The Ceffyl Pren ("wooden horse") is a term referring to a former local form of punishment practiced in rural Wales, a
Welsh form of
mob justice
Mob rule or ochlocracy or mobocracy is a pejorative term describing an oppressive majoritarian form of government controlled by the common people through the intimidation of authorities. Ochlocracy is distinguished from democracy or similarly ...
. It was a form of ritual
humiliation
Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being Humility, humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It is an emotion felt by a person whose social status, either by force or willingly, has ...
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".
History
Ceffyl Pren seems to have persisted until the mid 19th century, having its roots in older Welsh laws which were officially discarded during the legal reforms of the
Tudor era.
In later times, an effigy was sometimes burned instead.
The crimes which were punished by the community led punishments were often to do with domestic violence or deviance from the expected norms or moral standards. The crime and its punishment were used to reinforce standards of community behaviours.
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
The Rebecca Riots () took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took ...
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
In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...
making the mother entirely responsible for her own predicament, all faced the frightening, embarrassing (and not infrequently painful) effects of these riotous affairs''.
In 1844, a man in Llanbadarn Trefegwys,
Ceredigion
Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...
was accused of beating his wife and tried to resist the Ceffyl Pren. He was accidentally killed by the mob.
The last well recorded instance of Ceffyl Pren was in 1852 connected to Craig-y-Borion farmhouse in
Llanteg, near
Amroth, east
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...
, but unusually was raised against a young woman who was in a relationship with a married man, by the man's wife and female friends. The woman was employed as governess to her lover's children, and was tied to the Ceffyl Pren and paraded around the village by a mob paid by the women. She left the village the next day with her married lover and they are reputed to have moved to New Zealand and become respected teachers.
The tradition seems to have continued in Amroth until 1892, through the burning of effigies''.''
Legacy
A Welsh language rock group from Cardiff took the name ''Ceffyl Pren'' in the 1980s, becoming the first Welsh language rock band to tour North America (in 1983 and 1985) and Hong Kong and Bangkok (in 1987).
References
Further reading
*
External links
Judith Lloyd of Llanteg Historical Society writes about the 'Wooden Horse'{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209110244/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/local_history/pages/horse.shtml , date=2006-12-09
Crime in Wales
History of Wales
Rebecca Riots
Humiliation