The Story

The story

Jac Ty'isha and the Rebecca Riots

Between 1839 and 1843, the farmers and labourers of west Wales rose against a system that was grinding them down. Tollgates had spread across the turnpike roads, taxing every cart of lime, every load of produce and every journey to market, while rents stayed high, wages low and hunger never far away. Working by night and dressed in women's clothing, the protesters took the name 'Rebecca' and her daughters, and set about pulling the hated gates down.

They came by night, faces blackened, and took the toll-gates down.

Among the leaders was a young man from just outside Tumble: John Hughes, known to everyone as Jac Ty'isha after his family's farm. Still in his early twenties, he became one of the most determined organisers of Rebecca across the Gwendraeth valley and the Llannon district, the very ground this festival walks today.

In the early hours of 7 September 1843 he led the attack on the tollgate at Pontarddulais. This time the authorities were waiting. Jac Ty'isha was captured, tried, and transported to Van Diemen's Land, Tasmania, on the far side of the world. He never came home.

For generations his story stayed close to the ground, half-remembered, handed down quietly in the valley. Gŵyl Tyisha brings it into the open. Building on The Great Mountain Portrait (2023), the festival turns a powerful local story into something you can see, hear and walk through, together.