Master arrowsmith Hector Cole MBE demonstrated his craft in the courtyard of The Museum in the Park in Stroud on Thursday.
Mr Cole, who began making longbows from yew, has spent his life researching and recreating arrows used throughout history and is recognised as one of the world’s leading authorities on medieval bladesmithing and arrowsmithing. Using his recreation of a mobile medieval forge, he heated metal in charcoal until it glowed red hot and then fashioned it into shape on an anvil.
“I brought this medieval field armourer’s forge set-up to demonstrate how they would have forged arrowheads in the medieval period.
“In the Middle Ages, making arrowheads for war was a major industry. They were making thousands of them, and it was a full-time job for a team of arrowsmiths, just forging the heads.
“What I’m demonstrating today is the basic principle of making a warhead.”
The forge is made from elm: “It had to be elm – elm doesn’t burn, it smolders,” explained Mr Cole. It can be dismantled and packed into his car. Air stokes the fire from hand-pumped bellows.
Mr Cole has appeared in television shows including Time Team, and Digging for Britain, featuring Professor Alice Roberts.
The demonstration was part of a wider series of events linked to the exhibition of the work of blacksmith Alan Evans at the museum, Earth Fire Iron: Alan Evans and the New Iron Age, 1980-2025 which runs until November 2nd.
Details of events can be found here: Earth Fire Iron – Alan Evans and the New Iron Age — Museum in the Park
Pictures and video by Matt Bigwood
