THE NIGHT THE REBECAS RODE OUT: LESSONS FROM WELSH RURAL RADICALS

rebeca riots nat archive 1
by Jonathan Lee

On the edge of my hometown stands a boulder about shoulder high, hewn from the mountainside, with the word “Rebeca” inscribed on its surface. It commemorates the night of the 6th September 1843, when over a hundred working-class men on horseback rode out, in full drag, and destroyed the most grievous symbol of class oppression in rural Wales – the toll gate.

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