Rhayader
The Rebecca riots |
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2.
How do we know what happened?
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Drawing by
Rob Davies |
The attacks by
Rebecca and her daughters began in South Wales
with attacks in Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire.
In autumn 1843 however the outbreak of attacks reached the Rhayader district. An idea of what happened can be pieced together from different sources. The attacks on tollgates created an uproar in the area and this was reported in the papers at the time. Old documents record the local court cases and decisions taken by the authorities. We also have two other sources which tell us what happened. |
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Sir John Benn Walsh was the MP for Radnorshire and the Lord
Lieutenant at the time of the riots around Rhayader. When the trouble was
over he was asked to hold an enquiry into the events. His report tells us a
lot about the time.
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By kind
permission
of the National Library of Wales |
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John
Davies of the farm of Gwardolau looked after the nearby
Nantgwyllt estate for the owner, Thomas Lewis Lloyd. While the squire and his
family took a holiday in France,
Mr Davies' letters kept him informed of local events. These letters, like the one above, are another valuable source of evidence for what happened. (Note that in Victorian times letters were often written down the page and across like the one above. This makes them very difficult to read !) A stormy September... |
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Rhayader
The Rebecca riots |
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3.
A stormy September
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Early attacks
by Rebecca and her daughters were in south and west Wales, and
the news caused excitement in the Rhayader area, Rumours were flying, and the town must have
been buzzing with gossip on market day. |
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This
must have increased dramatically when on Friday 22nd September 1843 the Pen-y-pistyll
tollgate on the North
Road from Rhayader was attacked.
In his letter to Thomas Lewis Lloyd, John Davies describes this attack as a
"slight attempt" so it is not clear how much damage was done.
This gate was on a relatively new turnpike
road built along the Wye valley to the north.
The map (right) shows the tollgate at the
roadside. The blue dotted line is the parish boundary.
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Drawing by
Rob Davies |
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Two
days later a more determined attack destroyed
the Llangurig gates and terrified the Gatekeeper.
Sir John Benn
Walsh was in Rhayader the following day and wrote,"There was considerable excitement in the town from the news that a gate at Llangerig about 9 miles from Rhayader on the Aberystwyth road had been levelled last night by a party of Rebbecaites". |
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Sir John joined
other landowners in offering a reward
for the arrest of the rioters, but local people were very sympathetic to the
Rebecca rioters and nobody was given away. See what happened later on the next page... Broke to atoms ! ... |
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Rhayader
The Rebecca riots |
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5.
A famous night in Rhayader
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By the time of
the attack on the Newbridge gates local excitement was high, and around
Rhayader many were refusing to pay the tolls.
The authorities were nervous and soldiers had been called in.
An old record of the time tells us what happened on the night of November 2nd
1843. |
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Drawing by
Davena Hooson |
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Sergeant
Shaw of the London
police
was in charge of a group of local men who had been taken on as Special
Constables.
In the middle of the night they heard that the North gate (Pen-y-pistyll) was under
attack again. They rushed over to find the gatekeeper terrified and
the gates flattened, but no sign of Rebecca.
The gatekeeper had been awoken by the noise and a voice calling through the
window "lie still or death will be your
doom". He wisely stayed indoors while the gates were wrecked.
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