Devonshire Wrestling
  • Home
  • About
    • The Martial Arts
      • History
      • Styles
      • Archives
      • Hall of fame
    • The Society
      • About us
      • Curriculum
      • Ruleset
      • Blog
  • Get involved
    • Learn techniques
    • Get certified
    • Find a club
    • Start a Study Group
  • Shop
    • Products
    • Basket
    • Account details
    • Orders
  • Contact
0
Devonshire Wrestling
  • Home
  • About
    • The Martial Arts
      • History
      • Styles
      • Archives
      • Hall of fame
    • The Society
      • About us
      • Curriculum
      • Ruleset
      • Blog
  • Get involved
    • Learn techniques
    • Get certified
    • Find a club
    • Start a Study Group
  • Shop
    • Products
    • Basket
    • Account details
    • Orders
  • Contact
Devonshire Wrestling
  • Home
  • About
    • The Martial Arts
      • History
      • Styles
      • Archives
      • Hall of fame
    • The Society
      • About us
      • Curriculum
      • Ruleset
      • Blog
  • Get involved
    • Learn techniques
    • Get certified
    • Find a club
    • Start a Study Group
  • Shop
    • Products
    • Basket
    • Account details
    • Orders
  • Contact

hello@devonshirewrestling.org

Get in touch

Exeter, Plymouth, Tiverton.

  • Home
  • Picture

Picture

Shape Images
678B0D95-E70A-488C-838E-D8B39AC6841D Created with sketchtool.
ADC9F4D5-98B7-40AD-BDDC-B46E1B0BBB14 Created with sketchtool.
Filter:
Reset

The Queen’s Head Inn, Cornish Wrestlers (1880)

  • Date: May 21, 1880
  • Type: Picture

Cornish wrestling championships at Ludgvan (1925)

  • Cornish Wrestling
  • Date: May 9, 1925
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Cornish Wrestling

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

Cann & Polkinghorne, Hand-coloured portraits (1826)

  • Abraham Cann Cann-vs-Polkinghorne Polkinghorne
  • Date: October 23, 1826
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Abraham Cann Cann-vs-Polkinghorne Polkinghorne

[WRESTLING]. Pair of Hand-Colored Portraits of Famous British Wrestlers who Faced Each Other in the Ring. Including: [CANN, Abraham, subject]. “The Wrestling Champion of England, Abraham Cann. Who challenges all the World for 100 Sovereigns…” [Exeter: Geo. Rowe, Aug. 10th, 1826]. Hand-colored full-length portrait of Cann in profile outdoors, with caption. 12 ¾ x 9”. […]

Abraham Cann, Wrestling Champion of England (1826)

  • Abraham Cann
  • Date: April 9, 1826
  • Source: British Museum
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Abraham Cann

Portrait of Abraham Cann, whole length, standing outdoors, directed slightly to left, making wrestling moves; wearing half-open jacket fastened with strings, breeches and stockings; top hat lying on the ground at his foot at left. Lithograph Printed by: Thomas Bayly Published by: J Penny Published by: John Dickinson – https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0612-1077 Inscription content: Lettered below image with the […]

Abraham Cann – Famous Devon Wrestler (1864)

  • Abraham Cann
  • Date: May 7, 1864
  • Source: Illustrated Sporting News and Theatrical and Musical Review
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Abraham Cann

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.  

Wheble, Somersetshire Gamesters (1810)

  • Date: January 1, 1810
  • Source: British Museum
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: mon

An etching held at the British Museum (id: 1849,0210.107): Two young man playing fencing; illustration to ‘The Sporting Magazine’ vol.35. 1810.  Etching and engraving © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Howitt, Wrestling (1800)

  • Samuel Howitt
  • Date: March 1, 1800
  • Source: British Museum
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Samuel Howitt

An etching found in the British Museum (id: 1873,1108.218): Village scene, with two men standing on a square at centre, wrestling with their right arms, keeping their left arms behind their backs, surrounded by spectators; three men and a dog seated on the ground in foreground at left, next to a barrel and basket, and […]

Gauci, James Polkinhorn – The famous Cornish wrestler (1826)

  • Polkinghorne
  • Date: April 10, 1826
  • Source: British Museum
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Polkinghorne

Lithograph in the British Museum (1943,0410.2111), by Maxim Gauci: Portrait of James Polkinhorn; whole length, standing in three-quarter profile to right, leaning slightly forward, with arms folded, his left foot placed in front, wearing short jacket fastened with cord; impression had been folded for posting. 1826 Lithograph on chine collé © The Trustees of the […]

