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A detailed and quite graphic match report published in Australia regarding the match between Cann (Champion of Devon) and Gaffney (Champion of Ireland). The newspaper published the match on Tuesday 27th January, 1829. It demonstrates how reporting of these events was global and garnered international interest. Grand wrestling match between CANN, the Champion of Devonshire, […]
Single-stick and Cudgels. [To Mr. Hone.] I do not observe that you notice the yearly village sports of Single-stick playing and Cudgelling, in your Year-Book. — You may know, perhaps, that the inhabitants of many of the villages in the vrestern counties, not having a fair or other merry-making to collect a fun-seeking money – […]
The only amusement generally indulged in, the mode of which is almost peculiar to the county, is that of wrestling. It differs much from the sport so called and practiced in Cornwall and the North of England, inasmuch as the cruelty of kicking the shin is permitted; a custom which is very prolific of obstinate […]
THE WRESTLERS : ——————-a mutual yoke of hands, Dragging with arms and elbow – joints in intertwisted bands; And in their clasp reciprocal they lifted from the ground Each other’s body, snatched in air, descending round and round; A double pleasure thus employ’d th’ Olympian dweller’s mind, Lifting and lifted thus by turns upon the […]
WE must not close this department of our subject, without saying a word or two on wrestling. This exercise, which at one time was almost universal, is now, like many others, fallen into general disuse; and is confined almost entirely to Cornwall and Devon in the west, and the counties of Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland, and […]
THE CORNISH AND DEVONSHIRE METHODS. The principal difference between these methods is, that kicking the shins is a part of the Devonshire and not of the Cornish. The Devonshire men, therefore, wrestle with their shoes on, in order not to break their toes in kicking; and each takes advantage of this to bake the soles of his shoes, and thereby […]
Their ancient exercises have been archery, hurling, wrestling, football, dancing, and such like forcible exercises of strength and activity; recreating and hardening, and enabling their bodies and minds for more noble (though more uneasy and dangerous) martial employment; for which they are apt and in readiness with the foremost at all times. But these exercises […]
Currently resides in the collection of The Honiton Museum, Allhallows, Honiton. Displayed here with express written permission. The DWS wishes to thank the Trustees of Honiton Museum for their permission. The poster reads as follows: WRESTLING KING’S ARMS INN, HONITON. A Grand Match For a Private Purse of Sovereigns, Between W. MATTHEWS and W. TRACE, […]
The Sportsman’s Magazine, September 6, 1845. Singlestick In the play of singlestick the sticks used are somewhat heavier and stouter than in broadsword exercises, and the players usually strip to the shirt. In some parts of the country, Wilts, Berks and Somerset, paddings are used to save the arms, particularly the point of the elbow; […]
An oil painting on canvas, attributed to Henry Caunter (1808-1881). The painting was purchased by RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Item no.: 12/1959) in 1959, added to the museum collection where it still resides. This photo was taken by the DWS at the last public display of the painting in April 2022, at RAMM, Exeter. […]
Somersetshire Wrestling at the Furnham Hotel, Chard, A purse of 15 Sovereigns, will be wrestled for, On Thursday and Friday, the 29th and 30th days of July, 1847, in the DEVONSHIRE STYLE !!! OPEN TO ALL ENGLAND. Dated 21st July 1847 – TOMS, PRINTER, CHARD. This poster is currently in the collection of the […]
THE COMMITTEE of the CORNWALL and DEVONSHIRE WRESTLING SOCIETY beg to announce that they will celebrate their usual ANNUAL SPORT in the Pleasure Garden attached to Mr Baum’s, the White Lion, Victoria Park Station, Hackney Wick, on Whit- Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, when a number of handsome money prizes will be given to be wrestled […]
pp.118-123. “We wish to say a few words, my men, to those who are ” going to play with the sticks or wrestle to-day. There has ” been agood deal of talk about these sports, as you all know ; ” and manypersons think they shouldn’t be allowed at all now” a-days-that thetimefor them has […]
Backswording by Richard Doyle (1824-83). Wood-engraving, 2 1/2 x 4 3/8 inches (on 4 1/8 x 7 1/8 inch page). 1859. W. J. Linton, Engraver. Facing p. 146, Hughes’s The Scouring of the White Horse. Image scan and text by George P. Landow. Available to access online thanks to George P. Landow, via VictorianWeb.
This song or poem was documented by Hughes in 1859. It is believed to predate this recording. THE ZONG OF THE ZUMMERZETSHIRE OWLD GEAMSTER. I. “Cham* a Zummerzetshire mun Coom here to hev a bit o’vun. Oo’lt+ try a bout? I be’ant aveard Ov any man or mother’s zun. II. “Cham a geamster owld and […]
Abraham Cann’s memorial stone in St. Andrew’s churchyard, Colebrooke, bears the inscription: ‘SACRED to the memory of Abraham Cann who departed this life April 7th 1864 aged 69 years. Champion of Devon Wrestlers.’ (Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post, April 20, 1864, p. 8)
Portrait of the famous wrestler Abraham Cann in 1864. Now in the public domain. Illustrated Sporting News and Theatrical and Musical Review – Saturday 07 May 1864, Page 4.
Fictional account, but with key references made by the novelist R. D. Blackmore that drew upon real events, and real wrestlers of the period: Volume 2, Chapter 5: CHAPTER V. That same evening, as I was sitting in my lonely room, yet not quite alone,–for little Sally, who always did as I bade her, was […]
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 […]
A ‘Devon and Cornwall’ wrestling tournament at Hackney in London, reported in the Illustrated Sporting News of 1866.
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 […]
John Slade, Champion Wrestler (Devon and Cornwall). Featured in The Illustrated Sporting News. Engraved by Moore V. Williamson. Original page in the archives of DWS.
35 references to Wrestling, including: Much as I longed to know more about Lorna, and though all my heart was yearning, I could not reconcile it yet with my duty to mother and Annie, to leave them on the following day, which happened to be a Sunday. For lo, before breakfast was out of our […]
“The play of Cornwall and Devonshire is the same, with a difference. They both have the jacket, and they play for a hitch in the same fashion. Sticklers are appointed, who keep the ring, and the public are present in crowds. In Cornwall, however, the man steps into the ring in his stockings or socks. […]
pp.622, A minor reference to a Devonshire Wrestling in a fictional work. Reference to good breeding. “Upon my word, madam,” the General protested, “you use the doctor badly. He is blamed if he kills people, and he is blamed if he keeps them alive. What is he to do?” “Do? He can’t help saving the […]
Appearing in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, pp.65. Illustrated by Alfred Concanen.
An original pen-and-ink sketch by Alfred Concanen, featured on pagee 236 of The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (5 June 1875).
From the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, July 8th, 1876. Drawing called “Devon Wrestling- “No Doubt About It.” Illustrated by Alfred Concanen.