Chris Topp & Co were asked to make a replica cannon muzzle to help show that local blacksmiths in the late 1400’s could have easily adapted their skills from producing cart wheels  to making the staves for a muzzle and how the handmade making of each muzzle had it’s own ‘signature mark’. Chris Topp and blacksmith Arek Kropidlowski spent an afternoon in their Carlton Husthwaite workshop with Time Team presenter Phil Harding making the wrought iron staves and hoops for a cannon. 

 

 

 

Experts now believe that the battle was not only fought in an entirely different place from the 'official' site but that gunpowder weapons, including large cannons, were used in far larger numbers than previously thought. In order to test these theories the Time Team crew built and fired replica cannons and cannon balls, and deployed some of the most sophisticated cameras in the world to examine the grisly remains of soldiers killed in the Wars. The conclusions they have drawn radically change the view of medieval warfare being ruled by knights in shining armour.

This Channel 4 TV programme was broadcast last week.