Shooting From Battlements! - How Much Further does it Go!?

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 Todd from Todd's Workshop and Todd Cutler here and I am back with Joe Gibbs, amazing archer and he is just a 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 you shoot an arrow from up on top of 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 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 140lb Swiss Yubo. Today is quite a nice crisp day. I'd be happy if I shot over 250 yards. That would be a good distance for me. So that's the kind of Anything over that is a bonus. We have to do a level shot today to compare the two because you've got a few different factors. Wind, weather, temperature. And temperature matters that much? Yeah so the hotter the weather the more soggier the bow is going to be. You have less power. Colder the more powerful it's going to be. It's not overly hot today so we should be able to achieve some fairly good distances. Let's go. Let's do it. 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've got one of our night 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 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 that. 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 the same family 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 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 edition. 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 for only one death. They laid siege to this place for six 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 your 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 six 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 meters up, about 20 yards up, in stories that is about five 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? Yeah. I'm thinking about five or six. I think it'll make very little difference. I've got a reason for that, but 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 a nice pub. 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 the roof and the lead bits, but yeah, I definitely think it's got 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, Joe. 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 night. It just amazes me every single time. Is this last one for the night? You can buy me two pints of beer if I get this. I'll buy you a crate if you get the night from here. I tell you what, shall I just empty the quiver at it? Yeah, go for it. Are you compensating for the wind? I'm a little bit. I'm getting shoved over that way. Yeah. For the amount of wind that I'll just remind everybody, 140lb bow. You couldn't do another minute of that, I'm guessing. No, no. I mean, that was about your limit? Yeah, I could have done a couple more arrows, but I want a break after that. Yeah, because again, looking at the description of what happened here, there were a thousand arrows shot over a six-hour period. 200 guys. I don't know how many of them were archers, but that is only one arrow an hour per person who was present. What it was not is some sort of medieval machine gun. It is hard work to keep it up like that. To be honest, it's just unfeasible to do that. You would want 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 or in a siege. Anyway, Joe, brilliant. Right, let's get to see what we've got. 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 a bit difficult to see where they were landing, especially in front of the man 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. Yeah, I mean it's a lovely line and we're just coming up to it now, but you've got one four or five yards short. Yeah. But yeah, so 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. Yeah. So, we've 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've got two six nine yards. Two nine six. Two nine six. 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 explain what my thinking was, why I thought it wouldn't be much. When you shoot narrow, it goes up obviously at a steep angle, but then as the speed and the energy gets lost, it 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've got a siege to talk about and we all want to know the differences between longbows and crossbows. So, I've 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.