By the mid-seventeenth century hail-shot munitions had become more standardised and seem predominantly to comprise lead bullets.⁹⁶ Already in the 1540s we find Audley’s military manual stating that an army should be supplied with moulds for making hail-shot, which suggests that lead ball was already considered the ideal if not the typical hail-shot projectile.⁹⁷ How much earlier lead was in use is unclear, but we can be certain that lead hail-shot was not in use at Bosworth, because firing lead ball in this way creates compression facets and other distinctive features on the bullets. They are a common find from seventeenth-century battlefields but no comparable evidence has been found amongst the bullets from Bosworth.⁹⁸

If at this time hail-shot was in use but typically comprised pebbles, shards of flint, or dice of iron then there is a problem. Iron dice may not have survived in the topsoil or only in such decayed condition that their original function may no longer be obvious. Its recovery will also require intensive detecting over a wide area and in all-metal mode, which has yet to be attempted at Bosworth. While stone may be expected to survive in good condition, it is efficient recovery in systematic survey that is the problem. There will be larger numbers of items from each firing, compared to a single stone round shot, but identification of small pebbles or flint shards will be far more difficult. Fieldwalking survey for this is feasible, in principle, but would only be practicable in exceptional conditions. It would require a site where the topsoil is not naturally stony and where the particular type of stone used in the hail-shot was not normally present.

Stone

Similar problems will apply to the recovery of stone round shot. This was in use throughout the fifteenth century, and not just for the massive bombards intended to batter down defensive walls. Small calibre stone shot are seen in various collections but are principally intended for large artillery, as can be seen from those on the Mary Rose where the calibres range from 75 mm to 235 mm. However, amongst the early guns and munitions in the castle of Grandson, Switzerland are stone round shot with diameters including 44 mm, 63 mm and 65 mm, thus well within the calibres of the lead round shot recovered from Bosworth (Figure 7.14). Unfortunately, as yet, there is no clear idea as to the relative proportions of stone round shot of different calibres, as opposed to those of lead or iron, that were supplied for use by field artillery in the later fifteenth century.

Several natural stone pebbles of spherical form have been reported to the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre because they were thought to be round shot. It is usually straightforward to establish they are natural and thus have no association with the battle (Figure 7.3). Determining whether a manufactured stone sphere was intended for early artillery or had some other, more prosaic function is more difficult. When a large number of early stone projectiles have been studied it may be possible to isolate distinctive features that allow secure identification. Until then it will be their recovery in significant number and in association with lead rounds that is likely to be the key to their identification in battlefield assemblages.