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“The Lord blesses him with humility in his soul, so that here he lies prostrate at his feet. Here he lies prostrate, as a good old man in Lancashire said: "The Lord does with him as you do with a man when wrestling, takes and throws him on his back and keeps him there, looking straight up to heaven." (A sermon preached at the Baptist Chapel, Bedworth on Sunday April 18th, 1847 by Mr. William Hatton of Wolverhampton).

This article is dedicated to my dear friend Mr. Lee Martin Meadows of Bolton Olympic Wrestling Club in Bolton, Lancashire. Special thanks to the wrestling history experts of Wrestling Heritage of United Kingdom Mr. Alan Bamber and Mr. Ron "Historyo" Harrison who help and support me in my research.

Wrestling in Coliseum, engraving, 18th century.

During my studies of the folk style wrestling traditions in different historical regions of England (such as Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire, West Country, Northern England, and Lancashire in particular) I was able to establish that long before the professional Lancashire catch-as-catch-can wrestling ring (prize ring) was founded in Eastern Lancashire (historical Salford and Blackburn Hundreds of Lancashire County) in the late 1820s-early 1840s, the Lancashire up and down fighting was the only organized professional combative sport of Lancashire men.

There are not enough credible evidences which would prove that there was organized pro wrestling in that region in any form despite the rich local wrestling traditions and it was only random, sporadic amateur or semi-professional amicable challenge matches “for couple of shillings a side” that represented local wrestling customs. Such “challenges” would usually occur in the pub when the two tried to settle the dispute wrestling each other, or simply tested their skill and strength out of pure curiosity and for fun, figuring out who is a “better man” between them.

My research shows that there were two kinds of Lancashire wrestling popular among local men: 

1. The standing or upright freestyle wrestling “for a fall” (thrut) in which to win a wrestler had to give his opponent an “undisputable fall” (fair back fall) or a number of such falls, i.e. throw him off his feet according to the old English tradition when “the Head and Shoulders coming to the Ground first”, as Parkyns described it in his “Inn Play or Cornish Hugg Wrestler”. These kinds of falls happen when a wrestler is lifted bodily up in the air and thrown a “complete somersault” (heels over head) and falls head foremost.
   
   
2. The up and down freestyle wrestling in which the fall or take down doesn’t end the bout but instead only starts the real match in which in the prolonged struggle on the ground in which the wrestlers try to master each other by establishing the full control over their opponent, i.e. to hold him underneath on his back for as long as possible (usually for a mutually agreed period of time or until the full exhaustion) that the latter gives in being unable to reverse his supine position. The Lancashire’s up and down fighting, in which the victory was achieved by restraining movements of the undermost wrestler, or making him unable to continue and thus making him quit the contest, derived from this particular wrestling style.

Due to its uncivilized nature (various atrocities, exhibition of the acts of deliberate cruelty and brutality) the sport of up and down fighting became illegal by the early 1820s and was soon replaced with the new professional sport, that of Lancashire catch-as-catch-can wrestling. In this game which was a hybrid of the two historical Lancashire wrestling styles the fair back fall decided the match, which according to the 1856 Snipe Inn Rules, was defined as “two shoulders striking the ground together (simultaneously) no matter how quickly it may occur (even for a brief instant) to the satisfaction of the referee”. The modern international wrestling terminology refers to such falls as the touch-falls. In Lancashire wrestling all kinds of back falls counted whether they were quick falls (flying and rolling falls) or slow falls, i.e. pinfalls.

After the introduction of professionalism in Lancashire catch wrestling, up and down fighting slowly ceased to exist and by the end of the XIX century it became completely extinct. Most of the professional Lancashire catch wrestlers of the 1830s and 1840s generation had an up and down fighting background. All pro catch wrestling stars of the first generation were former “purrers” (up and down fighters).

Making all these discoveries didn’t stop me from researching and I continued my Eastern Lancashire journey. In the early 2021 I was lucky to find one very important historical document which gives a brief description of what was understood and generally accepted as the rules of wrestling matches in the region of South Lancashire (current Greater Manchester areas) during the time period which predated the organized pro sport of catch wrestling, i.e. prior to the 1820s.

Township of Astley
Map of Stalford Hundred of Lancashire

Below is the paragraph by Reverend Alfred Hewlett ⁽¹⁾, M.A., incumbent of Astley, near Manchester ⁽²⁾ from the chapter called “Fear Not” (Page 112) of his “Sermons and Outlines” (written in Astley in January, 1858). In the sermon the preacher speaks to his congregants who were the natives of the village of Astley, Lancs. He is very familiar with the cultural background of his audience; he knows their customs, traditions, and folklore. In his speech the preacher mentions certain “wrestling rules” which are familiar and crystal clear to his listeners and it is because of that he refers to it.

