1-527-472 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Rebecca Riots, South Wales, 1840s, (1900). Farmers against economic and agrarian depression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Men and boys, many dressed as women, attacking a turnpike gate in protest at charges at tollgates on public roads. Another of their main targets was union workhouses. The riots broke out in south-west Wales in 1839 and again in 1842-1844 and were motivated by a variety of grievances including rural poverty, increased tithe charges and the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.