CREDITON, Devon. TO be SOLD in FEE, by public auction, in two lots, on Monday the third day of October next, at the Half Moon Inn, in Crediton, at five o’clock in the afternoon, subject to such conditions as will be then and there produced. Lot 1.—All that meadow or close of land, called the […]
TO WRESTLERS. TO be WRESTLED for, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 24th and 25th days of May instant, in a Field adjoining the town of Crediton, Devon, the annual Prize of TWENTY GUINEAS, Ten Guineas of which, as usual, will be given to the best man, and the remainder distributed among the other players getting […]
CREDITON ANNUAL WRESTLING. THE prize of TWENTY GUINEAS will be WRESTLED for on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY the 19th and 20th days of June next, in a field adjoining the town. Ten Guineas of which will be played for, and distributed on the Tuesday, and the remaining Ten Guineas on the Wednesday; Five Guineas of which, […]
CREDITON ANNUAL WRESTLING. THE prize of TWENTY GUINEAS will be WRESTLED for on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY the 19th and 20th days of June next, in a field adjoining the town. Ten Guineas of which will be played for, and distributed on the Tuesday, and the remaining Ten Guineas on the Wednesday; Five Guineas of which, […]
CREDITON WRESTLING, 1811. THE Annual Prize of TWENTY GUINEAS will be WRESTLED FOR this year on the WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY in WHITSUN-WEEK: Ten Guineas of which will be played for and distributed on the Wednesday; and the remaining Ten Guineas on the Thursday.— Five Guineas of which, on each day, will be given to the […]
CREDITON WRESTLING, 1811. THE Annual Prize of TWENTY GUINEAS will be WRESTLED FOR this year on the WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY in WHITSUN-WEEK: Ten Guineas of which will be played for and distributed on the Wednesday; and the remaining Ten Guineas on the Thursday.— Five Guineas of which, on each day, will be given to the […]
CREDITON, DEVON. TO be SOLD in Fee, with immediate possession, all that Field or Close of Land, containing about one acre (more or less) called the LITTLE CLOSE, or WRESTLING FIELD, situate near Thresher’s Causeway, in Crediton, and now in possession of Mr. Philip Stone.—Also, for the Life of the said Philip Stone, aged 50, […]
ASHBURTON ANNUAL WRESTLING will be on Monday and Tuesday, the 17th and 18th of July, for a Prize of TWENTY FIVE SOVEREIGNS, when every encouragement will be given to deserving Players. June 20th, 1826. CREDITON WRESTLING. THE Sum of TWENTY-FIVE GUINEAS, will be Wrestled for at Crediton, on Wednesday and Thursday the 5th and 6th […]
The eyes of all classes of politicians are now on the pretty town of Tiverton, but we believe it is not generally known that there is now residing among us the greatest of living wrestlers. We allude to that respectable old yeoman, Mr. William Wreford, who may be truly said to be the hero of […]
DEATH OF A RENOWNED DEVONSHIRE WRESTLER. On Sunday last the veteran William Wreford died after a very short illness at the house of one of his children, in the metropolis [London]. Mr. Wreford bore a name familiar to all the lovers of wrestling, both in the provinces and the metropolis. Indeed, there is probably none […]
The Devonshire Wrestling Society archive has been assembled over more than twelve years of systematic research into the history of Westcountry martial arts. When this work began, the documentary record was sparse and dispersed: sources were few, descriptions were thin, and access required navigating institutional barriers that most researchers would not have the time or resources to overcome. The archive now comprises 421 records — 322 newspaper articles (1778–1947), 35 manuscripts, 11 posters, 48 books, one letters patent, two cemetery inscriptions, and two memorials — spanning approximately one thousand years of history across five defined periods and three core disciplines: wrestling, cudgelling, and pugilism.
The material has been drawn from archives, museums, and libraries at both local and national level, as well as from diaspora communities. Access varied considerably: some holdings were straightforwardly available through public or gated online repositories; others required direct institutional inquiry, formal licensing, or payment. Licence fees for individual items have, in some cases, reached several hundred pounds. Items acquired under licence are retained for private research purposes only and are not published. A small number of items from private collections likewise remain unpublished, pending permission. All records for which publication rights have been secured are made freely and openly available.
The cost of the archive — in time and in money — has been substantial. It is offered without charge because the traditions it documents belong to the communities that produced them, and because those who come after should not be required to repeat the effort already expended.
Every record in the archive was acquired through a consistent five-stage process:
Identification. Awareness of potential sources was established through systematic searches of public and private institutional indexes worldwide, and through direct correspondence with subject specialists already engaged with relevant holdings.
Access. Depending on the institution, access was obtained through online repositories, direct application, or formal licensing. Correspondence was initiated with several hundred institutions over the course of the project. Where institutions confirmed the absence of relevant holdings, this was recorded. Where access was granted, the means of access was documented.
Storage. All acquired material is held in a single centralised repository, ensuring that research access is permanent and that no duplication of acquisition effort is necessary.
Preparation. Every record has been transcribed to render it fully searchable and taggable. Images have been assigned metadata recording provenance, licensing terms, and resolution specifications for publication purposes.
Publication. The publicly available inventory represents all records for which the requisite permissions have been obtained.
In order to ensure consistency and intellectual coherence across the archive, all prospective additions are evaluated against the following criteria, which are applied collectively and in sequence. A record should satisfy the majority of these criteria before inclusion is considered.
Relevance. The record must have a demonstrable and direct connection to the Six Shires (Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire) as the location of practice, the origin of practitioners, or the primary institutional context. Records concerning Westcountry practitioners competing elsewhere (in London, the United States, or South Africa, for example) are eligible where the practitioner’s regional identity is explicitly identified in the source. Records documenting the export of Westcountry martial arts beyond Britain are admissible and desirable, consistent with existing holdings relating to California, Japan, New Zealand, and South Africa. The record must concern one or more of the three disciplines in scope: Westcountry wrestling (Devonshire or Cornish style), cudgelling or single-stick as practised in the region, or pugilism and boxing with a demonstrable Westcountry connection. Records documenting the co-occurrence of two or more disciplines are particularly valuable and should be prioritised.
Integrity. The source must be primary or a reliable early secondary record. For newspaper sources, this means a contemporaneous report; for books, a first or early edition, or a verified transcription thereof. Secondary scholarship is admissible where it contains primary-source quotations not otherwise independently accessible, provided these are clearly identified as such.
Balanced representation. The curatorial target is approximate parity — not of record count, which will inevitably reflect the uneven survival of evidence — but of intellectual representation across the three core disciplines. Where any discipline is underrepresented relative to this target, acquisitions in that discipline should be prioritised accordingly.
Material culture. Physical objects — trophies, belts, equipment, and architectural features — are admissible where they carry inscriptions or documentary provenance that independently attest to the practice of a discipline in the region.
Verifiability. The source must be identifiable with sufficient bibliographic precision to be cited in APA format and, where possible, to be independently verified by a reader consulting the original. Oral tradition, undocumented folklore, and secondary paraphrases without citation do not meet this standard. Where a source is available online, a direct URL must be provided.
