The Resurgence Of Leatherwall Stickbow A Traditional Sporting Art In Modern Times

The Resurgence Of Leatherwall Stickbow A Traditional Sporting Art In Modern Times

Leatherwall stickbow is a folk sport that combines two older English pastimes: throwing a leather ball against a padded wall marked with scoring rings, and shooting arrows at a target placed in front of or adjacent to that same wall. The combined discipline is scored by adding your leatherwall throws to your stickbow arrow round. It hasn't been widely documented in formal sports histories, which is partly why it faded and is now reappearing in bits and pieces across county-level folk games events and traditional archery clubs.

How The Combined Format Actually Works

In practice, leatherwall stickbow runs as a single evening session at most clubs. You throw ten leatherballs at the wall from a marked line, usually 10 to 12 meters out. The wall itself is a flat surface, traditionally timber framed and stuffed with horsehair or modern foam, faced with canvas or leather and painted with concentric scoring zones. Points are awarded based on where the ball comes to rest after bouncing off the wall. Then you shoot a stickbow round, typically 12 arrows at an 18-inch target face set at 18 meters. The arrow score and the ball score are added together for the final result. Simple arithmetic, but the transition between throwing and shooting is where people fumble. Switching from a gross motor throw to a fine motor bow release in quick succession throws off rhythm for beginners. I found that taking a three-second pause between the last throw and the first arrow shot, and resetting your stance deliberately, cut my inconsistency dramatically.

Why It Is Coming Back

The resurgence is modest but measurable. Several traditional archery groups in the Midlands and East Anglia have reintroduced the discipline into their annual gatherings since roughly 2018. The main drivers are low equipment cost, the appeal of a hybrid format that keeps participants engaged longer than a single-discipline event, and the broader interest in non-Olympic traditional sports that social media has amplified. It is not a commercial product. There is no major manufacturer pushing leatherwall stickbow kits. The revival is community-led, which means access depends on finding the right local group rather than walking into a retail store.

Setting Up A Basic Leatherwall

You do not need a professional installation. A functional leatherwall can be built from a sheet of exterior-grade plywood, 25mm high-density foam, and a canvas covering stitched or stapled tight. Paint the scoring rings with outdoor acrylic. The standard wall height is about 1.2 meters from ground level to the top of the scoring area, with the center ring positioned at approximately chest height for an average adult. A full commercial wall runs £120 to £280 depending on construction quality. DIY materials cost roughly £60 to £90 if you source foam and plywood separately. The ball used is a standard leatherwall ball, about 11 ounces with a cork or rubber core, priced around £10 to £18 each.

Stickbow Equipment

Any traditional recurve or longbow in the 30 to 50 pound range works. You do not need a modern compound or a precision tuned riser. Arrows should match your draw length within a half inch. Bamboo or fiberglass arrows are adequate and inexpensive, typically £18 to £35 per dozen. Target faces are standard 18-inch or 30-inch archery paper, about £2 each. The bow itself is the only piece where quality matters significantly, because inconsistent draw weights between practice and competition will skew your arrow score. I once used a bow with a 48-pound draw that had degraded to 44 pounds at the tip due to dry string stretch, and my arrow grouping widened by roughly three inches over a 12-arrow round. Re-stringing and letting the bow settle for a week fixed it.

Scoring And Competition Structure

Leatherwall scoring follows a concentric ring system, usually 10 rings outward, with the center ring worth 10 points. Each throw counts independently. Stickbow scoring follows standard archery target face values, 10 through 1, with the inner 10 worth 10 points. A typical club round is 10 leatherwall throws plus 12 arrows. The maximum combined score is 220. Matches are usually run as all-comers events with no weight classes or age divisions beyond a junior category for participants under 16. Results are recorded on paper score sheets that most clubs print themselves. There is no centralized digital scoreboard or official results database, which is one of the reasons the sport struggles to gain visibility outside its immediate community.

A Real Problem And The Fix

The most common issue I have encountered is arrow bounce-out on the lower scoring rings when the target is placed too close to the leatherwall. At distances under 15 meters, arrows striking the target face at a shallow angle tend to glance off the hard surface behind it rather than embedding. This causes missed hits and damaged arrow points. The workaround is to increase the distance to at least 18 meters or to place a secondary soft backdrop behind the target face, such as a rolled hay bale or a thick foam mat. I also switched to points with a slightly wider diameter, which improved penetration on marginal hits by about 30 percent in my own rounds. If you are shooting from closer than 15 meters without a soft backdrop, you will lose arrows to bounce-outs regularly.

Where To Learn It

There is no single governing body that oversees leatherwall stickbow as a unified discipline. The closest organizations are regional folk sports associations and traditional archery societies, particularly the Traditional Archery Society and various county-level folk games groups. These organizations occasionally run workshops and demonstration events, usually during the spring and summer months. Online instructional content is sparse. A few YouTube channels from traditional archery practitioners cover leatherwall basics in passing, but there is no dedicated video tutorial series. The most reliable way to learn is to attend a local gathering or contact a traditional archery club directly and ask if they run the discipline. Most clubs are willing to set up a practice wall for newcomers at minimal cost.

What This Sport Cannot Do For You

Leatherwall stickbow is not a pathway to Olympic archery or professional competition. The format is recreational and community-oriented. The lack of standardization means there is no ranking system, no televised coverage, and no sponsorship structure. If you are looking for a sport that leads to a national team or a career, this is not it. It is also weather-dependent. The leatherwall component requires a flat hard surface and reasonable wind conditions, which limits viable shooting days to roughly six months of the year in most of the UK. Indoor alternatives exist but require a significant space commitment that most community groups cannot sustain. If your goal is casual participation and a connection to a historical sporting tradition, it works well. If you need a structured competitive pathway, you should look at conventional target archery or field archery instead.