the sha.
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STRING MAKING 1. String Jig 2. String Materials 3. Serving Tool 4 Serving Materials 5. Nock Set Tool 6. Nock Sets
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String Jig A sturdy home-made string jig that provides for even tension in the strands of the bow string being made. Adjustment for different string lengths is obtained by moving the le- hand posts along the slot in the base and re-tightening the pivot nut. The number of strands is determined by the bow weight and the type of material used, usually between 8 and 20 strands.
String Materials On the le is a spool of Dacron B50, a bowstring synthetic material which has great abrasion resistance, high tensile strength and good durability. A popular material for wooden bows and recurve bows with wooden limbs. On the right is a spool of Fastflight, a bowstring synthetic material which is stronger than steel, offering a great arrow speed and durability. Used mainly for recurve bows with carbon limbs. 19
Serving Tool The loops at the string ends, and the centre part of the string is served with a soď‰-twist nylon thread. This protects the string om abrasion. The serving tool assists with the job of winding the thread evenly on the string.
Nock Sets and Pliers The nock set is a thin metal band lined with plastisol. On the right of the picture are two nock sets crimped onto the string, giving a positive nocking point for position of the arrow. The nock set pliers make the crimping task easy.
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The Long Bow The English longbow is a “self-bow”. This is a single piece of wood that is seasoned and shaped for the purpose. The wood of choice was Yew. The heartwood of Yew is able to withstand compression and the sapwood is elastic by nature. Skilful cutting and shaping of the stave in a D-section le a layer of sapwood along the flattened back of the bow. The limbs had horn nocks inserted to protect the limb tips and to ease stringing of the bow. There is no rest for the arrow on the bow it rests simply on the index finger of the archer. The length of the bow was fitted more or less to the height of the individual user, the draw weight om 80lbs to 120 lbs and the draw length between 29in. to 32in. as the draw was “to the ear”.
The Trainer Bow The first bow used in training a beginner to archery. It is made of solid glassfibre, is 52in long and has a pull of 15lb. The arrow rests on the top of the handle when shooting.
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Foam Boss
Straw Boss
Target Pin for Foam Boss
Target Pin for Straw Boss 22
Arrows The wooden shas are made om Port Orford Cedar om the Eastern Rockies in Canada where the unique micro-climate produces unusual timber. The crest identifies the owner of the arrow, the fletches are made om turkey feathers and the nocks are now plastic, formerly bone inserts. The Aluminium Arrow is made by Easton om 7075 alloy with taper-fit nock and one-piece point, an excellent choice for your first set of arrows. The Aluminium/Carbon arrow has an aluminium core wrapped with carbon fibre. Each sha undergoes a sophisticated barrel-shaping process to maximise stiffness and minimise weight. An Olympic-standard arrow.
Target Pile
Fletches Wooden sha used with Longbow
Field Pile
Aluminium Target Arrow Pile Insert
Aluminium Carbon Target Arrow
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Crest
Dress Code
Archers wear Green or White clothing. The shirts are emblazoned with the club logo. 24
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A Bampton Community Archive publication. First published June 2010 BCA-56 www.bamptonarchive.org
£10
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54 PLU