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WRESTLING RECORD. INTEREST IN THE GAME SPREADS. A YEAR’S GOOD WORK. Mr. F. J. Jago, secretary of the Cornwall Wrestling Association, at a meeting of the Management Committee at Truro on Monday, stated that a very gratifying feature of the season had been the number of ladies who had witnessed the various tournaments. This tended […]
CORNISH AND DEVON WRESTLING. To the Editor of the Western Times. Sir,—The enclosed card—”St. Thomas Grand Wrestling Match, Grand Stand: Admission sixpence”—I found amongst some old papers. It may be of interest, especially now when we hear of women engaging in the sport. About forty years ago I was engaged superintending the erection of a […]
Russell, Daniel; The Saturday Review, 22 August 1936, p. 243 He sat upon the low stone wall by the roadside and soaked his ancient bones in the sunlight. He was incredibly old. His brown face was seamed and crossed with a multitude of wrinkles. The hand which held his pipe shook as though palsied. Under […]
Despite the title of the book, Stanley Bacon was a practitioner of a range of styles, including Cornish Wrestling. In his work he covers a few techniques common in the Westcountry, although in his example, applied without jackets. The main Westcountry technique Bacon described was the Fore Crook, or Fore Lock (pp.54-55). CORNISH LOCK FORWARD […]
NOTES IN THE WEST. Cornish Wrestling. Recent wrestling tournaments, particularly at Newquay and Falmouth, attracted many spectators, and it is apparent that Cornish people are still keenly interested in this Celtic pastime of a long and proud history. It has been often stated that the game is so deeply rooted in the Cornish nature that, […]
CORNWALL AND DEVONSHIRE WRESTLING. BRECKNOCK ARMS, CAMDEN TOWN. Considering the unsettled rawness of the present Eastertide, the sports at this suburban ground were well attended. The play was confined to men under 12st, and the arrangement was proved judicious by the quality of the struggles and the science evinced by the well-matched antagonists. A spacious […]
Cornish Wrestling Was Popular Sport in Butte Before the First World War Cornish wrestling was one of the most popular sports in Butte around the turn of the century, especially with the English residents in Centerville, Walkerville, Meaderville and Butte. However, the active participants in the sport were not all Cornishmen. The Irish and the […]
ECHOES Of the Long Distant Past From Files of the Anaconda Standard When Cornish Wrestling Was Popular in Butte [Photograph: A group of eight men posed outdoors, several wearing the distinctive loose canvas jackets characteristic of Cornish wrestling.] Back in the 1880s, when the above picture was taken, Cornish wrestling was a big attraction to […]
1753 a very beautiful gold laced vest of leather was “to be wrestled for in Plymouth, organized on the green, a hat decorated of silver laced was to be cudgeled for, and a Holland shift to be run for by women”. In 1783, at the Pentecost games, a wrestling contest organized by a local Pub, […]
The comparison with techniques from Judo is inaccurate, but the historical photographs taken by Redgrave as an important time-capsule of the sport in the late 1960s. We do not have permission to reproduce this material, but it is publicly available online via Google Books.
Available online via The Box, Plymouth.
Available online via Google Books.
Cornish Wrestling, from 20/04/1971 https://t.co/8RLBqn0K9w. Available online via Archive.org.
Cornish Wrestling Competition in St Stephen-by-Launceston Cornwall The Cornish Wrestling Association (CWA) is formed in 1923 when the sport is revived. The sport and has spread worldwide due to Cornish miners emigrating. Known as wrassling, two opponents wear strong canvas jackets to back or overturn one another from a standing position and points are scored […]
A souvenir programme created for the 150th anniversary of the Cann vs Polkinghorne match. This event took place at Polkinghorne’s public house at St. Columb. This programme was gifted to The Devonshire Wrestling Society by Gerry Cawley, Historian of The Cornish Wrestling Association in 2015.
CUDGELLING In the last issue of Wiltshire Folklife there was a request for information on a number of interests. Two responses focus attention on cudgelling. Mrs. F. Morrison contributes her note and illustration below. This is followed by a note dated 1763 sent by Miss M.H. Nichols which presents the sport in a particular context. […]
This article constitutes the first modern scholarly account of the rise and decline of the Devonshire wrestling style during the nineteenth century. Writing from the Department of Economic History at the University of Exeter, Porter situates the sport within the broader historiographical expansion of sport history during the 1980s, noting that whilst cricket, football, prizefighting, […]
Reprinted in 1990 by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. Original date is unknown. Written by Bryan H. Kendall, descriptions by Bernard Chapman, Harry Gregory, Thomas John Cundy. Illustrated by Alexander (‘Sandy’) Anderson. Foreword by J.B Hooper. Covers techniques, rules, and some background.Photography of sportsman also included. This is taken from a copy in the […]
What is Cornish Wrestling? Cornish Wrestling, or “wrasslin” as we call it, is an ancient form of one-on-one combat, similar in style to many other forms of Celtic wrestling. It certainly has no similarity with the wrestling seen on TV where entertainment rather than competitiveness is the aim. Similar to Judo, and unlike most […]
Michael Tripp’s doctoral thesis, submitted to the University of Exeter in May 2009 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, constitutes the first comprehensive scholarly history of Cornish wrestling. Published in two volumes — the first containing the main analytical text (including introduction, seven substantive chapters, conclusion, and bibliography) and the second comprising twenty-one appendices […]
Jaouen G. Transforming cornish and devon wrestling (britain) and gouren (brittany – france) through sportification. International Journal of the History of Sport. 2014;31(4):474-491. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2013.869219.
An official badge of The Cornish Wrestling Association in the archives of The Devonshire Wrestling Society. Date is unknown, but it entered the archives in 2014.
Cornish Wrestling Motionmade, and Question proposed, (Jeremy Quin.) 8.31 pm. Scott Mann (North Cornwall) (Con). Full document available online, as per UK Government: Volume 661 No. 312 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 12 June 2019
The “Devon Hercules” who fought the Cornish and became the Champion of England He’d deliver agonising kicks to the legs of opponents with his hardened bullock-blood boots. Charlotte Vowles, DevonLive reporter 12:39, 27 Jun 2020 Updated 12:58, 27 Jun 2020 A champion wrestler nationally acclaimed for a savage style of fighting, originally came from a […]
(pp355) Every bit as savage as bare-knuckle boxing was the ancient sport of Devon Wrestling, One of the last champions was Abraham Cann, who was nicknamed the Devon Hercules. In this painting by Henry Caunter (c. 1846), Cann is evoked as the last great exponent of the dying art of wrestling according to the brutal […]
A Blue Plaque commemorative at the site of St Bartholomew Street, Exeter. The only remnants of the Public house is now the foundations for the current properties. The Blue Plaque reads: Exeter Civic Society: Abraham Cann 1794-1864 Champion of England at Devonshire wrestling Landlord of the Champion’s Arms public house on this site 1828-1830 DWS […]
Traditional Wrestling Promoting Traditional Wrestling For Cultural Tourism and Local Development Main contributors in the project: Hristos Gatsios, Charalampos Elisiadis, Anta Tsaira, Guy Jaouen, Christian Pelé, Aurélie Epron, Marko Panović, Jovica Mihailović, Aca Stanojević, Dejan Čikarić Antonio Barreñada, Vicente Martín, Roberto Baelo, Nicolae Dobre, Cristian Vaduva, Marius Bolba. Funded by the European Union. Views and […]
Available online via HeardFamilyHistory.org.uk. Page updated 04/04/2024. © Nick Heard 2024