Their glory days may have been more than 500 years ago, but longbows have not been entirely consigned to history. Nick Morrison meets one man who is keeping the tradition alive.
AS the crowds queued up to have a go at firing arrows, Dennis Brown's attention was drawn to another corner of the mock-mediaeval camp. While the costumed volunteers instructed enthusiasts in the use of modern fibreglass bows, it was something altogether more traditional which was catching Dennis' eye.
"In the corner, they had about a dozen longbows, and I said to my wife that I would love to have a go," he says. "So my wife put me back in the queue and asked them if I could try the longbow.
"I will always remember - the first arrow I shot went in the top left hand corner of the target. So I adjusted the point of aim and put the next five arrows in the gold. It was only about 30 or 40 yards away but it was the first time I had held a proper bow.
"They had some balloons on the target next door so they gave me half a dozen arrows and I popped five out of six balloons."
That experience at an open day at Middleham Castle in North Yorkshire four years ago may have been the first time Dennis had handled a proper longbow, but his obsession had started much earlier.
"Everybody when they're young, cuts a switch from the hedge and pretends they're Robin Hood, and for me that never went away. I was forever making bows and arrows and going down the local shop and buying a bit of bamboo and tying string across.
"I have always had a thing for the medieval era and the zenith of the English longbowman. My stepson introduced me to wargaming and the only models I ever wanted to make and paint were the archers."
After his success at Middleham, Dennis, who lives in Sunderland, took up the longbow seriously, practising three or four hours a day, three or four days a week. He won the second competition he entered and went on to become county champion for Durham and Northumberland, twice representing the counties in national competitions.
"I just love shooting the longbow, because it is you and a piece of wood, shooting another piece of wood at a target, and you can be affected by the heat, the cold, the wind, the lack of wind, how you are feeling. There are so many things to take into account."
But simply wielding the longbow was not enough for Dennis. He went on a bow-making course, learning how to shape and tiller a bow, to make it bend. Then he decided to take it a step further.
"My father was a master carpenter and we were brought up to know how different woods behaved. I was always in his workshop, doing bits and pieces, and learning how to use the tools.
"I spent the next winter literally making and breaking bows and talking to everybody I could find to get as much information as I could. It is a craft that is basically disappearing and it needs to be protected."
Working the early shift as a driver with Wear Bus from 4am to midday, Dennis spent the afternoons testing out his bow-making skills in his garden shed. Then he decided to take the plunge, and become one of just a handful of professional bowyers in the country.
"There were so many things that kick-started it. I was not happy with some of the bows I was seeing, they didn't look right or perform right, and I felt I had got to the stage where I should give it a go."
With the help of the North-East of England Business and Innovation Centre's business start-up team, Dennis established Castle Longbows in a workshop at the Stanfield Centre in Sunderland. And so far business has been brisk, with orders from as far afield as Canada. America, Poland and Germany, and inquiries from Japan, Australia and Mexico. Prices range from £100 for a lemonwood bow to £160 for piquia or rosewood.
"I produce good honest working bows and try and make them affordable to everybody. There has been an upsurge in interest in shooting a longbow and not everybody can afford much straight off. About 80 per cent of my bows are purely for fun, and the rest are for competitive archers."
The bows start off as planks of wood delivered to his workshop, which are then trimmed into staves or billets and then into laminations, getting thinner all the time. The laminated stave is then cut into the basic shape, sandpapered and then the buffalo horn nocks are fitted at either end, to hold the bowstring in place, before it is tillered.
Tillering involves holding the bow in a vice and pulling the string down to bend the wood. This is done in stages, gradually stretching it from eight inches to 30, with the whole process taking around eight days, teaching the wood to bend without breaking. But it also has to be taken off the tiller frequently to push it against itself, teaching it to straighten when it has been de-strung.
Most bows are made from more than one type of wood, glued together, with one of the woods needing to stretch and the other to compress when the string is drawn back. When it has been tillered, the bow is sanded, with seven different grades of sandpaper, and then rubbed with a piece of hardwood to get rid of any bumps, before it is given five coats of varnish. Then the velvet ribbon handle is fixed in place and the bow gets three coats of wax. If it gets this far and Dennis is happy with it, it goes to the customer. If he is not happy, he starts again.
Each bow is made to order and takes about two weeks to complete, with about 30 hours work involved. And each customer is asked to supply details, from what they want the bow for, to their glove size, to make sure it fits their requirements.
"I feel very privileged because I'm doing what I seriously love doing, and I get a real buzz out of fashioning a bow you know will perform," Dennis says. "I have always made models but this is a stage further, and although it is not rocket science there is a lot more to it than just getting hold of two lumps of wood and gluing them together.
"I'm following in the tradition, in as much as I make longbows, but like everything else in life it has moved on and now it is a modern tradition, although lots of things they used to do in medieval times are still relevant today. Everything is done with the eye and the fingers.
"No two bows are identical, even if they were made from identical woods and grain patterns, they would still be different. I could go to any club in the country and say 'that is my bow'. You spend so long making them you never forget them."
Castle Longbows can be contacted on 0191 565 6789 or www.castlelongbows.co.uk
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