Behind me a whole set of battlements right, 18 Meters up, 20 yards up in the air. That
is probably the first time a longbow has been shot from up here since that siege in 1450.
Hi it's Tod from Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and I am back with Joe Gibbs. Amazing archer,
and he is just the man for this job. There is a burning question that I've wanted to
know for a long time and I don't think you really know the answer to? I don't
know. Which is if you shoot an arrow from up on top of battlements, it's going to go further,
yeah we all know that. How much further? We have found this amazing location Stanton Harcourt Manor
House. It's not just that it's glorious, it's not just that it's full of history
and everything about it is just extraordinary. We'll talk about that later, but this was the
site of an archery siege in 1450. That tower was attacked and besieged in an archery duel;
really interesting stuff. So it is the perfect spot for us. So what we're going to do today
is we're going to go down into the field, Joe's going to shoot for distance, we'll measure it,
we're then going to go up to the top of the tower, we're going to shoot for distance,
we'll measure it. Doesn't get easier than that. But it will give us an answer to a question that
I've wanted to know for years. So yeah so I've got a 140 Swiss yew bow, today is quite a nice crisp
day, I would be happy if I shot over 250 yards that would be a good distance for me. So that's
the kind of thing, 250 maybe 260 yards, anything over that is is a bonus. We have to do a level
shot today because you need to compare the two because you've got a few different factors. Wind,
weather, temperature. And temperature matters that much? Yeah so the the hotter the weather the more
soggier the bow is going to be have less power. Colder; the more powerful it's going to be. It's
it's not overly hot today so we should be able to achieve some fairly good distances. Let's go,
let's do it. Right excellent so the first stage is to find out how far Joe can shoot this bow
today on a flat field, so 250 yards away we got one of our Knight targets over there,
but this is the field that Joe will be shooting into from the tower so the tower is actually over
that way. So we're going to do that next up, but first how far can you shoot today? Let's have a
go.
So here's our man at 250 yards all your arrows are beyond. Thank God. So this is our furthest
one it's 19 yards from here to the target, the target was 250 yards from where you shot. 269
that's that's good, that's good for a tied bow yeah. Not that tired! So 269 yards and
well let's go and do it from the tower so we'll see what we get from there. Let's
go. We're on top of the tower roof now and Joe is going to be shooting at the target all the
way over there, but before Joe does his shooting I've got to tell you a little bit about why this
place is so special and why we're doing it from here. Harcourt House has an amazing history.
So Robert Harcourt was a knight who came over with William the Conqueror and it is the same
family that lives here now. The land was granted to them in the 1100s in that intervening period
of countless generations other amazing things have happened and one of the really notable ones
is in 1448 there was an altercation and Robert Harcourt, another Robert Harcourt, was on the way
through at Coventry, met Sir Humphrey Stafford's retinue coming the other way. There was a fight,
some people died, went to court, didn't get resolved 1450. They lost the plot and they
came down here with a retinue of 200 guys and they attacked it. The house is not a fortified house,
so they retreated to the either the church or the chapel tower, we're not sure which. So this is the
chapel roof, that's the church but the top of that church tower might not have been here at the time,
it's a later addition, but what we do know was there was an archery duel. 200 guys outside,
don't know how many archers, apparently over a thousand arrows shot, but only one death. They
laid siege to this place for 6 hours and then they ran and we don't really know what happened, but
I think probably it's that thing where it's like a bit of a guerrilla raid; you come in you cause
trouble and before the constables from Oxford can come out and sort it, you're off again and I think
that's probably why it's only 6 hours. However what it does do is give us an opportunity to shoot
from this roof here where proper medieval archers being attacked would have shot. You're going to
shoot from here out into the field where we were before and compare it to that flat shooting. Now
at the moment we're 18 M up about 20 yards up in stories that is about 5 stories high to give you
an idea. Okay have you got any guesses on what's going to happen? I have got a guess and I'll
explain why at the end or why not I'm right or not I don't know. I'm sure you got a guess? Yeah
I reckon 20, I'm thinking about 20 yards 20 yards. I'm thinking about five or six, I think it will
make very little difference, I've got a reason for that I might be utterly wrong. So anyway let's
find out and put a pint of beer on it? Yeah let's do it. It's nice pub across the road. Brilliant.
