The Company of HolyRood.

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Welcome to the CHR!

The Company of HolyRood was formed in 2002 by a group of archers who shared a common interest in the English longbow, and who wished to keep alive the legacy of the medieval military archer through the research, practice and demonstration of the skills required to shoot longbows of the type made famous by English archers during the period later known as the Hundred Years War.

Based in the city of Southampton, embarkation point in the middle ages for the armies of Edward III and Henry V for the Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415) campaigns respectively, our shooting grounds are on the Exbury estate within the beautiful New Forest National Park, once a royal hunting ground for King William I (12th century AD) and his noblemen, and the Broadlands estate in Romsey, a manor formerly owned by the nuns of Romsey Abbey and dating back to the Norman Conquest.

It is in celebration of the role Southampton played during the Hundred Years War that we take our name, for it was within the city's Holy Rood church, dating from 1320, that English archers famously prayed before leaving for Agincourt.

With a background in modern target archery our activities are now split between medieval themed events such as Herstmonceux and the Azincourt Alliance, field shoots with the NFAS and public demonstrations and film work with the Erpyngham Retinue.