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Notes

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The Rebecca Riots took place in West and Mid Wales between 1839 and 1843. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to unfair taxation. The male rioters often dressed as women and destroyed tollgates, as these were seen as accessible representations of high taxes and tolls.

Title

Rebecca Riots

Date

2008

Medium

cedar

Accession number

SA33_AEB_S001

Acquisition method

commissioned by St Clears Town Council

Work type

Statue

Owner

St Clears Town Council

Custodian

St Clears Town Council

Work status

extant

Unveiling date

March 2008

Access

at all times

Inscription description

information board: The history of the Rebecca Riots is one of the most dramatic chapters in Welsh history. Against a / background of agricultural crisis and grinding rural poverty, associations known as Turnpike Trusts / established a network of tollgates on country roads. Whether taking cattle to market or collecting lime / to fertilise their fields, hard pressed farmers had to pay tolls at every turn. / Resentment built up over many years until 1839 when there was a sudden explosion of violence / directed at a new tollgate at Efailwen in north western Carmarthenshire (Sir Gaerfyrddin). The attack was led by the / stirring figure of ‘Rebecca’, a man disguised with a blackened face, wig and women's clothes, astride / a white horse and waving a sword. / When the Main Trust placed a new tollgate near the Mermaid Tavern in St Clears on 18th November / 1842, it marked the start of a four month battle between 'Rebecca' and the authorities. Positioned to / make it impossible for traffic to pass through the area without paying a toll, it was pulled down by / 'Rebecca' and her followers within hours. The Mermaid Gate was smashed a second time on 12th / December that year when seventy to a hundred men, dressed in women's clothes and armed with / scythes and guns, descended on the town at midnight. The rebuilt gate was torn down on 20th / December and a fourth gate was destroyed in April 1843. / Every area seemed to have its own ‘Rebecca' who became, and remains an almost mythical figure – a / Welsh Robin Hood. Police and troops were called to help protect the gates but 'Rebecca' and her / daughters were usually one step ahead of the law. The protest came to an end in 1844 when a / government Commission of Inquiry led to a reform of the Turnpike Trusts and answered many of the / grievances of the rural population.

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