Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
data on the Mary Rose bows/arrows
scattershot:
I have suspected for a long time that the "clothyard shaft" referred to in literature was actually 28", not 36 as currently thought. Can't find any reference to that measurement, though. Can anyone shed light on this?
D. Tiller:
Saw some research in the book "The Englishwarbow" that mentioned the long draw length made for a superior bow with a very good F/D curve while the 28" draw was not using the wood to its full effectivness. I have made some bows both at 28" and 30" drawlengths and the longer draw shoots a heavy arrow much better than the shorter draw length. Even if the arrow flys a bit slower than other bows with shorter arrows it has much more power behind it! I was punching half way through targets that others with shorter lighter arrows with faster speeds were just pricking and sticking!!!! Thats power!!! ;)
bow-toxo:
--- Quote from: scattershot on August 21, 2008, 01:54:46 pm ---I have suspected for a long time that the "clothyard shaft" referred to in literature was actually 28", not 36 as currently thought. Can't find any reference to that measurement, though. Can anyone shed light on this?
--- End quote ---
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The 3 foot yard was standardized in the reign of Richard lionheart/John Lackland. Iron bars of this standard length were distributed around England for measurement of cloth and were called clothyards. This measurement, also called an ell, wae the clothyard. It also came to be used to measure land. In the 16th century Paulus Jovius reported that the English shoot arrows somewhat thicker than a man's little finger and two cubits long with barbed steel points. A cubit is the length from elbow to fingertips. Try it. It's a yard.Cornish rebel archers were reported to shoot arrows of "a full yard". It would take a really long bow to take that draw. A 6'11" bow was foound on the Mary Rose. That would be long enough. I believe the English Board of Trade considers the clothyard to have been 37 inches. I could quote other examples.
scattershot:
Thanks, Bow-Toxo. That's great info, and just what I was looking for. The reference I was looking for and can't find was in regard to the Flemish cloth yard, but your explanation makes more sense. I'm still having trouble envisioning a medievel archer of fairly small stature (compared to today's man) drawing a 36" arrow "full to the barb", as they say, fom a 100 lb+ bow.
Yeomanbowman:
I believe the reference to clothyard shooting Cornish archers B.T. is paraphrasing is from the Cornish rebellion in 1497, which would make it roughly contemporary with the Mary Rose equipment. However, regardless of the standardisation of the clothyard the arrows found onboard were largely for a 30” draw length. I think it would be a mistake to assume medieval/Tudor archers were routinely shooting 36” arrows. The only modern warbow archer I know able to shoot arrows this long is about 6’6” tall. Not may of these to the pound, either now or then!
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