World Cup Special Edition
No one could fail to notice that this month sees the start of the worlds biggest sporting event, of course it's the world cup. So let's kick off this months edition by saying "Football - it's a game of over paid Prima donnas". I'm sure over the course of the next month or so the word Legend and Hero will be flung out with regularity for a bunch of highly paid people who kick an inflated pigs bladder about.
Well two can play at that game and we can play about with pigs too (although the highly paid part is a little off the mark). This month we have been busy doing all the things you wish you had the time or inclination to do. Have you ever wondered how powerful and devastating the English longbow was, we have, a LOT so we finally got around to testing a few out on something which was about as close to a French man as was legally possible. Back by popular demand is Geoff Towers with his description of the Battle of Homildon Hill, but not happy just to read the books, Geoff got his walking boots on and went to see how accurate the description the battle really was.
Last week Steve and I were invited to view and hold the Longbows recovered from the Mary Rose and spent an excellent day with Alex Hildred, maritime archaeologist and Mary Rose ordnance expert talking about the bows. As a preview to the full article we look at the history of the Mary Rose.
We also of course have the regular features, shot of the month and recap of the latest reviews. We have also managed to secure a fantastic deal for magazine subscribers, the boys at WAC Archery have given us a discount on their excellent arrow stands.
Northumbeland Thursday 14th September 1402
The Sun, cool red in the early dawn. Shafts of Sunlight picking out the tops of the long low hills of the Teviot. No light was to be seen in the inky black shadows of the valley below, where Riccarton lay.
Standing still, like statues, the Scottish host waited hoar breathed, as now the yellow orb cleared the Cheviot hills to the East and cast its gold upon the land......
Archibold of Archibold, 4 th Earl of Douglas, spurred his horse, the Host , no sound except the jangle of harness and dull thud of hoof on moss, moved behind him and fell, like a bloody wraith upon an unsuspecting England.
Surrounded by his companions and fellow knights the great Douglas and his army 10,000 strong bit deep into English bone on that hot September morn, destroying settlements, farmsteads, homes, enslaving the choicest young and slaughtering all else. Highly prized cattle and horses taken and added to the plunder of those heady weeks, whilst to the East, separated by the hills of Cheviot, Hotspur waited?
Durham, burnt and plundered. Now to return. Up past Alnwick, where was Hotspur? A last grasp at riches in the ashes of Newcastle, fast march to Coldstream, across the Tweed and home, a good plan, a very good plan, but where was Hotspur?
Hotspur was at Homildon Hill.
It was the morning of September the 14th 1402, Douglas was at Wooler two miles to the South of Homildon. Perceiving that an English army at least of equal strength, blocked his way home. It was either leave the great plunder, run, or fight...He chose to fight.
Hotspur had moved his army to the plain of Red Riggs, a better position athwart the road to Coldstream, to block the Scots. Douglas, to give himself every advantage, moved his army to the lower slopes of Homildon, leaving his plunder and useless mouths at Wooler.
At noon, the rival armies were set before each other. The feelings of one, confident, seasoned, sated with English blood and welcomed more, the other? Cold, grim and full of hate, determined that no Scot would leave the day as he came into it!
The Earl of March, a renegade Scot, grasped the bridle of Sir Harry Hotspur, to reign him in from a great charge of the English host at the Scots.... "At much expense Sire!" "You have Welsh and English archers in your employ" "I say use them and put them ( the Scots ) to such discomfort"
What followed, was not "discomfort" as the Earl of March would have it, but a massacre on a scale not seen since Crecy sixty years before. The archers, supremely skilled, trained since boyhood to draw the great warbow, killed the Scots spearmen where they stood. Moving slowly forward, decreasing the range with every step and shooting steadily at six arrows per minute, brought down on the heads of the Scots a roaring , fluttering rain of death that pierced even the stoutest heart and shield. Nothing could deny those astonishing bowmen. The Douglas, an eye lost from it socket, five wounds on his body, could find no answer, he did nothing. Men dead and dying all around him, the arrows splitting spears and armour as if they were but corn stalks and hide, the sheer quantity made them bristle like hedgehogs.
