About Us | Kenwith Company Of A

The History of the Bow

Archery dates back as far as 30,000 years ago, and up until the 16th century, the bow was a constant companion for humans in almost every part of the world.

In English history, the longbow will always hold a special place for the victories it helped achieve at Crecy, Agincourt and Poitiers.

Genghis Khan's horsemen shot a short composite bow whilst on horseback during the Mongolian conquests.

The Native Americans used the bow a a means of subsistence, bringing down the heavy buffalo with short flat bows and also used these as a means of defence from European settlers.

Firearms finally replaced the bow as gunpowder became more available around the world and the bow became a weapon of sport forming part of the World Championships and Olympic Games.

The most popular forms of archery in the UK are now traditional target archery and field archery - where archers shoot around a course, often in woodland, at a variety of static targets.

Along the way the bow has developed from a traditional hand crafted longbow or flatbow to sophisticated "take down" Olympic recurves and compound bows.

The Legacy of Kenwith

The club was initially formed as Kenwith Castle Archers, taking its name from the Kenwith Country Club, north Devon, in whose grounds the club had its first home.

The club was successful from the start, quicky gaining a reputation for its friendly atmosphere and skill at staging open tournaments. Among its early members was Tony Potter, who won a silver medal for England in the Empire Games in Jamaica in 1966, and two years later went on to further success with the Great Britain Team in the Paraplegic Games in Tel Aviv in 1968.

In 1969 the Country Club was sold and Kenwith began a number of years of nomadic existence with a series of temporary homes around North Devon.

In 1971 the club formed a section to focus on the growing discipline of field archery and build an enviable reputation for putting on challenging field shoots, culminating in being awarded the All England Championships in 1992.

In 1977 the present club name was introduced but the familiar logo remained. Finally in 1991 the club was able to purchase a permanent new home at Littleham field by the reservoir.

The club still continues its broad-based tradition but now focuses mainly on target archery.