The brief history of Toad Hollow Archers
Back in 2006 a few experienced field archers got together and started looking for woodlands that they could rent, lease or even buy to continue their love of field archery, it is pretty amazing that 16 years later in 2022 that all of those same founding members are still with the club and the club consistently grows in members and strength
Our first woodlands was near Gulworthy on the Devon – Cornwall border, this hit a problem for the club as the woodlands were opened to the public and field archery and the public just doesn’t work, so safety concerns forced our move, eventually Toad Hollow took up residence for our Open Shoots at a friends property of one the founder woods at Whiddon Down near Okehampton, we are now very fortunate that we have permanent woodlands near Modbury in South Devon
A highlight of the clubs existance is that we have been the host club for our National Championships 3 times, the first time in 2007 just a few months after we were formed as a club, we feel that showed great confidence in the ability of “The Toads” to do things right a reputation we still enjoy today, we hold open shoot competitions 3 times a year and these events are almost always sold out well before the shoot date which I believe shows the expertise that Toad Hollow has in setting field archery courses
More recently Toad Hollow was asked by our National Governing Body the National Field Archery Society (NFAS) to explore if there was another suitable woodlands in the area to host one of the National Championships, as our original ground was now unavailable we contacted Flete Estate, who could not be more welcoming, in fact that Championships was so succesful it would only be a couple of years before the Champs was once again held there. As the NFAS Champs move location around the country annually Flete Estate hosting this second event so soon after the first was amazing, Although the Covid lockdowns meant there were no Championships for quite a while and all the plans were postponed, we hope that it won’t be too long until Championships return to The Flete Estate
During the champs it was obvious to The Toads that The Flete Estate did like field archery and the owner was approached about leasing some woodlands to Toad Hollow, and that is how it happened that now we have an amazing secure woodlands for our club and our sport, John who owns The Flete Estate, and in fact all the Mildmay – White family who own Flete Estate could not be more helpful and more accomodating, our massive thanks go to Flete Estate
Since moving into our woodland home on The Flete Estate we are so pleased that some experienced archers chose to join us, they bought yet more skills to the club and Phil & Paul who are NFAS qualified coaches have been holding beginners course in field archery and we are in a period of growth in Toad Hollow as the majority of those who took the course have decided to stay with Toad Hollow and are r eally enjoying their field archery
Who are "The Toads" ?
All the members of Toad Hollow Archers are known throughout the world of field archery as being a “Toad”
How the club name of Toad Hollow Archers was chosen is actually a subject of debate as there are at least 3 versions of how this happened but whichever version is to be believed the name has stuck and the club has some of finest facilities in the field archery community, and also a great reputation of being a great club to be a member off and an amazing place to shoot our bows
One of the unique things about being a Toad is that after they join the club is that they never again have to pay financially to continue their membership
But every Toad knows when they join Toad Hollow that to stay being a Toad they do have to contribute to the club in other ways than their wallets and these include marshalling at Open Shoots, repairing and repainting targets, helping to set out and maintain our practice and competition courses, catering (archers get very thirsty & even more hungry) in fact there are a lot of jobs that need doing and club members do them all, sometimes it may be relatively simple task of clearing paths around our woods, but all of these tasks take time, effort and commitment
By all of “The Toads” joining in to make the club as succesful, it does install a comradory seldom found in any sports club and through that we know that our ethos of how Toad Hollow should be run does work and the club is never short of “Toads” volunteering to do the club jobs
The view from the top
The view of the original Flete House from the top of our woodlands is an amazing sight, but wherever we are in our woods the views are amazing and makes us realise what an awesome part of the UK we are lucky enough to live and shoot in