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 […]
GAMES, PASTIMES, and DIVERSIONS, ON THE ANTIENT CASTLE OF PLYMPTON, DEVON. ON Tuesday the 15th of July, 1806, and the following day, (viz.) WRESTLING FOR A PURSE OF GUINEAS, FIRST MAN ………….. £5 5s. 0d. SECOND ……………. £1 1s. 0d. Every other STANDER, each 5s. 0d. CUDGEL-PLAYING FOR A SILVER CUP, VALUE AT LEAST £2 […]
GAMES, PASTIMES, and DIVERSIONS, On the antient CASTLE of PLYMPTON, Devon. ON Tuesday and Wednesday, the 14th and 15th of July, 1807, (viz.) WRESTLING for a PURSE of GUINEAS, First Man ……………. £7 7s. 0d. Second ……………… £2 2s. 0d. Every other Stander, each …….. 7s. 0d. CUDGEL-PLAYING for a SILVER CUP, Value at least […]
THE SPORTING MAGAZINE. VOL. XXXV. DECEMBER, 1809. N°. CCVII. SINGLE-STICK. WITH AN ENGRAVING. [This is the engraving by Wheble, Somersetshire Gamesters (1810)] WE have been favoured not only with a drawing, from which this Engraving is taken, but likewise with an article on the Game of Backsword or Single-Stick, which follows. The subject is likewise […]
EXETER GRAND WRESTLING MATCH. TO be WRESTLED FOR, on MONDAY next, the 29th of July instant, in a Field, adjoining the Black Boy Turnpike, St. Sidwell’s, a PURSE of TEN GUINEAS. To the best Man, FIVE GUINEAS. Second best ditto, TWO GUINEAS. Third best ditto, ONE GUINEA. To every Double Player, 5s. each; and 7s. […]
EXETER GRAND WRESTLING MATCH. TO be WRESTLED for, on Monday and Tuesday the 27th and 28th of July instant, in a field adjoining the Black Boy Turnpike, A PURSE of TWENTY GUINEAS,—TEN GUINEAS each day. To the man who throws the first fall, Seven Shillings. To every double player, Five Shillings each. The players are […]
EXETER GRAND WRESTLING MATCH. TO be WRESTLED for, on Monday and Tuesday the 27th and 28th of July instant, in a field adjoining the Black Boy Turnpike, A PURSE of TWENTY GUINEAS,—TEN GUINEAS each day. To the man who throws the first fall, Seven Shillings. To every double player, Five Shillings each. The players are […]
To the Admirers of the CHASE, the TURF, the STUD, the RING, &c. On the 1st of January, 1822, was published, (to be continued Monthly,) price 2s. 6d., No. I. of the ANNALS of SPORTING and FANCY GAZETTE; a MAGAZINE entirely appropriated to SPORTING SUBJECTS and FANCY PURSUITS; containing every thing worthy of remark on […]
ANNALS OF SPORTING. Published on the first of every Month, price 2s. 6d. each Number. THE ANNALS of SPORTING and FANCY GAZETTE; a Magazine entirely appropriated to Sporting Subjects and Fancy Pursuits; containing every Thing worthy of Remark on Hunting, Fishing, Single Stick, Rowing, Shooting, Cocking, Pedestrianism, Sailing, Coursing, Pugilism, Cricket, &c. &c. Racing, Billiards, […]
WRESTLING. WRESTLING IN THE KENT ROAD.—On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, a wrestling match for thirty sovereigns took place on the bowling-green of the Green Man Tavern, in the Kent-road. During the play on Tuesday, when Gaffney and Copp were contending for the fall, a Mr. Vicary, landlord of the Rose and Crown in London-lane, Bermondsey, […]
GRAND WRESTLING MATCH AT LEEDS. On Monday last, the whole of the Wrestlers who arrived from London, nineteen in number, appeared on the Race Ground, and excited considerable attention from the commonalty there assembled. On Tuesday the sports commenced, & after three days’ excellent play, the Prizes were thus awarded:—A. Cann 1st, 30l.; James Stone […]
WRESTLING. Yesterday a most interesting wrestling match took place in the new ground of the Eagle Tavern, In the City Road. The match was for 20l. aside, between James Copp, a Devonshire man, well known in the wrestling ring, and considered to be the best wrestler from Devonshire resident in London, and Laurence Hanlon, an […]
HORNSEY-WOOD TAVERN — Wrestling in the Devon and Cornish style will take place in the enclosed grounds upon Easter Monday and Tuesday. The proprietor will give £10 in prizes to be wrestled for; there will also be Single-stick, Rifle and Pigeon Shooting for a chased silver cup and a handsome silver snuff box. This being […]
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.
