Medieval Butts reconstructions / images - help

[Dane]

Greetings, everyone.

I was hoping that someone here could post perhaps some data and better, photos of English target butts. I want to replicate at least one at my sports club. I was recently named archery director, and we have the land and resources for such a project. In fact, a clout shoot is in the tentative planning stages, and I hope to have that this coming spring or summer.

My understanding is that they were pretty massive earthworks, but we do have heavy machinery as well.

Are there any preserved butts around in England today, and maybe woodcuts or illustrations that show what these kinds of targets look like? Reconstructed or refurbished ones would also do.

Your help would be much appreciated, thank you. I am putting together a proposal right now, and this will help my case.

Dane

PS While I am thinking about it, I have heard of Turk shoots? Any data or thoughts on that slightly grisely kind of archery game? While actual preserved heads are not readily available in the US, a simulated one would be easy to put together.

[Loki]

Here you go Dane,Click on monument class description for details.
http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/wccindex/wcc-arch/wcc-arch-research/wcc-arch-surv/wcc-arch-surv-archery.htm

200mtrs of flat shooting ground with a 1-3mtr high 'Butt' at the business end,get them Legionaries to work!! 

Most of the site's have been built but the street name's carry the Archery heritage 

[stevesjem]

Here is a picture taken from the Lutrell Psalter, this is a 14C manuscript which shows rchers of the time practicing at the butts.



Cheers

Steve

[wolfsire]

Not sure which issue, pre 2000, and could not find it in the back issue list, but there is one from PA that address this.  Something about "in the round" or "rondell".

[Dane]

Thanks, guys. Andy, cool article (I owe you an email, mate). I take it that they were basically cicular mounds about 3 feet to 9 feet high, and flattish on top, and six to sixteen feet in diameter, grass covered. Targets were placed on top? Like tripods and round FITA type targets, with the little flags? Grass covered, of course.

Steve, that guy is only shooting from about 6 feet away.

Do any of you know of a medieval butt that has been reconstructed? I am curious too about what kinds of targets they used, or they did flight shooting to hit the mound, much like clout and roving shooting today, and try to get in the center of the target.

As I said somewhere else, the more I learn, the more I find I need to learn.

Gratefully yours,
Dane

[bow-toxo]

Thanks, guys. Andy, cool article (I owe you an email, mate). I take it that they were basically cicular mounds about 3 feet to 9 feet high, and flattish on top, and six to sixteen feet in diameter, grass covered. Targets were placed on top? Like tripods and round FITA type targets, with the little flags? Grass covered, of course.

Steve, that guy is only shooting from about 6 feet away.

Do any of you know of a medieval butt that has been reconstructed? I am curious too about what kinds of targets they used, or they did flight shooting to hit the mound, much like clout and roving shooting today, and try to get in the center of the target.

Gratefully yours,
Dane

Butts were set up for level shooting, usually near a church, in pairs facing north and south to avoid sun glare. A 15 th century pair were “ thirteen tailors [3’] yards” apart. In Roberts’ time they were 9’ deep, 7’high, 4’wide at the base, 16” wide at the top. They were made with turf, preferably from a heath common, wedge shaped and tapered toward the summit, and with support of nailed posts. The mark shot at was a white disc of cloth about 6” wide, later cardboard, with a black spot in the center This was attached to the butt with a wooden pin at the height of a man’s heart. Archers shot two or three arrows at an “end”, went to retrieve their arrows, then shot back at the facing butt. The Luttrell Psalter image is probably the best one available.

 

[Rod]

There are the remains of two butts a couple of miles south of here (Sleaford, Lincolnshire) at the eastern edge of the bottom end of what was the Folk Moot ground at Silk Willoughby.
The two low mounds in the hedgerow are pretty much consistent in size with the slumped remains of a pair of butts similar to those shown the Lutrell Psalter.
The opposite edge of the Folk Moot ground facing these butts is some 330 yards distant.

I'll see if there is any documentation in the County Archive or elsewhere.

Interesting detail in the psalter image, what is appears to be a renewable clay face, specialised shafts and a rope coit in place of the more informal wand shooting garland to provide a mark.

Rod.

[Marc St Louis]

Yes but I feel sorry for the guy with the arrow sticking out of his butt, but then he should have known better than to walk out in front of all those archers while they were shooting 

[triton]

The Turks head or Saracens head shoot you mention is where some English pubs get their name from.  Returning crusaders brought home the heads of their enemies pickled, then brought them out on holidays and other celebrations for fun shoots 
I got our kids making some during the school holiday

kids party baloons covered with paper mash, filled with expanding foam, then painted

[Dane]

Everyone, thanks for the info. As for that Turk's Head, very cool. It would be easy enough to put together a mock head with a turban on a pike.

I am still a bit hazy...the targets were place on top of the mound, or in front of it as you faced it?  Sorry if these are ignorant questions, but will help me get an authentic butt up and running here in New England. That will be very cool especially for long bow shooters.

Dane

[Rod]

On the front face of the butt.
Rod.

[youngbowyer]

If you go to the website of the company of holyrood and go to pictures you'll see martin harvey shooting at a butt and you will clearly see what it looks like.

[Dane]

That is a great website, and nice to see war bow guys in medieval soldier’s kit and interpreting the past in such a way.

I couldn’t, though, find any shots of the butt itself among those photos. Which folder are they in?

Can anyone give some insights into why such a huge round mound of soil was constructed if only the side facing the archers were used for target placement. It would have been dug by hand, and that is an enormous expenditure of labor if only the front facing was used for placing targets. Was the rest of the mound even used? Seems to me a simple berm would have sufficed.

I’m asking as I have to justify the extra labor at my club to get this project approved, and would like to give historical reasons for the details of construction.

Thanks,

Dane

[Cromm]

It could be the poundage of the bows being used or maybe that if you made them big you only have to build it the once,then just small repairs afterwards??
Also it is England and it does rain here a little......

[youngbowyer]

That is a great website, and nice to see war bow guys in medieval soldier’s kit and interpreting the past in such a way.

I couldn’t, though, find any shots of the butt itself among those photos. Which folder are they in?

Can anyone give some insights into why such a huge round mound of soil was constructed if only the side facing the archers were used for target placement. It would have been dug by hand, and that is an enormous expenditure of labor if only the front facing was used for placing targets. Was the rest of the mound even used? Seems to me a simple berm would have sufficed.

I’m asking as I have to justify the extra labor at my club to get this project approved, and would like to give historical reasons for the details of construction.

Thanks,

Dane


I'll see if i can find it and then i will give you the link