The Wrestling-Match at Ide, yesterday, afforded great amusement to the lovers of that manly and athletic diversion; a number of first-rate players attended from different parts of the County, and most of the matches were strongly contested.—The play was kept up, with great spirit, until two o’clock this morning, when the prize was won by […]
WRESTLING.—At Morchard Grand Wrestling Match, yesterday and to day, for 12 Sovereigns, the Champion A Cann was thrown by the younger Dartmouth, by an unlucky fall, after 35 minutes severe play. Mr. Wreford carried off the first prize, and James Cann won the second; during the play A Cann’s shoe was thrown out by the […]
WRESTLING.—The Okehampton Grand Match commenced on the 16th inst. Twenty four men got share, and the double play brought with it some of the richest turns that have ever been witnessed; the men all fresh from their native hills displayed a strength and vigor almost superhuman, as they were stripped they seemed very Atlases. Woolaway […]
WRESTLING.—The Exeter, the grand Metropolitan Match, commenced on Monday morning, at eleven o’clock, in the spacious ring in St. Thomas. The Champion entered the ring at six o’clock; he entered with the band playing “See the conquering Hero comes.” No time was lost, and stout, young, and prime as was his opponent, in two minutes […]
WRESTLING.—The prize of ten Sovereigns for the thrown men at the Exeter Wrestling last week, was won,—the first prize of four Sovereigns by Mr. Wreford; the second of two Sovereigns by J. Bolt; and the third of one Sovereign by Horwill.—James Frost of Aveton Gifford, appeared in the ring, at the close of the play […]
A Correspondent has favored us with the following List of the Ages, Height, and Weight, of some of the principal Wrestlers at the above match: DEVON: Abraham Cann, Age 32, Height 5ft 8½in, Weight 175lbs. William Wollaway, 28, 6ft 0in, 210lbs. James Stone, 28, 5ft 4in, 173lbs. John Jordon, 39, 6ft 4in, 230lbs. William Wreford, […]
WRESTLING. The match at Broadclist, commenced on Monday morning. 16 as strong standards as ever stepped into a ring were made. The turn in the double play between James Cann and young Lewis, was a masterly effort, which lasted for 38 minutes, when Lewis was thrown. The brave Wreford, and an equally brave man of […]
In Devonshire, early in June, 1828, the Wrestling Match in St. Thomas’s, adjoining Exeter, commenced; at which, Woolaway, Wreford, Simon Webber, Huxtable, Jackman, and Flower, from the North; the Underdowns, Freys, &c. from the east, were particularly noticed. The champion, attended by his brother James, Roach, &c., was on the ground, but not playable—he was […]
TWO CELEBRATED WRESTLERS, LITTLE COCK AND BLIND BILL. John Coppe, commonly called Little Cock, lived in the neighbourhood of Great Torrington, in Devonshire. This man, who lived to an advanced age, never exceeded five feet five inches in stature. In his youth he remained master of the ring at all the wrestling matches in the […]
AN EXTRAORDINARY WRESTLER.—Mr. Wreyford, aged 82, lately died at Orchard Lake, in the parish of Cheriton Bishop—about forty years since one of the first men in the wrestling ring in the Western counties, if not in all England. Mr. Wreyford was totally blind from eight years of age, and was familiarly known in the ring […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. Mr. Wreford bore a name familiar to all the lovers of wrestling, both in the provinces and the metropolis. Born at Morchard Bishop, near Crediton, at […]
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.