Sir John Swinton, a brave border knight exclaimed; Why stand we here to be shot like deer and marked down by the enemy? Where is our wanted courage? Are we to be still and have our hands nailed to our lances? Follow me and let us at least sell our lives as dearly as we can!
This brave man at the head of 100 of his followers charged the archers, but were shot down to a man.
Seeing this desperate effort come bloodily to nought the Scots main body began to move toward their tormentors. Calmly the archers moved back, still shooting steadily, dropping the Scots by the hundred At last even the bravest of men has a breaking point and seeing the English battle array untouched and ready to pounce like a lion to it's prey. The Scots broke.
Yes it was every man for himself, but hardly any made it. The Tweed at Coldstream was full of bodies of horses and men. The battlefield littered with most of the army that had crossed the Teviotdale. Some were prisoner and if 'ordinary' sold to bondage, if 'knightly',like the Douglas, ransomed.
This battle took place a mere 13 years before that other great victory gained by the archers under Henry the 5th at Agincourt. But that victory was won with the equal participation of the men at arms. In the battle of Homildon hill the English main body were mere spectators to the Scottish rout, by those incomparable bowmen, perhaps the greatest archers the world has ever seen.......In Under One hour destroyed a Seasoned Scots army of 10,000 men.
And the number of archers?
800 !
As a postscipt to this article. Steve and I did a battlefield investigation in 2003 on Homildon hill.
Armed with two war bows of 120 and 130 lb draweights. A box of sheaf arrows 32" long 1/2" dia, 7 3/4" long fletches, triangular, zero to 5/8" high at the nock end. We shot them from Harehope hill to Homildon hill, both of which are connected to each other by a saddle. Most battle accounts state that the archers shot from Harehope hill over to Homildon. Apart from the fact that any force placing itself on Harehope is dangerously exposed, separated from the main force down, (a mile away) on the Red Riggs. And the damming fact that for all the archers prowess, they could not shoot the war bow over 1/2 a mile. Nor could we!
The Archers shot on the Red Riggs up to the slopes of Homildon,protected by the main body of the English men at arms and cavalry ( if they were not dismounted ), as they have always been.
Geoff Towers.
Warbow Vrs Body Armour
The vast majority of archers, at least in Europe don't hunt, in fact in the UK 
hunting is banned with a bow and arrow, we don't want to get in to that particular discussion because the point we want to make is that even though we don't all hunt we do know that a bow and arrow is a lethal weapon.
From the moment bows became a weapon of war it became essential to protect yourself from it's power, this particular arms race peaked in the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe when English armies were made up of 75% archers wielding bows of such enormous power that even today skeletal remains from battlefields can be identified as archers by the twisted spines and increased bone densities of these highly specialised warriors. The bows got bigger and the armour got better.
Todays soldiers still wear armour to protect from ballistic threats and we thought it would be a fun to see how effective modern armour might be against a projectile weapon that reached its zenith almost 700 years ago.
Over a few beers a plan took shape. We would require some mannequin to wear the armour, enter Hugo the half a pig ! Hugo would serve a dual purpose, firstly he could wear the armour, the resultant damage from any arrow which defeated the armour would be clearly visible and secondly shooting a Warbow or indeed any bow tends to sharpen ones appetite so once he had been shot he could be BBQ'ed.
We also thought to test some chain mail*, a Stab Vest**, a Ballistic vest*** and a riot Helmet**. Hugo was in for an exciting day.
The first Armour we looked at was a vest very kindly supplied by Richard Darby of LBA intenational, with specs as shown in the photo to the right.
The bows at our disposal were Ron Palmer 94#, Roy King 115# and a 120# by Richard Head, we also had a selection of bows ranging from a 45# ACS, a 58#Rivers Edge and even an Anneewakee Addiction at 48#.
