English Long Bow.

[funkymoped]

there have been thousands of weapons made in the last couple of years, but one of my favourites is the English long bow... read a small article about this weapon some years ago, some were made with a 100pound pull on them ! can you imagine the amount of physical strength needed in the upper body to be able to hold and pull, then release accurately !?!?!

these bowmen were true craftsmen. the bone in the upper body would grow thicker to compensate for the stresses of working these armour piercing beasts..

what can i say other than "amazing weapon"

[dot.hawkes]

in the middle ages it was the duty of every male over the age of 14 (if i recall right, cos I was there) to practice the bow and arrow for an hour every day. It was the law.

[unruliejulie]

ha ha, can you imagine the 14 year olds of today doing that????? They'd just be shooting each other with them!

[funkymoped]

dot, i dont think that law has ever been changed.. in Lichfield, by the cathederal there is a lovely little cottage. on the front of the house there is a plaque stating the owner can still kill Welsh men with his bow and arrow !!!!! but only on sundays... if im wrong, would someone please correct me.

[dot.hawkes]

Oh no your not wrong, that was one of the main purposes of the practise. Coincidentally my son said to me today there aren't enough military conquests going on and maybe we should invade Scotland, I argued that there aren't just Scottish people living in Scotland now there are hundreds of nationalities, so he said, well France then, only the french live there. (apologies if maximo gets wind of this )

[funkymoped]

the lads got his head screwed on... lookout france, the kids are comin ! (again !) lol

[KebabMeister]

Isn't that where the insult 'V' sign comes from? English bowmen/soldiers would cut off the two string pulling fingers of the French. To rub salt into the wound the English would then give them the V to show that they had their fingers and French didn't. Correct me if I'm wrong

[parkesquay]

The is a series of historical books(novels)by Bernard Cornwell called The Grail Quest of which the first one is call Harlequin (The Archers Tail). Anyway although it is a search for the Holy grail the Hero is a longbowman. Really good atmospheric stuff about what it was like to do battle against the french crossbows. Worth a read just for the reconstructive history lesson. In case you didn't know he is also the author of the Sharpe novels.

[CLOWN TICKLE]

I love the longbow and the actor Robert Hardy is really into them, many archers now practice in the pub with darts

[sddsddean]

Also longbows were made out of Yew. This is why nearly every churchyard has a Yew tree in it, so there was always new 'stock' available.

[funkymoped]

spot on kebab...... i think the french deserved it, back in those days... LOL.

[waimarie]

Hi parkesquay, The 'Archers Tail' ??

[rugeleyboy]

i am going to lichfield tomorrow and i will be looking for that house!!

[JamesEverton]

There's no real evidence for the longbowmen 'V-sign' story. Although it's a popular explanation, it's probably a canard. Having said that, there doesn't seem to be any consensus on the origin of the symbol.

[funkymoped]

R.B. its to the right of the cathederal.

[jake-the-peg]

While we're pouring cold water on myths yew trees weren't planted in churchyards for bows.

Yew trees are of course evergreen are incredibly long lived and as such have been associated with eternal life for thousands of years - predating the longbow for centuries.

In fact there's a yew tree in a Scottish graveyard that I believe is thought to be not only older than the church there but older than Christianity itself

[mycats]

funkymoped - A 100 pound draw weight !?? Good grief. I have a beautiful crossbow, that I love, it has a polished wooden stock and it is a lovely thing :-) but recently I had to get a new prod because the wooden original one split. The gave me a kinda metal type one (dont know what it actually is lol) and I hate it. And to make it worse the draw weight is so strong I cant even load it anymore :-(

Thats right jake-the-peg ! It's the Fortingale yew, it's just a couple of miles from me (for anyone thinking of invading Scotland lol)
http://www.fortunecity.com/athena/exercise/2492/FORTINGALL/id17.htm

[dot.hawkes]

but do you practise every day mycat?

[dot.hawkes]

oh you're not a bloke are you lol!

[mycats]

A BLOKE?? Gee thanks Dotty lol

[WoWo]

I'm an Archer, my brother-in-law has a long bow but it only has a draw weight of 40 pounds not too bad in general but a bit mental when you shoot 600 arrows in a day as we did the week before last.

I have shot a 75 pounder and that was hard enough, went straight through a car door we were using as a target (not attached to a car I hasten to add).