But there's a little bit of Health and Safety here because obviously our lines of sight are not
great in this location, so I've got some spotters out, I'm just going to call them now so we know
that it's safe out there where we're shooting. All good? Clear. Clear. Brilliant, Joe take it
away.
Great stuff and that is probably the first time a longbow has been shot from up here since that
siege in 1450. How do you think you did? Could you see where they went? Yeah I could see where
they went, I think they have definitely gone a bit further, it's a bit off-putting standing up here
and shooting I've got these yeah the roof and the lead bits um but yeah I think I definitely
think there's a it's got some some more yardage in it for sure. All right I mean do you feel
like for the sake because it is a different environment here, for the sake of helping out
a bit do you want another couple of shots or do you want to call it a day? No let's have
a couple more shots. You go for it. I mean it's not every day you get to do this is it? Exactly,
so I'll have two for distance and then one at the Knight. Just amazes me every single
time.
Is this last one for the knight? You going to buy
me two pints of beer if I get it? Buy you a crate if you hit the knight from
here. I tell you what, should I just empty the quiver at it? Yeah go for
it.
You compensating for the wind? I am a little, I'm get I'm getting shoved over that way yeah
for the amount of wind that there is it's more maybe because we're up high.
yeah
Feel a little bit used up? Yeah bit tired now. I'll just remind everybody, 140b bow. You couldn't
do another minute of that I'm guessing. No no. That was about your limit yeah? I could maybe done
couple more arrows, but I want a break after that yeah. Because again looking at the description of
what happened here there were a 1,000 arrows shot over a 6-hour period, 200 guys, don't know how
many of them were archers, but you know that is only one arrow an hour per person who was present.
You know what, it was not is some sort of medieval machine gun. No it is hard work to keep keep it up
like that you to be honest it's that's unfeasible to do that, you would want a couple a couple
minutes between shots because you'll be losing distance and you'll be losing accuracy. Exactly.
Yeah and arrows are precious, especially out on campaign you know, or in a siege. Anyway Joe,
brilliant. Right let's get see what we got. Okay well we're back in the field now where
they landed, we're amongst your bonus shots where you were shooting a little bit flatter, a little
bit less for distance. Yeah a little bit less; it was bit difficult to see where they were landing
especially in front of this, the main target that we had up, so a lot of it was actually guesswork.
But yeah I'm pretty happy with a few of these shots to be fair. Yeah I mean it's a lovely line
and we're just coming up to it now, but you got one four five yards short. But now we're coming
up to the ones where you shot for distance. So we do know which ones these were, we marked them up.
So we got our five now which have gone, must be said significantly past; I think your pint might
be looking safe Joe. I'm feeling thirsty! So our target there that you were shooting at 250 yards.
On the flat you got 269 yards, 296, 296. So 27 yards further from shooting up there, so it's fair
to say you are right I am wrong. Thank you, which is really annoying but it's also good because
that's the whole reason that we do this stuff, because we don't actually know. So I'm just going
to nick this arrow and explain what my thinking was, why I thought it wouldn't be much. When you
shoot an arrow it goes up obviously at a steep angle, but then as the speed and the energy gets
lost, flattens out and then the drag starts to slow it down as well and you end up with an arrow
angle which is completely different on landing to it is on launch. And so I was thinking that those
18 Meters extra, the arrow is going really quite obliquely and it's not going to make very much
difference on distance. Completely wrong, made a massive difference. Anyway so it is a really
simple conclusion and one that is staggeringly obvious I am sure. You shoot a longbow from high
up and it will go significantly further. But we've got battlements to play with, we got a
siege to talk about and we all want to know the differences between long bows and crossbows,
so I brought myself a windlass bow and that's going to be our next film. We're going to go up
again to the roof and we're going to have another chat. See you again. Joe thank you. Thank you.