As for arrows, we had a huge selection of replica Medieval shafts, from Fluted bodkins and type 10's ( which we intended to test against the chain mail) to huge tanged type 15's and even sharp broadheads and square bodkins - if the thought of a roasted pig hadn't got our juices going then the sight of all this hardware certainly did the trick.
We were not surprised to find that none of the bows could penetrate the armour with any of the bodkins, what a bigger bow might have been able to achieve we don't know as we didn't have one, however despite the vest being designed to defeat bladed weapons we were thrilled to find that the finest and sharpest broadheads could at least stick in and penetrate through the other side at times over an inch and a half and almost 2", which doesn't sound that impressive, but, we had in attendance an officer chaperoning the kit supplied by the Police which all had to be returned afterwards. He told us that even an inch and a half or 2" of penetration in the right place can be lethal.
None of us had any hopes that a 
full on riot helmet could be defeated, with it's ballistics visor and what felt like a multi-layered smooth rounded exterior we were sure to break plenty of arrows, I couldn't bring myself to use arrows from my replica collection, with their whipped fletching and hand cut feathers. So we used some arrows we had prepared earlier in the week, no fancy fletching just a bare shaft, glued on feathers and a replica bodkin point. The visor was soon cracked and broken but did not shatter. after several smashed arrows one must have hit squarely from the side and stuck in, when we checked the inside it had not gone all the way through. On the next end of arrows most skimmed off, almost as an afterthought I grabbed one last arrow with a field point. Steady, loose and I was rewarded with a solid thump as the arrow struck home, above the visor and in to the fore head, it had gone deep with 5 inches of penetration, our Police officer stood for some while chewing his lip with the helmet in his hand. With that as incentive I decided to try a couple of medieval sheaf arrows. My first broke off at the tip leaving an inch protruding on the inside, my 2nd and 3rd are shown below, no doubt a full 150# draw weight warbow could probably send the arrow clean through both sides.
Our second vest supplied by the Police force fared no better than the first and once again we were able to get almost 1" of penetration with a broadhead but no joy from the bodkin heads. Not at all surprising as the heavy heads had been designed to defeat plate or mail armour and not modern ceramic or Kevlar composites.
I fancied my chances against the mail of which we had 3 styles supplied by Mike Willby from Armchair Armoury. Firstly an imported riveted mail, the second is 8mm, round section HS3 steel butted mail and the last is made from 8mm steel spring washers. Of course chain mail was primarily used to stop cutting and slashing weapon, however used over a jack or padded gambeson would provide a considerable amount of protection.
Even from the first shot it was plain that mail was the last thing you would want to wear when being shot at with a bow, in all cases the arrows penetrated. When using bodkins and the long needlepoint bodkins, they went through it as if the mail were made from nothing more than cotton. The real cringe making fact was the difficulty in withdrawing an arrow that had penetrated, the mail links "grabbed" the shaft and the links in many cases had dug right in to the 1/2" sheaf arrow shaft, so there you would have been with an arrow stuck in you which could not be removed and a mail vest which also could also not be removed on account of the arrow pinning it to you, we didn't notice any links being driven into any of the wounds but imagine this could also be an issue. After each shot we spent an age getting the arrows out of the mail. Another thing which became apparent was how hot the mail got when out in the sun, within a few minutes it was almost too hot to handle. What it would be like to be encased in the stuff is almost too painful to imagine, A templar or hospitaller knight out in the middle east in 1190 would have cooked in very short time.
For the majority of those on the battle field, armour of any sort 
was something which didn't even enter the equation, perhaps a leather jerkin or a padded jack but intrinsically 90% of combatants were turning up for a ruck in their "normal" everyday rags. How would these folk fare against a warbow ?
A pig has a bone structure which although similar to that of a person is in fact much stronger and tougher, the spine in particular is staggeringly thick, with each vertebrae being as big as a fist and so close to it's neighbour that you would think they were in fact all one long spinal bone.
