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Single Stick or Cudgel Playing is a very useful science, if learnt with the view of self preservation; but when practised as a game or amusement it is thoroughly brutal. The playing, as it was erroneously called, was conducted as follows Half-a-dozen casks were rolled on the Parade or some open place, on which were […]
In Henry VIII’s reign, at a festival at Greenwich, several champions stood forth to contend with all comers at wrestling “in all manner of ways.” There is, however, much reason to suppose that neither then, nor for a long time after, did any of those ” manners ” include the Devonshire style ; for about […]
CANN Abraham the Dict states VIII 410 was baptized at Colebrooke near Crediton 2 Dec 1794 and was the son of Robert Cann a farmer from whom he inherited a love of wrestling. Having thrown all the best wrestlers in Devonshire he was known as the champion of the county and in Oct 1826 wrestled […]
Devon wrestling differs from most other modes. It would, however, be easy to demonstrate its superiority over that practised by other wrestlers, who are unable, with any amount of success, to meet any stranger who does not conform to their own style, whereas knowledge of Devon wrestling enables man to successfully meet whomsoever cares to […]
Accession/loan number: 406/1997 Inscription: obverse, on disc at centre of cross engraved by hand and fretted ‘PRESENTED TO/ MASTER CHARLES JENNINGS/ BY/ MR.W.JAMES/ CHAMPION WRESTLER OF DEVON/ AND CITIZENS/ OF/ ST.SIDWELLS EXETER’. Reverse is engraved by hand and fretted ‘F.T.DEPREE.EXETER./ ON ACCOUNT/ OF HIS/ WONDERFUL SKILLS AS A MUSICIAN,/ BONE-PLAYER AND CLOG-DANCER./ tutored by his […]
Whilst the games went on, or between the intervals, songs were sung. “I’ll sing’y one,” said Olver, “was a favourite, and were sung to encourage the youngsters.” 1. “I sing of champions bold, That wrestled–not for gold; And all the cry Was ‘Will Trefry,’ That he would win the day. So Will Trefry, huzzah! The […]
WRESTLING. (Page 166) IT is very difficult to give directions for wrestling in intelligible language. If you had hold of me, I could say, “Now put your foot so, and turn your hip so—that’s it;” and how a sudden heave like this,” and so forth. But so in attempting the task on pencil, or by […]
FENCING BY WALTER H. POLLOCK, F. C. GROVE, AND CAMILLE PREVOST, MAITRE D’ARMES WITH A COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE ART BY EGERTON CASTLE, M.A., F.S.A. BOXING BY E. B. MICHELL WRESTLING BY WALTER ARMSTRONG WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS Second Edition LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1890 All rights reserved (Page 184) ….was unable to […]
(pp167)…Joe beckoned me in, and I went round to the back of the table and looked on. As the men came up from the group round the door, when their names were called out, the umpires said a few words to each of them and then gave them their prizes, and most of them made […]
(pp175) The difference between Devon and Cornish wrestling consists in this, that in a Devon wrestle kicking is admissible ; but then, as a protection to their shins, the antagonists have their legs wreathed with haybands (vulgo skillibegs). As the legs were on this occasion unprotected, Devon wrestling was inadmissible. Both fashions were in vogue […]
Excerpt referring to Wrestling, in discussion about ‘Author’s counties’, in ‘Atalanta’: Volume 8 (1895) …. Another of Mr Blackmore’s novels is set partly in Devon it is that of ‘Clara Vaughan’ one of his earliest if not his earliest work. It is not equal to his later novels and yet contains in it scenes of […]
WRESTLING THE CORNISH AND DEVONSHIRE STYLES Wrestling is a very ancient game. Jacob wrestled with an angel, recorded in Scripture of great antiquity. The Greeks wrestled at the Isthmian and Olympic games, and later the Amphitheatre of Rome was a wrestling ring. It was a game in those days for the amusement of the public, […]
(pp99) Among the places in which preaching was regularly established were the villages of Landkey and Swymbridge. In these parishes, the presentation to which is vested in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, the tithes had fallen into the hands of a lay impropriator, and “ duty ” of both churches was at that time […]
THE MYTH OF BRUTUS THE TROJAN. By the late R. N. Worth, F.G.S., etc. rutus, son of Sylvius, grandson of Æneas the Trojan, killed his father while hunting, was expelled from Italy, and settled in Greece. Here the scattered Trojans, to the number of seven thousand, besides women and children, placed themselves under his command, […]
(Feature image: The Sporting Life, November 1901). This Japanese form of self-defence is, without doubt, far superior either to ancient or modern style of Devonshire or any other county form of wrestling, when matched side by side. The grips used are entirely different, and they are both effective and deadly in character. If the opponent […]
Chapter XIII Wrestling Wrestling had become one of the least practised of our old English sports, till the recent revival of the art as a music-hall “turn” — a use for which it was particularly well adapted, inasmuch as a Wrestling Match never fails to hold the interest of the spectator from first to last […]
We have read of his Cornish father’s prowess in “the art of fisticuffery,” and might certainly have looked for a spirited account of the affair at Bodmin Bridge when the terror of all Plymouth and Devonport was vanquished, and another of the fracas at Menheniot Fair. But we should probably also have had an essay […]
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine), 1834-1924 DEVONSHIRE WRESTLERS WRESTLING was the favourite sport in former days in Devonshire and Cornwall. Evelyn, in his Diary, speaks of Westcountrymen in London contesting in London against men of the North, and in all cases the former were the victors. And Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair, 1614, introduces a Western […]
(pp385) On the night appointed, I hid behind a tree at the arranged spot, ready to spring to the rescue and help the old lion ; my loafers lurked in the shade of a wall. He came in the starlight — a grand figure of an old warlock, just merry enough to feel the blood […]
(pp148) SINGLE-STICK, a slender, round stick of ash about 34 in. long and thicker at one end than the other, used as a weapon of attack and defence, the thicker end being thrust through a cup-shaped hilt of basket-work to protect the hand. The original form of the single-stick was the ‘‘waster”, which appeared in […]
Page 60 ACCORDING to the fictitious History of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Brutus the Trojan, with Corineus and other companions, landed at Totnes to take possession of the giant-haunted island which had been prophesied should be his own. Then, forraging the Ile, long promis’d them before, Amongst the ragged Cleeues those monstrous Giants sought: […]
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.
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 […]
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.
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 […]
Available online via HeardFamilyHistory.org.uk. Page updated 04/04/2024. © Nick Heard 2024