”And though like Gad , it hath been your lot to be overcome by a troop, yet remember what was said of that tribe : ‘ Gad, a troop shall overcome him , but he shall overcome at the last. Now, you will recollect in a wrestling match it is not the person who gets the most throws in each match that is said to win, but he that gets the last throw and keeps his adversary down. And so it is written and felt of all the children of the living God. They have been and they may be overcome, but they shall overcome at the last. Peter was overcome several times, and the last was the most grievous fall he had, when with oaths and curses he denied that he knew his blessed Lord and Master; but did he not overcome at the last? Did he not shout the pæan of victory, when he wrote his first epistle, bearing this testimony to the truth?”

It appears that these rules applied solely to the pro wrestling matches because in the wrestling style the preacher talks about the men wrestled until the last, most vicious fall is given and due to that one of the two combatants is unable to continue the contest, which is very similar to a knock-out finish in prize fighting (boxing).

Such wrestling matches in which knock-out decided the winner were sort of an “ultimate wrestling championship”, since they exhibited the most important wrestling skill of throwing opponent down, and it was through that particular skill the victorious knock-out was achieved.

Unlike to that in the Lancashire’s “friendly wrestle” (amateur wrestling) the men competed for a specific mutually agreed number “thruts” or “falls for love”. It is clear from the text that the preacher speaks of a certain standing upright (fair) form of freestyle wrestling in which the last most grievous (severe, fierce) fall decides the winner (keeps his opponent down), a condition which is not found anywhere else in England. In the generic historical English pro wrestling (regardless the style, or region) the sportsmen competed for one single fall, or for the best of either 3 or 5 falls.

According to the observers of prize-fighting contests in the city of Manchester (known as “Manchester Milling”) even in the mid 1820s the local professional pugilistic affairs lacked “punching” and exhibited no actual “boxing skill”, and instead were basically a standing wrestling matches in which the one who gave his opponent more heavy throws (usually cross-buttocks, or Lancashire’s head between the legs “back-body drops”) and thus knocking him out winning the match.

In my book “The Story of Catch” I give an account of the 1769 wrestling match which likely occurred on Sunday, March 12th and was held at the Southampton Fields or Longfields, in Bloomsbury, in West End of London. In the 1700s that place was a resort of the low classes of the people where they fought their “pitched battles”, generally on Sundays. The original wrestling match report appeared in the London newspaper called St. James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post. The same report was reprinted in Chester Courant (dated March 21st, 1769) and Caledonian Mercury (dated March 22nd, 1769)

In that memorable match “for 200 guineas at stake” (guinea was a 21 shillings worth coin that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of fine gold), a Mancunian called Milbourn defeated Mitchell of Cheshire, scoring six falls (throws) to four of his opponents in 42 minutes. The fact that Milbourn was from Manchester and Mitchell was a Cheshire man (most likely he was from that part of Cheshire which shares borders with the city of Manchester) and that they agreed to wrestle for such a great sum of money makes it obvious that: both gentlemen shared the wrestling style (which in the area they both come from was standing Lancashire wrestling) a condition which in those times was essential for two wrestlers to compete against each other (regional wrestling styles prize-ring already existed), and that their understanding of the rules  which governed pro wrestling matches was the same.

St. James's Chronicle or the British Evening Post
March 11th - 14th, 1769

In such kind of wrestling the match consists of a number of the “unsuccessful” throws, the falls that don’t finish the match, and each such throw ends the round, and wrestlers just like fighters in boxing have to start over again in the upright position. It definitely is a no time-limit wrestling match to a finish. So to speak it took Milbourn 10 rounds, or 42 minutes to “finish” or knock-out Mitchell by throwing him six times.

This type of struggle assumes two kinds of falls or finishing moves (last fall knock-outs). In the first case the thrower remains standing (retained his feet) and the throwee is knocked out by a violent fall (bodyslam), he is hurt, helplessly stretched on the ground and being unable to get up and continue the match verbally admitting his defeat succumbs to the victor. And in the second case while executing the throw the wrestler goes down with his opponent and heavily falls on top of him thus delivering him much damage by adding his own weight to the fall which often is a sure victory. In both cases the throwee is “kept down” and is at the mercy of the thrower.

