The 'Ceffy Pren'

At the Pwll Trap gate Rebecca and her daughters acted out a pantomime in the style of the Ceffyl Pren, an ancient form of local justice. A large crowd gathered, dressed in a variety of garments, faces blackened, and armed with the usual array of weaponry, and walked up to the gate at Pwll Trap.

During attacks, one farmer would take the lead as Rebecca, and others would act as her daughters, or children. They halted a few yards short, and the lady Rebecca – stooped, hobbling, and leaning like an old woman on her blackthorn stick – walked up to the gate. Her sight apparently failing her, she reached out with her staff and touched it. Rebecca seemed greatly surprised that her progress along the road should be interrupted.

Rebecca (feeling the gate with her staff) would say: ‘Children, there is something put here. I cannot go on.’

Daughters: ‘What is it mother? Nothing should stop your way.’

Rebecca: ‘I do not know, children. I am old, and cannot see well.’

Daughters: ‘Shall we come on, mother, and move it out of the way?’

Rebecca: ‘Stop; let me see (feeling the gate with her staff). It seems like a great gate put across the road to stop your old mother.’

Daughters: ‘We will break it, mother. Nothing shall hinder you on your journey.’

Rebecca: ‘No; let us see, perhaps it will open (feeling the lock). No children. It is bolted and locked, and I cannot go on. What is to be done?’

Daughters: ‘It must be taken down, mother, because you and your children must pass.’

Rebecca: ‘Off with it, then, my dear children. It has no business here.’

The gate was then quickly destroyed and burnt.