(p.2) From the earliest periods of history wrestling has been a popular recreation, a sport in which the English had the reputation of being particularly skilful. Whoever has read The Canterbury Tales will not forget the two references to wrestling: Gamelyn in the Cook’s Tale (a pre-Chaucerian poem often printed in Chaucer’s works), and the […]
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 […]
It almost went unnoticed, something that would never have happened in the old days, but Friday, April 23, was St. George Day. In Butte’s earler days, the day was as big in the lives of the English and Cornishmen of Butte as was St. Patrick Day to the Irish, St. George Hall In Centerville was […]
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. […]
Available online to download.
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
This research by Francis Edwards profiles Gerry Cawley (now Historian of the Cornish Wrestling Association), presenting him as the most successful and influential Cornish wrestler of the late 20th century and a central figure in keeping the tradition alive. Beginning as a young competitor in village tournaments, Cawley quickly rose through the ranks, winning multiple […]
An article written by Francis Edwards on 2nd August 2025 explores how Cornish wrestling became a popular spectator sport in 19th-century London, driven by urbanisation, media coverage, and organised promotion. At its centre is Joseph Menear, a Cornish miner turned wrestler who rose to dominate the London scene in the 1860s. Competing mainly at Hackney […]
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.
