Wrought Iron Architectural Metalwork
Designed & manufactured in the U.K
By: Chris Topp & Co Ltd, North Yorkshire
Tel: 01845 501415
We were asked to make a replica cannon muzzle to help show that local blacksmiths in the late 1400’s could have easily adapted their skills from producing cart wheels to making the staves for a muzzle and how the handmade making of each muzzle had it’s own ‘signature mark’. Chris and Arek spent an afternoon in our workshop with Time Team presenter Phil Harding making the wrought iron staves and hoops for a cannon.
In a recent Channel 4 programme the "Wars of the Roses: A Time Team Special", Tony Robinson discovered that what a team of archaeologists, who have been working for the last 5 years, has found is changing the entire understanding, not just of this iconic battle, but the very nature of warfare during Medieval times.
Bosworth is a site of national historic significance, being the location of one of the three most important battles fought on British soil. It is the site where the Battle of Bosworth took place in 1485 and infamous as the place where King Richard III lost his life and against huge odds Henry Tudor won the battle and the Tudor reign was born. It was a turning point in English history, the end of the Middle Ages and the savage beginnings of the country we recognise today.
Experts now believe that the battle was not only fought in an entirely different place from the 'official' site but that gunpowder weapons, including large cannons, were used in far larger numbers than previously thought. In order to test these theories the Time Team crew built and fired replica cannons and cannon balls, and deployed some of the most sophisticated cameras in the world to examine the grisly remains of soldiers killed in the Wars.
The conclusions they have drawn radically change the view of medieval warfare being ruled by knights in shining armour.
This Channel 4 TV programme was broadcast on the 16th March 2011
