Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2019 June 6

= June 6 =

How did archery rounds get their names?
Worcester, Windsor, Western, Bristol etc? Amisom (talk) 19:40, 6 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I found a brief mention of a Portsmouth round (which is not in your list) here Target archery but it gives no info about where the term comes from. I will be interested to see what info other editors have for you. MarnetteD&#124;Talk 20:00, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I did find this which mentions the names for the rounds and the particulars of each but still no info about where the names come from. I suspect it has something to do with Robin of Locksley :-) Hopefully this will help others in researching this for you. MarnetteD&#124;Talk 20:05, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, the names are all well-findable. Their origins less so Amisom (talk) 08:38, 9 June 2019 (UTC)
 * From Anecdotes of archery: from earliest ages to the year 1791 :

"About half-past ten o'clock, the band of Mr. Walker arrived on the ground, and it was shortly afterwards followed by that of the 6th Carabineers, then stationed at the York Barracks."

This refers to a meet at the Knavesmire (the York racecourse) on Thursday, 1 August 1844.

Page 11 of The Book of the Bow by Gordon Grimley (Putnam, 1958) notes:

"... the first meeting was decided for 1st August 1844, the Round to be shot being that which the West Berks club had used for ten years and which was thereafter known as the York Round."


 * Archer's Register: A Year Book of Facts (1892) gives details of the various British archery clubs and their "club rounds"; linked is the Worcestershire Archery Society and further down the text it mentions the pairs of targets which are a feature of the Worcester Round. Presumably the rounds are named after the clubs that originally devised them, with the exception of the York Round above, which came from Berkshire. I suspect that the Western Round is named after the Grand Western Archery Society. Alansplodge (talk) 12:15, 13 June 2019 (UTC)