Treat this as “a work in progress”.
This is called History and Archive because I include all the scores gained from the beginning of the club. A major task in converting all the paper records to PDF files.
Killingworth Archers was formed in April 1975 with the help of Killingworth Sports Centre and North Tyneside Council, and this is a picture of George McGowan, one of the founder members.
The founder members were Eddie Bransfield, Tommy Hagan, Derek Carter, Bryan Imrie and George McGowan. The club badge was taken from the design on the ‘Killingworth’ family grave stone, unfortunately now so badly weathered that it can no longer be seen in detail. Finally we have George, one of the founder members from 1975 and in a characteristic pose minutes before another story is started. No longer with us and often missed.
Based outdoors at Killingworth in North Tyneside, which is North East of Newcastle upon Tyne, the outdoor facilities started at ‘Longmeadows’ which is also now the venue of Killingworth Young Peoples Club. We have had use of this outdoor facility year round weather permitting. In the winter, for ‘club nights’ and week-ends we now use local indoor premises as this allows year round continuity. In the early days of the club we used a corridor that was to have been a pedestrian walkway across a main road in the developing Killingworth Town Centre. This walkway was never completed so we had a single boss range that would allow 30 metres of safe shooting. We had this facility until this 1960’s built sports centre and link walkway was condemned and demolished.
The club is represented by qualified archery coaches and we achieved ‘Club Mark’ status in 2008. Killingworth runs and advertises it’s adherence to a ‘Child and Vulnerable Adults Policy’ so we have some restrictions on entry age level.
You may find many clubs have a similar approach, but this should not prevent you enquiring about the sport if you have young children. We also encourage shooting by the visually impaired provided that the archer has a competent ‘spotter’ as an assistant. Seldom are we in a position to admit that someone cannot shoot, and, if done, is usually on safety grounds.