Mellor Heritage Project

Barbed Iron Arrowhead

An Iron Barbed Arrowhead which was found in one of the Postpits in Trench 35 in the 2005 season has been conserved and circulated for diagnostic interpretation. Interestingly we have Two Reports which agree on the dating period but have quite different opinions on the purpose and use of the arrowhead.

Ian Stephenson suggested that: “The arrowhead is similar to : 1) An early 13th Century find from Dublin (Nicolle 1999 ‘Arms and Armour of the crusading era 1050 -1350, Western Europe and the Crusader states fig 261) 2) A 14th Century find from London, currently held in the Museum of London (Edge and Paddock 1998 ‘Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight’ p 93) 3)Several 14th Century manuscript illustrations (Strickland and Hardy 2005 ‘The Great Warbow’ p151 ‘The Luttrell Psalter’ p 163 and ‘The Romance of Alexander’ p188) Analysis of its shape and form, along with the comparisons with the 14th Century Manuscript evidence point to use on the battlefield or in warfare.”		David Starley and John Waller,of Royal Armouries in Leeds offered: “It is of the type used for hunting, and not for battle or warfare, which tended to be heavier in construction, square in cross-section and did not have the barbs or "wings" as on the Mellor example. Barbed arrows have been experimentally fired at heavily padded jackets and had failed to penetrate and bounced off. The heavier barbless arrows had penetrated more easily.     Barbed arrows seem to have been designed to cause wounds with broad cuts that would result in considerable bleeding, so if shooting an animal, if it was not killed outright it would probably bleed to death very shortly afterwards. In the U.S.A. where hunting with bows is apparently still practised, the technique is to try to approach to within about ten yards of the target to be sure of accuracy. When a hit is made, the hunter keeps perfectly still to avoid frightening the animal, which realising something is wrong with it, usually lies down and dies of loss of blood. If frightened by the sight of the hunter it would run away, sometimes for a considerable distance, before dying. It was considered difficult to date the Mellor example but was thought to be definitely post Norman Conquest and probably 12th to 14th  century".

It would seem that we are finally uncovering a strand of Medieval Period archaeology previously confined to historical record, a time when a forester named ‘De Melleur’ might have lived and worked in the area.

The arrowhead will usually be kept on display in the Stockport Story Museum.