Exeter Grand Wrestling. TO be WRESTLED FOR, in a Field at Hill’s Farm, in the parish of St. Sidwell’s, on Thursday and Friday, the 24th and 25th instant, a PURSE of at least TEN GUINEAS. Play to begin each day at ten o’clock in the forenoon.—In order to encourage early attendance, the first double player […]
WRESTLING.—Okehampton grand Wrestling Match takes place to-morrow and Friday. Twenty Guineas, being the sum to be wrestled for, the lovers of that gymnastic sport in the neighbourhood anticipate a treat, as it will no doubt induce many of the best players in the county to contend for the various prizes.—On Wednesday and Thursday last there […]
WRESTLING.—The grand Wrestling Match, which took place at Okehampton on Thursday and Friday last, has, as was anticipated, afforded one of the richest treats ever witnessed by the admirers of this manly exercise, the excellent science and John Bull like courage here displayed, excited the admiration and applause of every one present. By 1 o’clock, […]
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, […]
Devon and Cornwall.—The match at Tavistock, in a most decisive way, settled the question as to superiority in this manly exercise, in favor of the former county. Two gentlemen, as a last effort, have made a purse of 50 sovereigns, for which Cann and Stone are ready to play any two Cornishmen that may appear […]
DEVON WRESTLING IN LONDON. [Reported expressly for this paper.] The matches at the Eagle Tavern, City Road, concluded on Friday, when the first was awarded to Abraham Cann; 2d to Chappie; the fourth to Devon men. At the close of the play, two gentlemen from Westmoreland, Dobson and Anderson, entered the ring, and challenged Cann […]
WRESTLING IN LONDON. [Reported expressly for this paper.] A match for a prize of was played for at the Mile End Road, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, when excellent sport was afforded to those who are fond of athletic amusements. The first day play commenced at three o’clock. Stone raised his left wing in good […]
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, AT HYDE PARK. On Wednesday, a chosen party of wrestlers, who have been for some days past in this town on their return to London from Leeds, gave a display of the ancient game of Wrestling, in the Hyde Park Cricket Ground. About four o’clock, two Devonshire men (Pook and Pell) handed their hats […]
LEEDS, April 19.—The great wrestling match took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, on a stage erected in the centre of an enclosed piece of ground called “Haigh’s Park,” at Huddersfield. About ten o’clock, Bell and Pook commenced, the latter was thrown; Pyle, one of the Devonshire men from London, then threw in his hat for […]
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 […]
An original pen-and-ink sketch by Alfred Concanen, featured on pagee 236 of The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (5 June 1875).
Baring-Gould, S. (1908). Devonshire characters and strange events. John Lane, The Bodley Head. DEVONSHIRE WRESTLERS. WRESTLING was the favourite sport in former days in Devonshire and Cornwall. Evelyn, in his Diary, speaks of Westcountrymen in London contesting against men of the North, and in all cases the former were the victors. And Ben Jonson, in […]
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.
