Cornish Wrestling - History

History

Cornish wrestling has a long history, and Geoffrey of Monmouth suggests Historia Regum Britanniae, of c. 1139 that Corineus wrestled a Cornish giant, Gogmagog or Goemagot upon the cliff top known as Lamm Goemagot.

The earliest written evidence for wrestling in the West Country comes from a 1590 poem entitled "Poly-Olbion" by Michael Drayton, concerning the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. It states that the Cornish men who accompanied Henry V into battle held a banner of two Cornish wrestlers in a hitch.

Cornish, Devon and Breton wrestlers have long taken part in inter-Celtic matches since at least 1402 and these still occasionally continue. In early times Cornish and Devonian wrestlers often had matches against each other though the rules they followed were not the same. One of these was the notable match between Richard Parkyn and the Devonian Jordan.

In the 17th century, historian Richard Carew wrote of Cornish wrestling...

• "Wrastling is as full of manliness, more delightful and less dangerous (than hurling).... for you shall hardly find an assembly of boyes in Devon and Cornwall, where the most untowardly amongst them will not as readily give you a muster of this exercise as you are prone to require it."

Sir Thomas Parkyns (1662-1741), known as the Wrestling Baronet, was a devotee of wrestling and organised an annual wrestling match in Bunny Park (prize a gold-laced hat). These matches continued until 1810. His book on the subject The Inn-Play: or, the Cornish Hugg-Wrestler was published in 1713 and reprinted many times.

A contest at Bodmin in 1811 attracted 4,000 spectators, but thereafter interest in the sport waned. The Cornish Wrestling Association was formed in 1923. In 1927 William Tregonning Hooper (Bras y Golon) agreed with the Breton Dr. Cottonac of Quimper that there should be annual wrestling tournaments in which both Cornish and Breton wrestlers would compete. In the 1970s Truro Cathedral School was teaching Cornish wrestling as part of its physical education programme and was the only school in Cornwall to do so.