Purring: A Taxonomy and an Exhibition at Wigan January 15, 2014
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernThis site has a small tag on the history of purring, the sometimes noble and often incredibly ignoble Lancashire marshal art whereby a man repeatedly kicked opponents or victims as hard as he could. We return to the theme today because of the exciting news that a Purring Display is going up in Wigan Museum, […]
Ragamuffin Purring in 1873 (Preston) May 3, 2013
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernIn the early days of this blog Beach celebrated the ancient Lancashire sport of purring or clog fighting (1, 2), where an opponents shins are reduced to bloody jelly with the white bone showing through. Sorry for that. In the hope of reviving this thread of posts here is a nineteenth-century allusion to the sport […]
Lancashire Kick Boxing March 20, 2011
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, ModernOld time readers of this blog will know that Beachcombing once expressed an interest in ‘purring’ or ‘clog fighting’ when in the nineteenth century the natives of Manchester, Preston and Liverpool in the north-west of Britain were alleged to settle their disputes through kicking contests. Back when […]
Purring – a Lancashire Martial Art? July 19, 2010
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernNineteenth-century clog-fighting: did it really exist? First some background. Clogs, of course, at least in their English incarnation, were wooden-soled shoes typically used in factories or in mines by the working classes in centuries gone by, because they kept their feet warm and because they were cheap Some claim that factory workers would tap […]