Inter-village archery event held at Stock Street Farm Barn

The Inter-Village Archery Competition - also know as the ‘Fighting Village of the Year Competition’ – was held place at Stock Street Farm Barn, in Coggeshall, on Saturday.

From 12noon to 4.30pm, teams from Bradwell, Coggeshall, and Stisted battled it out in the longbow archery competition.

The team members were made up of villagers who had to undergo several weeks of training.

Location - an image of the area where the competition took place (Image: The Stock Street Farm Barn)

In the moment - a space where the competitors would wait their turn and a viewing platform for friends and family to cheer them on (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)

Focused - a competitor taking aim with a longbow (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)

In the run-up to the competition on the bank holiday weekend, budding bowmen and women took part in weekly archery lessons, with the Outlaws Archers.

During the “intense” competition, there was a break at 2.30pm where the Hells Bells Morris dancers provided entertainment for the audience.

Throughout the day, Outlaws Archers were coaching and supporting the teams with their technique.

Michael Staines, 53, of Coggeshall, has been the the owner of Stock Street Farm Barn for the last 15 years.

Entertainment - the archers about to watch the Hells Bells Morris Dancers (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)

Fun - an image of the crowd enjoying the morris dancing (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)

He said: “It was very good. You’ll appreciate the archers knew each other from practice on Wednesday nights but when the competition kicked in, they were very tribal.

“It was a really intense competition and very close.

“The competition did sharpen their skills and a really deep friendship was created between the competing teams.

Two teams from Stisted, two from Bradwell and one from Coggeshall competed.

Winning team Stisted were presented with a trophy.

Winners - members of the Stisted team with their trophy (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)

Good sports - Villagers from Stisted, Coggeshall, and Bradwell (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)

Villagers from Bradwell came second and Coggeshall was placed third.

Michael said: “It was brilliant. We have striven hard to try and deliver what Braintree Council’s local planning policy calls a ‘key service village’.

“Part of that role is to be of interest to local villages. We’ve achieved that - we had folks come out who wouldn’t have normally come to the venue.

“We had a guy who was 92, we had young kids attend.

"It was family orientated and we’re very proud and we hope the community will find more events to improve that social cohesion of the local villages.”

An Abba tribute act played at the venue the following day as bank holiday events continued.

Music - A Twist Of ABBA performing on the Sunday at the venue (Image: Stock Street Farm Barn)