In 2005 I visited a woodworking firm in Colerne near Bath to photograph the team building a trebuchet for Warwick Castle.
It was only this weekend when we visited Stratford on Avon
for the Shakespeare 400 weekend that I
managed to get to Warwick Castle to see it work.
Though I contacted the PR department the week before and
explained why I was visiting I failed to get a good position to photograph it,
I think the Smiler accident at Alton Towers and the fact that a stray spark
burned down a historic boathouse last year makes them very cautious and they don't
fire a burning cannonball now.
The trebuchet at Warwick Castle is one of the main
attractions. It weighs 22 tonnes and
stands 19 meters high
On 21 August 2006, the trebuchet claimed the record as the
most powerful siege engine of its type when it sent a projectile weighing 13
kilograms (29 lb) a distance of 249 metres (817 ft) at a speed of 260
kilometres per hour (160 mph), beating the previous record held by the
trebuchet at Middelaldercentret in Denmark
My composite picture of the trebuchet firing.
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