Cruikshank, Devon Wrestling (1824)

  • George Cruikshank
  • Date: April 16, 1824
  • Source: British Museum
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: George Cruikshank

Although listed variously as ‘A Cornish wrestling match’, ‘Two Cornish men wrestling’ et al., this artefact produced by Cruikshank clearly depicts Moor-men (wrestlers from Dartmoor) who were known to wear Red/Green and Black Cockerels/Lions on their backs*. The pictures also show wrestlers wearing skillibegs (‘shin-padding’) and shoes, distinctive equipment of the Devon style. Credit to […]

Cruikshank, Devon Wrestlers (1824)

  • George Cruikshank
  • Date: April 9, 1824
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: George Cruikshank

A woodcut by George Cruikshank, currently held in the British Museum (id: 1978,U.3287). It bears the label: Two Cornish men wrestling, a large crowd of rustic men gathered around the ring and watching with interest, some seated on a bench, flags flying from the covered stand behind; a version of the etching; illustration to the […]

Wrestling at Hackney Wick (1866)

  • Hackney Wick
  • Date: March 19, 1866
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Hackney Wick

A ‘Devon and Cornwall’ wrestling tournament at Hackney in London, reported in the Illustrated Sporting News of 1866.

Joseph Menear (1868)

  • Joseph Menear
  • Date: July 16, 1868
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Picture
  • Collection: Devonshire Wrestling Society
  • Tags: Joseph Menear

A portrait of Joseph Menear.

John Slade (1866)

  • Champion John Slade
  • Date: December 19, 1866
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Picture
  • Collection: Devonshire Wrestling Society
  • Tags: Champion John Slade

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.

Abraham Cann portrait (1864)

  • Abraham Cann
  • Date: October 16, 1864
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Newspaper Picture
  • Tags: Abraham Cann

Doyle, Backswording (1859)

  • Backswording Cudgel Somersetshire Single-stick
  • Date: September 11, 1859
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Backswording Cudgel Cudgelling Somersetshire Single-stick

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.  

Somerset Cudgelling, Shepton Mallet (1740)

  • Cudgel Somerset Somersetshire Single-stick
  • Date: August 14, 1740
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Cudgel Somerset Somersetshire Single-stick

“No doubt about it” (1876)

  • Alfred Concanen
  • Date: July 8, 1876
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Alfred Concanen

From the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, July 8th, 1876. Drawing called “Devon Wrestling- “No Doubt About It.” Illustrated by Alfred Concanen.

Devon & Cornwall Wrestling meeting at Plymouth (1875)

  • Alfred Concanen Plymouth
  • Date: April 17, 1875
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Picture
  • Collection: Devonshire Wrestling Society
  • Tags: Alfred Concanen Plymouth

Appearing in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, pp.65. Illustrated by Alfred Concanen.

‘Sketches at the Devon and Cornwall Wrestling Match at Exeter’ (1875)

  • Alfred Concanen Baker Exeter Exeter Cathedral James Layman Oliver Rowe Severe play Stone
  • Date: June 5, 1875
  • Source: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Alfred Concanen Baker Exeter Exeter Cathedral James Layman Oliver Rowe Severe play Stone

An original pen-and-ink sketch by Alfred Concanen, featured on pagee 236 of The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (5 June 1875).

Caunter, ‘Abraham Cann’ (1846)

  • Abraham Cann Appeal to antiquity Henry Caunter
  • Date: July 16, 1846
  • Source: RAMM
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Abraham Cann Appeal to antiquity Henry Caunter

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. […]

Rowlandson, Pen & ink illustration (1756-1827)

  • Pen-and-ink Thomas-Rowlandson Watercolour
  • Date: April 16, 1824
  • Source: Bonhams
  • Type: Picture
  • Tags: Pen-and-ink Thomas-Rowlandson Watercolour

An illustration by Thomas Rowlandson (London 1756-1827) ‘A Cornish wrestling match’ – bears indistinct inscription (lower centre), pen and ink and watercolour on paper laid down on card 18.2 x 30.6cm (7 3/16 x 12 1/16in). Sold at Bonhams for £1,062.50 inc. premium: 26 July 2017, 10:00 BST, London, Knightsbridge Available online: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/24193/lot/552/thomas-rowlandson-london-1756-1827-a-cornish-wrestling-match/ 

© 2014-2026. The Devonshire Wrestling Society.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Disclaimer