The earliest crossbows, even large ones, didn't have the wench.
Oh, yeah, I forgot that crossbows were originally popularised by their early advertising campaigns: "buy Olaf's new crosse-bow! Now with complementary ale-serving wench!"
A similar method had to be employed to cock the WWII-vintage PIAT anti-tank gun, Britain's answer the the Bazooka; and of course being British, a bit of an oddity but effective enough. The idea being that the spigot would be re-cocked automatically every time it was fired but that didn't always happen. It was apparently possible to do it lying down but not very easy. Oo-er missus etc.
And yeah, archers took a
lot of training and for a long time it was English law that all men must do longbow practice on Sundays. Someone claimed that technically it's still a legal requirement but there're so many urban legends about weird old laws that were never rescinded.
