Welcome to Croesoswallt Archers

In 2019 the club’s long association with the orthopaedic hospital came to an end as the hospital required its land for further expansion, prompting the search for a new site. In spring 2020, the British Ironwork Centre near Oswestry offered the club the use of a field on their property. The club relocated and since then, our members have developed the site into a modern archery ground, equipped with a first-class range and access to quality equipment and coaches, to create the environment where all archers are welcome and can maximise their potential, from beginners, through to intermediate and onto elite level.

The roots of our club go back to the 1950s, when Croesoswallt Archers was based at the Oswestry Town Football Club ground and was known as both Croesoswallt Archers and Oswestry Archery Club. The oldest document the club still has is the rules of shooting, dated 1962 when the annual senior membership fee was £1/1/0d - about £24 in today’s money. 1962 is also the year the club became formally affiliated with the North Wales Archery Society (NWAS) and became the hosts of the Silver Dollar Double American UK Record Status competition. At some point before 1969 the club had relocated to Quinta School in Weston Rhyn, Shropshire. Quinta was a Barnardo’s Intermediate Approved school for boys aged 13-15, with 52 acres of land, so had plenty of room for an archery field.

Croesoswallt Archers moved from Quinta School to the grounds of the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry in 1973, when Quinta School was taken over by Shropshire County Council. The club merged with the hospital’s own archery group called the Orthopaedic Archers, making the orthopaedic hospital our permanent base for the next 46 years. By the late 1970s, Croesoswallt Archers had become a well-established name within the UK archery community, largely thanks to their annual Silver Dollar competition. For decades, the club thrived at the hospital, remaining affiliated with NWAS until 2015, when it transferred to Shropshire Archery Society (SAS) to reflect its location in Shropshire, England.