Royal Toxophilite Liveries Day 12 August 2026
The 2nd Livery afternoon (held on 12 August) was once again, a great success with 14 Bowyers and 17 Fletchers attending. The event is organised and hosted by the Royal Toxophilite Society. All participants enjoyed a lovely afternoon shooting the traditional English Longbow.
The trophy awarded for the Livery afternoon held at the Royal Toxophilites’ ground at Burnham was kindly donated by Mrs Veronica- Mae Soar. She and her husband Hugh were hugely influential in not just the promotion of the longbow into the 20th and 21st centuries, but also the unearthing and then the recording of the English Longbow’s history in several seminal books.
Hugh formed the Craft Guild of Traditional Bowyers & Fletchers to support and regulate the training and quality of longbows and arrows being made, to further the aims of the British Longbow Society, so that traditional 2-way shooting with the longbow would continue to be the sport and recreation it was. In a changing world of mass-produced modern archery equipment, it was important to preserve the craft and skills of making wooden bows as they would have been made throughout the Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian periods.
When Hugh retired as Clerk to the Guild, the Masters and Apprentices procured and presented the trophy of a medieval archer at full draw on the battlefield to him, in recognition of his long endeavours in promoting all aspects the longbow.
The Guild, and the Livery Companies who continue to support their continued skills and crafts, are indebted to Mrs Soar for donating the Trophy for its award to the winning team of the Livery afternoon competition.
