The Ceffyl Pren ("wooden horse") is a term referring to a former local form of punishment practiced in Welsh form of mob justice. It was a form of ritual humiliation in which offenders would be paraded around the village tied to a wooden frame, sometimes at night, by a mob carrying torches. The custom was similar to practices known in England as "rough music" or in Scotland as "riding the stang". It seems to have persisted until the mid 19th century. In later times, an effigy was sometimes burned instead. The justice of the Ceffyl Pren was administered by a jury led by a foreman, with all of the men involved seeking anonymity through the use of blackened faces and female garb. This tradition led to the adoption of "female impersonation" as one of the key features of the Rebecca Riots which swept across South and West Wales in the period 1839–1844 in protest against tollgate charges and the corruption of the Turnpike Trusts.
Adulterers, harsh landlords, the fathers of bastard children who hid behind the hated provisions of the 19th century Poor Law making the mother entirely responsible for her own predicament, all faced the frightening, embarrassing (and not infrequently painful) effects of these riotous affairs .
References
- Scourfield, E. (1976). "References to Y Ceffyl Pren (the Wooden Horse) in south-west Wales". Folklore. 87 (1). Folklore Enterprises, Ltd., Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 60–62. ISSN 0015-587X. JSTOR 1259499. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
- And they blessed Rebecca or An account of the Welsh Toll-gate Riots 1839-1844, Pat Molloy ISBN 0-86383-031-5
- Martha Morgan's Little World,pp 184-186, Brian John ISBN 0-905559-85-1
Further reading
- Ireland, Richard W. (June 2020). "Absence of Evidence or Evidence of Absence? Welsh Extra-Curial Dispute Settlement Revisited". The Welsh History Review. 30 (1): 56–87. doi:10.16922/whr.30.1.4. ISSN 0083-792X. S2CID 225859192.
External links
- Judith Lloyd of Llanteg Historical Society writes about the 'Wooden Horse' Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
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