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Men wrestle in the park in Cambourne (sic). Item title reads: “Cornwall County Wrestling Championships. Crowds from all over the country – see grim and dour struggles in the “Cornish style”.” Available online via British Pathé. Film ID: 694.20 Archive: British Pathé Group: PATHE NEWSREELS / PATHE GAZETTES Issue Date: 18/08/1927 Colour: Black & White […]
Farm labourers and clay workers fight in Cornwall county wrestling championships. Newquay. Available online via British Pathé. Film ID: 416.01 Archive: British Pathé Group: PATHE NEWSREELS / PATHE GAZETTES Issue Date: 06/08/1925 Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent
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 […]
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, […]
XXXIX It is to be regretted that the old Cornish games are gradually losing their hold and are dying out in the country. The wrestling matches which formerly were well attended and patronized by the local gentry are now with few exceptions got up by the publicans as means of selling liquor, and in place […]
A video dated to 1925, covering Cornish wrestling championships at Ludgvan. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. (1925). Cornish wrestling championships at Ludgvan. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/4ac050f0-c61a-012f-d026-58d385a7bc34
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]