Beginnings of Organised Sports Across Britain Archery Feature

1 Dec 2025

Archery is an activity that has its roots all over the world, with early evidence of bows and arrows having been found in South Africa and Northern Europe. The Olympic website claims that it was a sport favoured by the Egyptian pharaohs during the 18th dynasty (1567-1320 BC). Classical civilisations including the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Indians, Chinese and Japanese all kept archers in their armies. Initially developed as an act of violence it has since become a sport and is traditionally contested at the Summer Olympic Games. It was an activity favoured by British monarchs due to its military capabilities. Medieval peasants were encouraged to practice archery in case of the need to wage warfare. Often other sports were discouraged in order for ordinary working people to focus upon military practices such as archery. Specific to Britain the English and Welsh Longbow was considered to be an advanced piece of technology at the time and the aforementioned bow was particularly successful in the Battle of Crecy (26 August 1346) and Battle of Agincourt (25 October 1415) during the Hundred Years War.

The Robin Hood ballads are medieval stories that are set around the late 12th and early 13th centuries. They followed a gang of outlaws, led by Robin Hood, who lived in Sherwood Forrest and robbed from the rich to give to the poor in and around the Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire counties. In the early ballads he was a yeoman (this was a sort of ordinary person with certain rights, or lower middle class person – in medieval times a yeoman sat somewhere between the peasantry and the gentry). In later ballads he was depicted as a Nottinghamshire based nobleman, who had recently returned from the English-led Crusades. He is often depicted as a supporter of King Richard the Lionheart, as the younger royal brother Prince John looked to claim the throne.

This is relevant as Robin Hood is depicted as a skilled swordsman and archery, with the Yeomanry becoming known as competent archers by the 14th century. In one of the stories, Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, the main character enters an archery competition. Both himself and his band of Merry Men disguised themselves in order to outwit the attempts to trap him by an ally of Prince John, the Sheriff of Nottingham. With the final shot Robin split the shaft of an opponent and then escaped the clutches of his enemies. This story indicates that even an act of military training was being pursued as a sporting contest during Medieval times.

As various types of firearms become the preferred tools for the military archery declined in popularity. Those with guns could provide greater firepower than those with bows and arrows. However attempts were made to revive the sport. Archery became fashionable amongst the British aristocracy in the 18th century, with societies and associations for the promotion of archery popping up across the country. Later attempts to revive the sport continued in the early to mid 19th century.

The first Grand National Archery Meeting was held in York in the 1840s. The success of this led to greater involvement, with the Grand National Archery Society founded 1861, after a meeting at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, thus becoming the national governing body for the sport in Britain. This society was rebranded in 2008 as Archery GB and still runs the sport across the country, delegating certain activities to smaller bodies in the Southern Counties, Northern Counties, East & West Midlands, Grand Western, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Today archery is still contested around the world. The first appearance at the Summer Olympics was at the Paris Games in 1900.