120# of warbow coupled with a large type 15 smashing through 
ribs and spine sending shards splintering off makes a sound that is quite distinctive, it was accompanied by the gasps and expletives of all those present, we followed it with some broadheads and bodkins all of which punched in to and in most cases right through Hugo, even through the shoulder joint, and shoulder blade. It's easy to forget that the armour makers were constantly seeking new and improved ways to create plate protection precisely because English Longbows could hardly be stopped even by the best armour. To have to face those same archers with nothing more than your soiled pyjamas was nothing less than a death wish. I shot a dozen more broadheads trying to butcher myself out a couple of loin chops, but succeeded in only jamming 2 arrows in to the spine which required the attention of our real butcher ( Martin Hales) with his trusty knife.
Once Andy and I had completed our tests it was open season on poor Hugo and the 20 or so guests were invited to test out their own bows and some of the Longbows (if they could draw them).
One of the biggest surprises of the day were a couple of arrows I made years ago when I was learning to Knapp flint & stone. I made a couple of stone points which I intended to use as Atlatl points, anyway I secured them to some half inch shafts and this was the first time they had ever been shot. I only used them against a naked Hugo for fear of breaking them, in fact I was sure they would break if they hit bone but to my astonishment they went through everything with no damage at all, shoulder, spine or even ribs they just smashed their way through, totally functional and devastatingly effective.
Martin took down Hugo and with chopper in hand provided us all a fabulous feast of BBQ'ed pork - There is nothing like shooting your own lunch !!
If the pictures are not enough to draw a conclusion then I will spell it out. The warbow is still a match for some types of armour, the bows we used were of weights up to 120#. Even smaller bows of 90# were still able to send very heavy arrows at speeds high enough to cause major damage at shorter ranges. The debate as to the draw weights of medieval bows still continues and in next months edition we have a report of our trip to the back rooms of the Mary Rose collection, where, with our white gloved hands we got up close and personal with the real thing.
Our grateful thanks go to to following for helping with this particular project:-
* Mike Willby from Armchair armoury for the chain mail. www.armchair-armoury.co.uk
Established 20 years ago, we have supplied DIY kits and made to measure items to re-enactors, museums, theatres and for TV and films. Of especial interest to Archers are our range of Bracers, both in plate and chainmail also Collars and Mantles made with our own mandrel wound HS3 Steel, or Stainless Steel rings. Oil Blackened, Pure Brass and Phosphor-Bronze rings, also made by us, can add the decoration to your unique item of armour.** Richard Darby of LBA international for the Stab vest. www.lbainternational.com
LBA International Limited - World leaders in lightweight body armour, bullet proof vests, military helmets and ballistic protection manufacturing*** The Kent Police for the Ballistics vest and riot helmet
Mark of Preston Family butchers for the superb pig.
Special offer for Archers Review readers
This month Archers-Review has teamed up with WAC archery to offer you folks a superb deal on one of thier Custom Arrow Stands. You will find the review here... WAC Custom Arrow Stand Review
You pay only £18.99. plus p&p
This offer is valid until 30th July at over 30% DISCOUNT off the price.
To grab this incredible offer click this link to mail WAC and reserve yours NOW.
UK Atlatl Championship
It's not often that one gets the chance to compete in a national level championships. Rarer still is the opportunity to partake in two in the same week, fresh from the NFAS National 3D archery championships the following week saw the first ever UK Atlatl Championship. Steve and I have been using Atlatl's for around 6 years and during that time had been given permission by the World Atlatl Association to run the official UK championships, it has taken us a while to organise the first event and things came together this year.
