The Ceffyl Pren ("wooden horse") is a term referring to a former local form of punishment practiced in

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

form of

mob justice Mob rule or ochlocracy ( el, ὀχλοκρατία, translit=okhlokratía; la, ochlocratia) is the rule of government by a mob or mass of people and the intimidation of legitimate authorities. Insofar as it represents a pejorative for majorit ...

. It was a form of ritual

humiliation Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It is an emotion felt by a person whose social status, either by force or willingly, has just dec ...

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 Charivari (, , , alternatively spelled shivaree or chivaree and also called a skimmington) was a European and North American folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade. Since the cro ...

" 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 bizarre tradition led to the adoption of "female impersonation" as one of the key features of the

Rebecca Riots The Rebecca Riots (Welsh: ''Terfysgoedd Beca'') 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 m ...

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 ''.''Martha Morgan's Little World'',pp 184-186, Brian John

References

External links

Judith Lloyd of Llanteg Historical Society writes about the 'Wooden Horse'
Crime in Wales History of Wales Rebecca Riots {{Wales-hist-stub

References

Further reading

External links