Quarter Staff

The quarterstaff was closely identified with sport and civilian self-defense, as a weapon of expedience used by travelers or in formal duels. By the early 1700s the weapon was commonly employed in public prizefights, with the winner receiving both gate-money and the proceeds of wagering. The famed English stage gladiator James Figg promoted the art, along with backswording and pugilism, in bouts at Southwark Fair, and after his retirement from the stage in 1735 he taught it to young aristocrats at his own School of Arms in London's Oxford Street.

There do not appear to be any records of recreational quarterstaff-play between 1748 and 1870, probably because during this period armed prize fighting was virtually replaced by the new sport of boxing. Quarter staffing was militarily obsolete and does not appear to have been a popular rural pastime, so it is possible that the art effectively became extinct.

The traditional English staff was a sturdy weapon of oak or similar hardwood, difficult to maneuver with any regard for a sparring partner's safety. It's important to remember that Figg and his contemporaries were professional fighters, willing to risk injury in un-armored, full-contact bouts with weapons (although it was suspected at the time that some professionals fixed their fights, in the manner of modern pro-wrestlers.) The danger of fencing with oak staves may have dissuaded amateurs from taking up the art recreationally, in contrast to the gladiators who fought to earn their living.
Bamboo was introduced into England around 1827. Bamboo poles were light enough that players could strike to the body at full speed and risk only a welt or bruise, and a slender eight-foot length was flexible enough to absorb impact without splitting. British cavalrymen employed bamboo training weapons in lance maneuvers, following the example of Indian soldiers they encountered during the "Raj" period, beginning in 1858, and bamboo quarter staves are recommended in all of the surviving Victorian-era manuals.

As Britain entered the Industrial Age, there arose a relatively affluent urban middle-class with time to pursue sports and other diversions. Supply meets demand, and the first sporting equipment companies were established, leading to a rapid evolution in sporting equipment design and manufacture.
Even armed with lightweight bamboo weapons, the knees and shins, groin, hands, temples, throat, and eyes were still vulnerable to serious, even if accidental, injury. By 1870, however, amateur quarterstaff fencers could choose from a diverse range of protective equipment designed for other sports.

Tragically, many young English athletes gave up their lives in the trenches of the First World War, and the generation that might otherwise have perpetuated the new sport of quarterstaff fencing was all but lost. Many other Victorian-era combat arts and sports were similarly afflicted, some experiencing a brief revival in the 1920s (such as quarter staffing as practiced by the Boy Scouts) before finally succumbing during the Great Depression and then World War Two. Similarly, the homogenizing effect of the international Olympic movement caused many obscure sports to fade from memory through lack of publicity and funding. It is only in comparatively recent years that these activities have been researched and, in some cases, brought tentatively back to life.