Notably, “keeping an opponent down” was an old Lancashire expression which literally stood for “putting the knee on the loser’s chest”, and that signified the ultimate victory, a supremacy in either wrestling or fighting game. This particular custom is mentioned and explained in “A Race For Life” a novel in eight chapters written by anonymous which appeared in the section called “Tales and other Narratives” of Chambers’s Journal (published in 1872). Below is a paragraph from the Chapter IV (on Page 60) of the aforementioned novel which gives an account of a friendly wrestling match after the South Lancashire fashion.

‘Wrastle a fall (wrestling for a throw)!' he cried;' yea, wrastle a fall. He that overcometh shall be master and lord; he that hath the worst shall be bondsman or slain!'…and the grapple began. Old Harper's muscles, hardened by labour, were like iron, and I have no doubt but that a few years earlier, he would have overthrown me with ease; but I had the advantage of my youthful limbs and longer wind, and had, by great good fortune, as a South Lancashire lad, a good knowledge of trips, backfalls, and the other tricks of the wrestler. Still, the giant nearly crushed my ribs under his bear-like hug; and his very weight and the fury of his efforts must have borne me down, when very luckily his heel hitched upon a jagged pine-knot in the roughly planked floor, and he stumbled. Instantly, and in a sort of despair, I put forth the remains of my strength, and my towering adversary fell with a crash upon the ground, dragging me with him. Then my knee was pressed upon his breast-bone, and I kept him down.  “Three,' gasped the old man.” ‘Three.  Stranger, you've won. Take my scalp, or clap a cowhide thong round my wrists, for you are master now. 'Whipped by a Britisher!‘ said old Harper, Well, 'twar a fair fight, and a fair fall’.

Both of the given above accounts share wrestling slang, the specific terminology peculiar to the natives of South Lancashire. The wrestling style described by Rev. Hewlett in his sermon despite being historical unique Lancashire’s own kind of pro wrestling never became an organized professional sport in Lancashire unlike the up and down fighting which was an established prize ring since its very early years, i.e. since the XVII century.

Interestingly enough, the 1839 short-story called “A Ghost Story” by an anonymous author which appeared in the Manchester Guardian, talks about the wrestling customs of the residents of the village of Alkrington and the town of Middleton in South Lancashire. A protagonist, the collier named Isaac Unsworth challenged a stranger to wrestle him in a fair-play for a half-gallon of ale in the beer-shop in Stocks (a locality in that area). Wrestling in the fair manner meant a standing upright wrestling; just like in prize fighting the fair fight was a stand-up fight. Collier’s challenge was promptly accepted, they closed, and immediately Unsworth was lifted from his feet and thrown with great violence against the wall, where he lay stunned and senseless for several minutes. Notably, there was a tradition in Lancashire called back-slamming when the person who was found guilty in some wrongdoing was hurled forcefully with his back against the wall. Thus, being knocked-out Unsworth had very little desire to face his opponent a second time. His antagonist instead wished to try two more falls according to the local customs. Unsworth had enough in the first encounter, he declined that offer, admitted his defeat, and got ready to deliver the wager he had lost or a “dry money” equivalent of it. This story precisely reveals the original rules of Lancashire wrestling according to which the term “fall” didn’t specifically mean a “fair back fall” or any kind fall in a traditional sense of it (the fall on a certain part of the person’s body), but rather stood for an action of lifting and throwing a person over his head which in Lancashire dialect was known as a Buckfang throw. Often such knock-out throws the violent bodyslams made the thrown wrestler unable to continue the match and instantly terminated the contest.

World's champion wrestler Wayne Munn demonstrates the grand amplitude throw.
Photograph, circa 1925

For those wrestlers who would want to advance in this old Lancashire “lift and throw” or “bodyslam” kind of wrestling it has to be said that the prowess could be achieved by training in the standing catch-as-catch-can, which was a style of wrestling invented and taught by the most successful British amateur wrestler of the XX century the 1908 Olympic champion Stanley Vivian Bacon (1885-1952) and is known around the world as the “Bacon Style of Wrestling”. This style teaches to finish your opponent by delivering him a knock-out fall and winning without going down on all four.

NOTES:

(1) Alfred Hewlett, b. in 1804 in Oxford (city), eldest son of William Hewlett of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxf. (city), gent., of Magdalen Hall, Oxf.; B.A. 1831, M.A. 1837, B. and D.D. 1862, vicar of Astley 1831-37 and 1840-1885, died 10 June 1885.

(2) A township or chapelry of Astley (East Leigh) in the ecclesiastical parish of Leigh, Lancs, about 3 miles east of Leigh.

Ruslan C Pashayev is an expert-member of the Traditional Sports Team of the Instytut Rozwoju Sportu i Edukacji (the Institute of Sport Development and Education), Warsaw, Poland.

© 2021 Ruslan C Pashayev All Rights Reserved.