I'm sure the question on your lips is what exactly is an Atlatl, well it is the name given to a number of similar hunting weapons developed independently across the world at various points in history. They first appeared in the Middle Paleolithic period in Europe, at various places, but rather fittingly in Clacton-on-Sea which is just a short dart throw away form the site of this years UK championships in Canterbury, Kent. The Atlatl, pronounced `At-latl` is a spear thrower, a small hand held launcher on which a 'dart' is attached, the user launches the dart using the upper arm and wrist. The technique is all important and it is this that gives the Atlatl it's awesome range and allowed women and children to become effective hunters. So effective is the weapon that the distance record is a very impressive 252 yards and the darts can travel at over 100km/h. The bow and arrow replaced the Atlatl in Europe during the Epi-Paleolithic period (10,000 years ago) but it still remained popular in Australia in the form of the Woomera and in the Americas, having crossed the Bering Land Bridge, travelling south and being a weapon used by the Aztecs. The word Atlatl is in fact from the Nahuatl language used by the Aztecs, they were the most recent civilisation to use the weapons widely and was common during the Spanish conquest of South America and it is here we have the most vivid picture of their practical use in Spanish literature.
For the UK Championships we adopted the ISAC rules rather than the European Round. You can look at the finer points of the rules but the basis is 5 throws each from 15 and 20 meters. The target face is similar to a large archery target and consists of 6 scoring zones, scoring X, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6. We had two targets available so could throw in pairs, each competitor taking their turn in name sequence. The field was a mix of abilities, whith some excellent competitors well versed in the arts of the Atlatl and the scores were racking up at a fair pace. After the first round it was close at the top with 3 people in the men's competition all tied on 38, the ladies competition was a little less open with a clear leader on 34.
We reset the throwing line as we went back to the second distance of 20 meters, to make things a little more exciting we ordered so that that those with the lowest scores from the first round were to throw first. The lead changed a number of times in both the mens and ladies competitions and it was only until the last few throws that a clear winner was found.
So it is with great honour we announce the medal winners.
Gents UK Atlatl Championship 2010
1st Steve Nicholson
2nd Steve Rand
Joint 3rd Richard Ashbee and Greg Holsworthy
Ladies UK Atlatl Championship 2010
1st Angela Holsworthy
2nd Caroline Harrison
3rd Jo Wall
Congratulations to all the winners.
The Mary Rose
A young boy, in pyjamas, sits on an old thread bare sofa eating toast, it is 09:03 am in October 11th 1982 and rather unusually for this time in the morning there is actually something to watch on television. But this isn't some cartoon, some piece of television drivel this is the event of the century. This is his generations moon landing, something so momentous and special that it will live in the mind for many years to come. Because at 09:03 am on that morning he sets eyes on something that, other than a relatively small team of divers, people have not seen in nearly 500 years, this is the Mary Rose, something with huge historic importance and also a huge culmination of many years effort and genius to raise it from it's watery grave. Of course that young boy was me and I sat transfixed as the yellow lifting cradle emerged from the water followed by the remains of the Mary Rose itself, a huge part of our national heritage pulled from the water by a futuristic giant set of yellow fingers. However this single event, watched by millions, was only a small part of the work done before and after at the Mary Rose site which gave us an absolutely invaluable window on a period in our history.
The vast majority of Mary Rose was originally built between 1510 and 1511 in Portsmouth, before being taken to London where the decking, rigging and armaments were fitted. The vessel had four levels, the hold at the very bottom used as a galley, storage area and area to store the ballast to aid in the stability of the vessel. Above the hold was the orlop which was also used to store equipment, as with the hold this was divided in to sections. Next was the main deck which housed the vessels main guns, these could be used via the gun ports, of which there were 7 on each side. Also to the stern and bow of main deck were cabins used by the barber-surgeon, pilot, carpenter and possibly by various other officers and the master gunner. Above the main deck was the upper deck, the waist of which was to all intents and purposes open, but did have netting and walkway suspended above it. This open part of the ship was the main area for fighting and housed a mix of heavy and light guns The walkway spanned the two castles at the stern and bow of the ship, these castles would have had further decks, how many is unclear as this part of the ship had not survived in the water after the ship sank, however using picture sources, gun inventories and knowledge of other contemporary ships it is likely to have had three decks on both castles. While none of the sails have survived again evidence suggests that there would have been nine or ten flown from four masts and a bowsprit.
