Our Club History
The original club founded in 1758 was known as The Gentlemen Archers of Darlington, and although ladies participated in the sport they were not considered 'proper' members.
Initially membership was limited to persons living within four miles of Darlington, but this was soon increased to ten miles.
George Allan, a famous name in local history and one of the founding members of the club not only compiled a list of articles or rules for the club but also designed a coat of arms. This consisted of a green shield with three bows on it and a black and white wreath with two sets of three golden arrows crossed above it.
The Gentlemen and Lady Archers of Darlington now have an amalgamation of the original design as shown below
Two shoots a year were to be staged and the first was held in March 1758. Proceedings started with a dinner at a local inn to which all competitors had to attend or forfeit a shilling. After dinner the captain read out the rules and lots were drawn for the manner of shooting. The party then formed into a procession and set off for the shooting ground at Blackwell Grange, which was the home of George Allan.(This building is now the Blackwell Grange Hotel, situated on Grange Road (A167) to the southern outskirts of Darlington.)
The archers wore green coats with club gilt buttons, buff waistcoats, white corded trousers, green velvet hats with a silver band and they carried green pouches.
In later years the dress code had become some what more relaxed, as the following picture shows
In 1758, each competitor had to pay five shillings towards the ‘deposited money’ from which the prize money was drawn. Two targets made of straw, covered with fine canvas consisting of five coloured circles were provided. The centre circle of gold counted for nine points, the red seven, blue five, black three and white one. Each competitor shot a fixed number of arrows at 100 yards, then 80 yards and finally 60 yards. The first archer to pierce, break or enter the gold circle received the silver medal, a sum of money and declared Captain of the Target until the next shoot. The first archer to pierce, break or enter the red received the silver gorgat (an ornamental collar), a sum of money and was made lieutenant.
Later prizes were given to those who first pierced the blue and black circles, while the archer who scored the ‘last white’ received a horn spoon.
In 1835 a silver bugle was purchased and this was awarded to the archer having the greatest number of hits during the day,
Unfortunately all the prizes have been lost with the exception of the medal and bugle which are shown below.
In 1851 the last competitive shoot was held by the Gentlemen Archers of Darlington and in 1907 the medal and bugle were presented to Darlington Corporation to be displayed for all to see.
Social archery continued as a popular pastime and today the Gentleman and Lady Archers of Darlington reflect the variation of bows now used within the sport. These range from the traditional Korean short recurve bow, the classic English longbow, the American flatbow, modern recurve bow and the ultra modern compound bow.
