ABOUT SINODUN ARCHERS
SINODUN ARCHERS was established exclusively as a traditional English longbow archery club in the spring of 2026 by its President, Robin Alexander Lucas, and two other Founder Members. Based in rural South Oxfordshire, it is currently a closed club (invitation only).
As President of Sinodun Archers, Robin is the public face of the club. He is responsible for managing the Club, overseeing the running of the Club, providing direction and leadership, liaising with landowners and other responsibilities. He located and arranged the use of our current shooting ground, wrote the Club’s Constitution and Shooting Rules, and designed the Arms (see below). Robin is the author of forthcoming book The Beginner’s Pocket Guide to English Longbow (Cittern Press, 2026). He read Modern History at the University of Oxford, is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the former Head of Arms and Armour at Bonhams Oxford. For a very brief time he worked as Research Assistant to Garter Principle King of Arms (Gwynn-Jones ) and Windsor Herald (Hunt) at the College of Arms (2006-2007).
The Club’s motto is Sagittare rect certa – Shoot straight and true. The symbolism of the arms is as follows:
TINCTURE
Azure – water and sky
Vert – hills, woodland and meadows
Or – fields of wheat and barley
Argent – chalk hills
BLAZON
Azure, a fess wavy of two Vert fimbriated Argent, over all palewise between two broad arrows on the fess Argent an arrow point downwards Argent, in dexter chief a palisado crown Or, in sinister chief a sun in splendour Or.
ORDINARY
The fess wavy represent two of the Sinodun Hills of (left to right) Castle Hill and Round Hill – The Wittenham Clumps. The Azure field above them the sky and the Azure field below the Thames flowing past them.
CHARGES
SILVER ARROW
A reference to Robin Hood and the silver arrow he won in stories and ballads.
TWO BROAD ARROWS (arrow heads).
Together with the arrow head on the arrow itself, they represent the three founder members of Sinodun Archers.
SUN IN SPLENDOUR
A round sun above ‘Round Hill’. Represents the sun shining on the hills. It symbolises divine provenance, supreme authority, triumph of good over darkness, light of divine truth. It has a martial connection as the badge of Edward IV. One of the Great Seals of King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) depicts King Richard sat between a sun and a moon. In stories and ballads, King Richard pardoned Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest.
CROWN
A crown above Castle Hill. A ‘palisado crown’ also called a ‘vallary crown’, ‘vallary’ meaning ramparts or fortifications, as the upward projections look like wooden palisades. It is traditionally believed that a vallary crown was given to the first Roman soldier who broke through an enemy’s palisade. In heraldry, it can be used to represent a hillfort, ancient fortification or earthwork. It therefore represents the fortifications on Castle Hill and the name Sinodun itself, Sino–dunum, ‘old fort’.
