The Bowmen of Ardleigh are now in their 54th year- just maturing some might say.

We are quite an old club as archery clubs go and one of the oldest in Essex.

We take our name from our original shooting ground at Ardleigh House in Hornchurch where we shot for some time before our Club was officially founded at its first AGM in 1954 until 1976, when the space available, and our use of it, became too restricted, in spite of the help of the Ardleigh House Community Association.

We then, with the assistance of the London Borough of Havering, transferred to Bretons Manor in Rainham Road, South Hornchurch, where we are a Registered Club within the Bretons Community Association, using the 18th Century Manor as our Club House and meeting place for both social and official events.


We are fortunate that we can shoot all of the main kinds of archery in the same place.

Target Shooting outdoors up to 100 yards at a four foot target for gentlemen and 80 yards for the ladies (although they can and do shoot 100 yards if they wish).

Distances for younger members are adjusted according to their age although, again, the distances shot are by choice if they wish to shoot further.

We have created our own rounds, based on the GNAS handicap tables to enable younger members to take part with both shorter rounds and shorter distances to suit their capabilities.

Our field is mainly used on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, but is available at other times of the week during daylight hours if members wish to shoot, provided the terms of our Licence and GNAS Rules of Shooting are complied with. On Sundays shooting is possible all day through most of the Summer season, but only on Sunday afternoons when the Football season begins as we share our use with them.

Field Archery is a simulation of hunting and uses targets of several sizes shot at with bows without sights, stabilisers, etc., just the basic bow.

Clout Shooting was originally a practice for battle during the Medieval period. Arrows are shot at targets 180 yards away for gentlemen and 140 yards for ladies but again with closer distances for younger people according to their age. The target this time is much bigger, and all arrows within a 12 foot radius will score, 5 points for those within 18 inches of the clout flag down to 1 point for those in the outer ring. Unlike the other types of Archery, with Clout you never really know for sure how the arrows have scored until you get to the scoring zone and have a good look.

Lastly we have Indoor Shooting which takes place in a 16th and 17th century barn at Bretons (unheated!). As the Summer evenings draw in, we generally move into the barn on Friday evenings from early September through to the end of April. Our field is still available to members on Sunday afternoons throughout the winter but the barn will be available from the beginning of October to the end of March, with some specially arranged dates after this time.

Our Hon. President, Tom Hall, is the only remaining founder member still with our Club but many of our members have more than 20 years experience in Archery and some more than 30. Ardleigh have supplied over the years many members to the Essex County Teams, and on occasion to the National Squad. We are in Division 1 (of 3) in the Essex County League, continuing our tradition of a reasonably high standard of shooting without it being at the expense of our enjoyment of Archery (most of the time, anyway!).
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