Hail Rebecca

The Rebecca riots  took place between 1839 and 1843, in the rural parts of Wales, here where I live in West Wales. Throughout Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire protests against the payment of tolls to use on the roads. 

On the 13th of May 1839, the first of the Rebecca riots took place at Efailwen near St Clears. The leader of the group of rioters was Thomas Rees (Twm Carnabwth) and he and the others dressed in women's clothes to march on Eifailwen tollgate. Apparently, the attack was unsuccessful because the men returned on 6 June, when they again destroyed the turnpike and this time burnt the tollhouse.

In the early 19th century many of the main roads in Wales were owned and operated by Turnpike Trusts. These trusts were supposed to maintain and even improve the condition of the roads and bridges through charging tolls to use them. In reality however, many of these trusts were operated by English businessmen whose main interest was in extracting as much money as they could from the locals. 

The farming community had suffered badly through poor harvests in the years preceding the protests and tolls were one of the biggest expense a local farmer faced. The charges levied to do even the simplest of things, such as taking animals and crops to market and bringing fertilisers back for the fields, threatened their livelihood and very existence.  The people finally decided enough was enough and took the law into their own hands; gangs were formed to destroy the tollgates.
During these protests, men disguised as women with blackened faces attacked the tollgates calling themselves "Rebecca and her daughter," probably referring to a passage from the Bible where Rebecca ( my sisters name incidentally) talks of the need to "possess the gates of those who hate them."
The tollgates were seen as symbols of oppression, and became the focus of discontent.But the protests weren’t purely about the tolls. For rural communities, mired in poverty, the gates were a symbol of gross inequality. Rents and church tithes were spiralling out of control, while the centuries-old Poor Law had paved the way for workhouses.The protesters also hated paying high taxes to the church and resented local magistrates that did nothing to help them. 

This movement sweeped my local countryside, a popular uprising off the oppressed peasantry. By day the countryside seemed quiet, but at night fantastically disguised horsemen careered along highways and through narrow lanes on their their rebellious quests.They developed uncanny skill in evading the police and the infantry, and although their mounts were unweildy farm horses they also succeeded in outwitting the dragoons, after all the rioters knew their territory much better and could spread false information about when they would strike next, often leading troops on a wild goose chase. 

Many of the protests tended to follow a ritual, whereby a ringleader (‘Rebecca’) would stumble towards a gate like a blind, elderly woman. The ‘daughters’ would then clear the path with an almighty racket. A local newspaper recalled the scene after a riot at Llandeilo: “pickaxes, hatchets, crowbars, and saws were set in operation and the gate was entirely demolished.'

They ceased as suddenly as they started, and for three and a half years my countryside was quiet and undisturbed. Then in the winter of 1842, they broke out again with greater violence, and this time continued throughout the following year.

On 19 Jun 1843 a crowd of around 4,500 Rebecca" rioters with blackened faces and dressed as women gathered and attacked the Carmarthen workhouse in Wales, and set about destroying it. It took the arrival of a unit of the British army to disperse them Other major tollgates destroyed included those at  Llanelli, Pontardulais, and Llangyfelach, and at the small village of Hendy near Swansea, a young woman named Sarah Williams, the tollhouse keeper was killed.

After months of disorder, the government concluded that the turnpike trusts should be merged and the hated  tolls reduced. Because of this it  took away many of the  major grievances of the protesters , and by 1845 my corner of West Wales was quiet again.

An inspiring uprising that had justice and reason on their side  and is still remembered  as one of the most  striking protest movements in modern Welsh history. That still strikes the imagination in our hearts, minds and deeds.

Further reading :- The Rebecca Riots- David Williams, University of Wales Press, 1986.