The Mary Rose was a warship and was not equipped to undertake long sea voyages, what room there was on board was used to pack as many weapons on as possible. Even without the physical evidence the picture of the vessels armaments was fairly well know as there are two surviving documents, an inventory from 1541 and the Anthony Roll Inventory from 1546. This was the dawn of hand held guns and the armaments were a mix of old and new, cannons of various sizes such as cannons, demi cannons, culveryns, sakers and falcons, hand weapons such as bollock daggers, pikes and bills, muskets and shieldguns and mass of yew bows and arrows (more, in fact much more on these later). This huge number of weapons required just as much manpower to use it and the crew would number around 400, made up of approximately 185 soldiers, 200 mariners 30 gunners and various other officers.
All of these weapons of course were not for show and the Mary Rose was involved in a number of significant sea battles. Her first action was as Sir Edward Howards flagship in the First French war as part of a fleet taking part in a joint operation with the Spanish against the French, the 18 vessels were to engage the French fleet in the English Channel while the Spanish attacked in the Bay of Biscay. The English ships captured 12 vessels before embarking on a raiding trip to Brittany where they destroyed a number of settlements. A stop off in Southampton in June was quickly followed by the Battle of St. Mathieu in which the English ships led by the Mary Rose bombarded the French causing them to retreat, however the Cordeliere from the French port of Brest stayed to fight resulting in one of the ships powder magazine exploding and setting light to herself and the British ship Regent. The fleet went on to capture and burn a number of French ships, but was then forced back to Cornwall by storms before their attack of Brest was complete.
In the following year, 1513, the Mary Rose was once again involved in a attempt to take Brest, however the attempt failed when Sir Howard's ill fated raid ended in him being separated from his troops and getting killed. The fleet which was of course now without an admiral and low on supplies returned to Plymouth. Adverse weather stopped the fleet from completing a planned attack on Britanny and the ship didn't see significant action for the rest of the First French war which ended in late 1514.
The Mary Rose spent the next few years, between 1514 and 1522, out of military action as the end of the First French war had reduced the need for fighting vessels. She was used in 1520 to protect Henry VIII's fleet on route to France for the meeting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold with the French king Francis I, the meeting clearly didn't go as well as it could have gone as a second French war broke out just two years later in 1522. The Mary Rose saw only limited action in this second French war, mainly as protection for troop transport ships and the war ended in 1525.
We next see the Mary Rose in historical records in 1528 when she and a number of other vessels were sent to Portsmouth for a major refit. What this entailed exactly is unclear as the reference to this in a document by Thomas Cromwell states the vessel was to be 'made new'.
It wasn't long before Henry VIII was again at war with France, in May 1545 the French had amassed a fleet at the Seine estuary which set sail for England, arriving in the Solent, the strait between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, in July of the same year. The Mary Rose was part of a force of 80 ships, however rather than tackle the French fleet in the Solent they retreated in to Portsmouth harbour. An initial exchanged took place on the 18th July, but it wasn't until the following day that the Mary Rose took part in her final action, the battle of the Solent. The English fleet was immobilised by a lack of breeze, the French used their galleys, but in the evening the wind arrived and allowed the Mary Rose and Henry Grace Dieu to attack. What happened next is open to a large about of speculation, for what ever reason the Mary Rose began to take on water, possibly as a result of open gun ports and a manoeuvre which resulted in the vessel leaning. Because of the covering of rope on the open deck structure even those capable of accessing the deck were unable to escape and there were less than 35 survivors from a crew of over 400.
