Explaining the Artillery

As gunners on the field one of our key roles in the living history is to explain the artillery and their operation in more detail. For this we have copies of many original texts along with the tools we need to perform our crucial role on the field.

Find out more about the following:

Siegecraft

One of the main roles for artillery was for reducing fortifications to rubble, and a major role for the firelocks was storming the breach the artillery made.

Sieges were the culmination of many different arts; surveying to measure distances, weaving gabions for temporary defence, digging trenches for the approaches, underground mining to weaken walls, plus all the maths and logistics involved with so many troops in one place.

Fighting a siege often required special equipment.

Mathematics

From working out the weight of a spherical cannon ball, to calculating the inventory of stores, mathematics was a crucial skill for the educated gunner.

We have many replica instruments of the period designed to help in an era without modern calculators. Napiers Bones for doing multiplication, through to period books with lists of logarithms and square roots.

Mapping

Since the artillery often had to move heavy guns and vast quantities of stores around the country they had to find the best roads, and would have some of the best maps in the army.

We have many replica maps of the period that we display and explain in our living history exhibits.

A hundred years after our period this practice would be formalised with the creation of the Ordnance Survey.

17th Century Living

Beyond explaining the roles directly relating to artillery there are many other parts of 17th century life we also portray.

From sewing clothes and spinning wool, to cooking food in period styles, and all the woodworking and metalworking trades that serve the artillery.