The first written evidence for wrestling in the west country comes from a 1590 poem entitled "Polyolbion" by Michael Drayton concerning the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. it states that the Cornishmen who accompanied Henry V into battle had a standard that depicted two wrestlers. A replica of just such a banner is usually flown at wrestling events in modern Cornwall.
In the 17th Century Sir Richard Carew wrote of Cornish wrestling and it's close relative, Devonshire wrestling in his "Survey of Cornwall" He writes...
"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."
Currently the modern sport matches are held on a field with a referee or stickler taking control of the action. The goal is a fall in which three points of the thrown wrestler's body touches the ground. It is often mistakingly compared to the Japanese art of Judo as a Cornish version of it. The art is kept alive today with a growing interest in western martial traditions and through continued practice by dedicated Cornish wrestlers at fairs and tournaments