Most people would consider that the end of the story until the rediscovery in 1971, but that is not the case. As soon as the ship went down attempts were made to recover as much of her as possible. William Paget the secretary of state ordered a salvage attempt just a few days after the sinking, it wasn't unusual to attempt such a feat even in the 16th century as two empty ships could be used to raise such a vast vessel in stages. In the case of the Mary Rose the two ships used were the Jesus (of Lubeck) and Samson and a team of Venetian mariners and a Venetian carpenter were drafted in as they were experts in the process. However the Mary Rose had rested at an angle and had become stuck in clay meaning the process of placing cables under the vessel was impossible. The mariners attempted to attach the cables to the main mast but his broke off in the process and the attempt to raise the ship had failed. The project was successful in salvaging some guns, rigging and few other items but nothing more, further salvage operations took place in 1547 and 1549 where more guns were recovered. Eventually the wreck was covered in silt and seaweed leaving half of it exposed which due to the effects of sand and silt carried by the currents the more exposed half deteriorated and eventually collapsed. The remaining side of the ship was eventually covered in layers of sediment, protecting the wreck and it's contents.
The wreck was rediscovered again in 1836 by a group of fishermen, whose nets had snagged on the wooden beams of the wreck which had become exposed. They called in a diver, Henry Abbinett who helped free the nets and became the first person to see the ship for close to 300 years. John Deane, the inventor of one of the first practical diving helmets searched the site along with William Edwards and they recovered a number of items including guns which identified the wreck as the Mary Rose. Further dives were made in 1840 where he used bomb shells to gain access to the inside of the ship, however significant damage wasn't caused and the wreck was once again lost.
....and so we come full circle to me sitting in front of that TV watching as the Mary Rose broke through the waves for the first time in nearly 500 years. Of course the raising was only a very small part of a monumental effort undertaken in the previous 20 years, but we will leave that story until later.
Hold on you say what has this got to do with archery.... well dear readers, along with the cannons, wood plates, surgeons equipment, bollock knives and the other 19,000 items recovered from the Mary Rose the most significant find in archery archaeological history was discovered, a number of longbows were found scattered across the ship but more importantly were chests full of longbows. These were almost perfectly stored and they have survived in breath taking condition and form the best records we have of what longbows were like when they were an active weapon of war. Steve and I were privileged enough to be invited to see and handle the bows, but of course there is far too much to say about them here, so you will have to wait until next month to read all about them.
While many of the artefacts mentioned in this article are on display in the Mary Rose museum, which is over 300 metres from the ship herself, there is space to display just 6% of all the 19,000 Tudor items recovered with the wreck.
The Mary Rose Trust, the charity charged with the Tudor flagship’s preservation, is building a purpose built new Mary Rose Museum which will exhibit over 60% of the recovered artefacts directly alongside the ship and secure the future of the Mary Rose and her contents for generations to come.
The Trust’s Mary Rose 500 public appeal is an important part of the final funding drive towards the £35 million needed to complete this historic project and is seeking 500 individuals, schools, businesses and organisations to symbolically become the ‘new crew’ of the Tudor warship. Each new crew member is asked to raise £500 towards the Mary Rose 500 appeal’s £250,000 target. To join the Mary Rose’s ‘new crew’ or for further information visit www.maryrose500.org
Shot of the Month
Pat Fleming
It's been a tough day, 30 targets down, 6 to go and possibly the glory of medals. Lets give up a bit of sympathy for Pat as she stepped up to the peg, full of hope, drew back and then ended up doing this....
Better luck next time Pat.
Archers Review is dedicated to carrying on the great tradition of sharing archery knowledge, in many ways we are still re-discovering the skills of our forefathers, unlike just about any other competitive sport, in archery the learning never stops, as we grow as archers the enjoyment increases, so we invite you to share with us all the skills, tips and hints that will help us all to be the best archer we can be.
If you have something to add feel free to mail in your articles, it can be on any aspect of archery from training to bow set up, a quick hunting tip or a specific archery question you would like to know the answer to, someone somewhere will have an answer for you.
