Just got back from a trip to England.We managed to get down to Portsmouth and see the Mary Rose exhibit and the longbow collection.What an experience! What I would have given just to have been able to touch one of those bows.( contact with history ) As I said to someone I met at the museum,"If you're an archer, coming here is a pilgrimage". Another great experience if you're an archer is the Hastings battlefield.They have installed a massive arrow sticking up right in the middle of the battlefield perhaps to remind visitors that archers played a major role in the battle. Dave

That's pretty cool. I just mentioned the Mary Rose in an article for TBM. Any archer skeletons on display?

Bowmania

Yes,one.From that they've recreated what an English archer of the times would have looked like. Dave

Sounds great. I am glad for you.

Nice.

Got any pics?

Would love to see them.

Thanks again Phil.

Not all the M.R. bows silky smooth

This Bowyers Mark sent a shiver down my spine

Do they know who created/owned that bowyer's mark ?

It's amazing how well preserved they are! That would be an amazing trip imho!

My wife and I were there back in 2000. None of the horn tips had survived 500 yrs on the sea bed. At that time the ship was behind glass and under water spray for preservation and restoration. I understand that that process is completed. I wonder if you can get a closer look now.? Another interesting thing was the many personal items on display, including pipes and louse combs.! Sandy

Anybody allowed to do measurements for reproductions? Any info about where the bow woods came from? Were they ALL yew? How about the arrows? Any info on them? Just asking

If I recall correctly, Thomas Hardy covered the Mary Rose bows in detail in his book..Longbow a social and military history. It was a pretty thorough review and they re-created some of the bows to get an idea of draw weight. They varied quite a bit I think. Don't know if the book is still available

I think Pip Bickerstaffe may have the dimensions of some of tem as well.

The first two original bows that were recovered from the Mary Rose, when it was first discovered in the 1800s, were extensively measured. Saxton Pope used the measurements to build at least one of them from American yew. It was well under 100# pull. bvd

Can you imagine what the draw weight of that monster was?! (in Phil's second to last photo.)

Looks like somebody just peeled the bark off a 5 year old tree!

The measurements for the first bows recovered from the Mary Rose can be found in the "Badminton Library of Sports: Archery" by C.S. Longman and Col.H. Walrond, 1894 chapter VIII. This can be found in the FREE archerylibrary.com. bvd

buster - I happen to have that 1894 book THE BADMINTON LIBRARY. It is a magnificent piece of classic archery, but I have to handle the book carefully.

Phil - You lucky bloke, fondling bows from the Mary Rose. That's almost as good as fondling Kate Upton.

All the specifications of the bows and the arrows can be found here .....

Weapons of Warre: The Ordnance of the Mary Rose: The Armaments of the Mary Rose

by Alexzandra Hildred

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