Joseph Strutt’s encyclopaedic survey of English sporting customs, published in 1801, contains an extended account of cudgelling, single-stick, and back-sword play as practised across England, with specific references to West Country practice. Strutt was a principal secondary authority for all subsequent sporting historians writing about these disciplines; the Badminton Library volumes and later manuals cite […]
WRESTLING—We this week present our readers with verbatim copies of the answer of Polkinhorne to Abm. Cann’s letter. To Mr. ABRAHAM CANN, St. Thomas, Exeter. SIR,—I acquainted you that my answer letter of Sept. 26, now near three months past, was laid before the stewards of the Champion Belt, at Bristol, and published in the […]
Wrestling at Devonport: THE RIVAL CHAMPIONS, CANN and POLKINHORN. Anxious at all times to give the fullest and most impartial intelligence of all public events, our Reporter was sent specially to Devonport to attend the great Match at Wrestling between the Rival Champions at that place,—the following is a correct account of the whole proceedings:— […]
HONE’s TABLE BOOK Hone, W (1827); The table book: or, Daily recreation and information concerning remarkable men, manners, times, seasons, solemnities, merry-makings, antiquities and novelties, forming a complete history of the year, W. Tegg. DEVONSHIRE WRESTLING. For the Table Book. Abraham Cann, the Devonshire champion, and his brother wrestlers of that county, are objected to […]
WRESTLING. The following are the arrangements agreed upon during the past week for the great wrestling match, at Haigh Park, near Leeds, on Easter Tuesday and two following days. The wrestling games to commence the day after the Races, and to be continued for three days. The play to be hand to collar, fair back […]
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LEEDS INTELLIGENCER. SIR,—As far as the prizes and offer to pay the expenses of the wrestlers go, I cannot sufficiently admire the liberality of the promoters of the approaching wrestling at Leeds; but there is a condition of play, which will I think destroy all chance of deciding in a […]
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LEEDS INTELLIGENCER. SIR,—A Correspondent in your last states, that, at the approaching Grand Wrestling Match, at Leeds, it is understood by the Cornishmen, that the players are to be confined to the hold by the collar, and that no other hold will be allowed. This is not the case. The […]
GREAT WRESTLING MATCH, AT HYDE PARK CRICKET GROUND. ON MONDAY next and Two following Days, a GREAT WRESTLING MATCH will take place between the Men of Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cumberland, and the surrounding Counties, and a number of picked Wrestlers from London, Devonshire, Cornwall, and Ireland. On commencing, the Men are first to […]
On Good Friday, in 1829, the annual Wrestling and Leaping Matches for ten distinct prizes, raised by Subscription, and only allowed to be played for by natives of Cumberland and Westmoreland, took place at the Eyre Arms Tavern, St. John’s Wood, in the presence of an immense assemblage of spectators. The prizes consisted of a […]
Howitt, W (1838); The rural life of England, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans. WE must not close this department of our subject, without saying a word or two on wrestling. This exercise, which at one time was almost universal, is now, like many others, fallen into general disuse; and is confined almost entirely to […]
WRESTLING AT SOUTHMOLTON, DEVON. A GRAND WRESTLING MATCH will take place in a Field at the back of Mr. LUXTON’s ANCHOR INN, South-street, in the town of Southmolton, on THURSDAY and FRIDAY, 18th and 19th JUNE, when the following Prizes will be awarded: Best Man: £5 0s 0d. Second: £2 10s 0d. Third: £1 0s […]
RULES OF DEVON WRESTLING. Devon wrestling differs from most other modes. It would, however, be easy to demonstrate its superiority over that practised by other wrestlers, who are unable, with any amount of success, to meet any stranger who does not conform to their own style, whereas knowledge of Devon wrestling enables a man to […]
WRESTLING — CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY AT NEWTON ABBOT. Notwithstanding the fact that several wrestlers lay claim to the title of champion of Devon and Cornwall, not one can do so fairly, nor can any man even claim to be champion of either county. The retirement of Robert Baker, after his match with Pike some eight years […]
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.
