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History

(adapted from an article by Dennis Nielsen written in 1981 and another by Shelagh Ryan written to celebrate 200 years of archery in Hertfordshire in 1988)

  • Early History
  • Eighteenth Century
  • First Meeting of The Hertfordshire Archers
  • The Union Society
  • Nineteenth Century
  • Competition from Croquet
  • Twentieth Century
  • The Salisbury Brooch
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    Early History

    Archers were originally training for war. Various laws and ordinances were passed requiring men of certain value to own a bow and arrows and to practice with them. There were various sites in Hertfordshire where this was done including Hartham Common where tournaments were also held.

    Eighteenth Century

    By the 18th century, archery was not needed as a means of waging war and it was generally practised by a few gentlemen 'more remarkable for their antiquarian enthusiasm than for their skill'. Archery as a fashionable sport had a short outing in the 1780s. The Prince Regent was very taken with it and helped to establish a system of five scoring zones. Whatever the Prince Regent did was closely followed by society and clubs sprang up all over the country.

    First Meeting of The Hertfordshire Archers

    The redoubtable Amelia, Lady Salisbury founded a club at her home in Hatfield House. The first meeting was held on Monday 6th July 1789 and was fully reported in the Morning Herald the following day:

    What happened to the original gold medal is not known and how it ties in with the Salisbury Brooch acquired by the Hertfordshire Archery Association in 1962 is not clear. It is possible that the ceramic painting of a cherub on the front was added to the original medal at a later date turning it into the present brooch. In 1798, they were awarded the free use of all butts, targets and marks in the Forest of Arden, but the Society did not survive the death of its patroness in the fire at Hatfield House in 1835.

    The Union Society

    In 1792 another club was started. It was called the Union Society because it drew all its members from Hertfordshire and Essex. Its members shot, had suppers and dances and enjoyed themselves. Their motto was 'Archery, Freedom and Love' and they seem to have been a very romantic crowd. However, the Union Society folded the following year, probably due more to the Napoleonic war than an excess of fripperies.

    Nineteenth Century

    There is then a twenty to thirty year gap before we hear of other clubs. The Herts Toxophilite Society, 1827 to circa 1831, seems to have been based at St. Albans and to have revolved round the Earl of Verulam. Another was the Bishop's Stortford Archery Society, 1831 - circa 1835. In 1859, two societies were founded with interchangeable members, the Aldenham Archers and South Herts Archery Club (SHAC). The Aldenham Archers held their early meetings at Edge Grove, the home of Mr. Nicholl, and regularly shot against or with the SHAC. The round most usually shot was the South Herts Round. As they periodically added or subtracted a dozen or so arrows and reports of it differ, it is hard to say what the round consisted of. In 1864, the gentlemen, starting an hour before the ladies, shot 3 dozen arrows at 100 yards, 3 dozen at 80 yards and 4 dozen at 60 yards. The ladies shot 3 dozen arrows at 60 yards and 4 dozen at 50 yards. The members of the SHAC were all pillars of the local community, JPs MPs and the odd vicar or two. The most popular shooting grounds were Brocket Hall Park (Lady Palmerston), The Frythe (Mr. Wilshere) and from 1863 Hatfield House. They also shot at Panshanger (Earl Cowper), Colney House (Mr. Oddie), Knebworth House, North Mymms Park (Col. and Lady Rosa Greville) and Tewin Water (Lord Uxbridge's cricket ground).

    Competition from Croquet

    In 1869, Southill Club in Bedfordshire folded and those members still interested in archery joined the SHAC. By this time the SHAC itself was struggling. Although it had a membership in excess of one hundred, most of the members were non-shooters. From 1862 they had been under threat from a new craze - croquet. The season of 1865 saw a gallant few still shooting despite some appalling weather conditions. In August, at Panshanger, the servants had to hang on to the guy ropes to stop the marquee blowing away during dinner! The following year, the archery/croquet battle hotted up. A correspondent of the time wrote "archery has all the advantages which croquet is supposed to possess in a social view". But little notice was taken, as in 1867 he writes "We must again impress upon the heads of families how necessary it is for the security of South Herts to bring up their sons and daughters to the use of the long bow".

    The following year, the committee of the SHAC, bowing to the inevitable "so far yielded to the follies of the age as to say that people may bring their own (croquet) implements if the owner of the ground invites them to do so". From then on, reports were restricted to date, place, weather conditions and score. No more lyrical descriptions of the ground, the "fair archers" and the horrendous prizes. Some time after their meeting on 10th August 1872, the SHAC folded. The following year, their tent was advertised as being for hire. Croquet had won. The Aldenham Archers, many of them ex-members of the SHAC, continued shooting until about 1878, but the heart had gone out of the game. Various private houses kept up the tradition and there are photographs of an archery meeting at Ardeley Bury, near Stevenage, in 1905, but archery as the sport of the nobility and gentry alone was doomed. The gentry hung up their bows during the first World War and those that returned found that the days of the 'great house' and leisurely afternoons on the archery ground were gone.

    Twentieth Century

    It was not until 1950 that archery returned to Hertfordshire with the formation of Berkhamsted Bowmen. Other clubs were formed progressively over the next 30-35 years. The Hertfordshire Archery Association itself was formed in 1952 by the six clubs that were then active.