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Never let it be said that Heritage fails to reach parts that other sites don’t reach. Tommy Dance was certainly a name we hadn’t come across but Heritage members changed that. A bit of research and we found our earliest reference to Tommy Dance, wrestler from Barnsley, in the Morecambe Guardian of 23rd February, 1924, when it was reported the “British Lion” had defeated Tommy Dance. This was six years before the introduction of professional all-in wrestling. An even earlier reference, in December, 1916, was found to Tommy Dance of Hindley, but we don’t know if this was the same man.
In the 1930s we find half a dozen newspaper reports of Tommy Dance of Barnsley (or Doncaster) wrestling the All-In style. In the first Tommy was beaten by Harold Angus at Doncaster in March, 1931, though the newspaper report does refer to a win by Dance in an earlier match. Interestingly three months earlier Tommy had been the referee when professional wrestling had returned to Doncaster following a twenty year break, on 15th December, 1930.
In June, 1931, we found him at Leeds as “Featherweight Champion of Great Britain.” and in a handful of matches up to 1933.
It was Ray Hulm that first raised the subject of Tommy Dance. Ray wrote:
“About the same time that I started attending wrestling shows (1957) I spent some of my hard earned cash enrolling with the Woodward School of Physical Culture. This was one of the many postal training courses available at the time and specialised in teaching all kinds of training including wrestling, hand balancing, strand pulling and much more. They also published a lovely little magazine called SKILL that carried articles on an eclectic range of subjects including professional wrestling and the circus. The school was run by ex wrestler Tom Woodward and his son, Ken and operated out of Blackpool.”
Eddie Rose added more information:
“I worked for the Woodwards and eventually took over their business – “The Northern Institute of Massage, then at Blackpool but transferred to Bury in 2000. Ken showed me a bill once “Tommy Dance versus The British Bulldog” -Tom being his dad. He was a contemporary of Charlie Glover, perhaps the first Red Devil! He wrestled mainly in the period 1920 – 1940s. As well as aspects of physical culture they focused on Massage & Sports Therapy.
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