The WCF was treated to a marvellous talk by champion archer and arrowsmith Mark Stretton, with the intriguing title 'Piercing Plate Armour with Arrows - Fact or Fiction'.
Mark's experimentation left us in no doubt as to the power of the medieval longbow and its effectiveness as a weapon.
We were privileged to hear about Mark's expertise in making arrows, setting up a range of hands-on tests, and above all deploying his huge skill as an archer.
Mark holds the Guiness World Record for the heaviest longbow draw weight (200 lb) achieved in 2004 at the shooting ground of the Bath Archers.
See also his excellent blog http://markstretton.blogspot.com/