We run a full programme of shooting events throughout the year. See our Tournament page for details of special events for this year, including information about the forthcoming Double FITA Star Tournament. Our Club members shoot a wide variety of bows, Recurve, Compound and Longbow.
The Club runs beginners courses for people interested in Archery, for further details see our training page. The Club have the facilities and equipment to run stands for have-a-go archery at Fetes, Festivals and also Corporate events at their venues.
The Canterbury Archers Arms
The Three Choughs on the Arms of the Canterbury Archers Badge.
The Canterbury Archers Shield has been derived from the City Arms of Canterbury which was first registered at the College of Heralds in 1619. The Canterbury coat of arms is medieval in origin and appeared on official documents as long ago as 1330. The Choughs were taken from the arms attributed to St. Thomas Becket, who was martyred in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. St. Thomas was Archbishop of Canterbury before Archbishops used coats of arms, but it was common in Medieval times for arms to be invented for people who never had them, thus a coats of arms for St. Thomas was made up in the 14th Century. The arms, Argent three choughs (Pyrrhocorax Graculus) proper (leggit and beckit gules) thereby making a cant upon the name. The arms supplied to St. Thomas , The choughs being a pun on his name (birds with beaks). The choughs have been called "beckets" of recent years.
Although choughs are only in Cornwall they could be found at the coast of Kent in the past. They were mentioned by Shakespeare's "King Lear" Act IV Scene 6. They became extinct in Kent between 1667 and 1776, They were reintroduced only to die out again by 1850.
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