The Crabtree's remind me a lot of the Hart's in Calgary, and the the Von Erich's in Texas. The promotion was family-owned and operated, and all of the family members were the ones to get the best pushes. I think it was Brian Crabtree who was a referee, and even he had a gimmick to get over with the fans - at the end of a match, the heel would sometimes throw him across the ring, Brian would hit the ropes, do a cartwheel on the way back, and drop kick the heel out of the ring.
In Shirley's later years, he would send in his tag partner for most of the match before coming in to make the big save at the end by doing his big belly butt bullshit, which was about all he was capable of doing by then.
You Brits do have an extremely rich wrestling history. Men like Billy Robinson and Billy Riley are legends - even today on multiple continents!
Catch-as-catch-can, or shoot wrestling, evolved with the old coal miners in and around the Wigan area. Those were some extremely tough men! Someone mentioned the British Bulldogs above. Both Dynamite Kid Tom Billington and his cousin Davey Boy Smith initially trained with a man named Ted Betley, another local Englishman.