Scottish Wrestling Bond

Cornish & Devon Style

Cornish & Devon style is the last survivor of the native ‘jacket’ styles of England and its chances of survival are fragile. Once it was the most important sport in Southwest England but changing social customs, the decline of tin mining and in the 20th century the introduction of the similar but much better promoted style of judo have almost sounded its death knell.

An indoor match in Plymouth in Devon 1875, the three judges are called sticklers, the sticks are recognised as their badge of authority and in outdoor competitions were formerly used to clear the ring of spectators who came too close to the wrestlers.

Abraham Cann the champion of Devon in 1826; traditional wrestling is no longer practised in the county of Devon, it died out about 1960.

An idealised modern painting of a competition in Cornwall

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