Richard Burton Archives: Crime and Punishment

​​​​​​The South Wales Coalfield Collection includes many different records relating to crime, disputes, policing and law reform. These can be at an individual, colliery or national level, including:

• Records of strikes and demonstrations, some detailing police response. For more information on these sources, see our Industrial Disputes and Strikes guide. 
• Personal papers of trade union activists who served prison sentences, including correspondence with families, news cuttings about their cases, court summons etc. e.g. letters and postcards sent to Edgar Evans during his nine months in prison for incitement to riot, and telegrams welcoming him home on his release, 1936 (Ref. SWCC/MNA/PP/24/4) 
• Personal, political, and constituency papers (1912-1971) of S O Davies, a miner, trade union official and Labour Party MP. These include references to acts and foreign policy relating to crime and law, licensing bills, and proposed plans for policing and probation services (Ref. SWCC/MNA/PP/16) 
• Photocopy of a notebook kept by John Reilly, Tonypandy, includes notes on executions at Swansea Prison, 1858-1909 (Ref. SWCC/MNA/PP/102/1)
• Copy of a circular from Murray Williams, Honorary Secretary of the International Labour Defence (South Wales Section), regarding a campaign against Glamorgan police, 1934 (Ref. SWCC/MNA/NUM/L/8/32)
• Reprints of photographs from Newport Congress including drawing of Chartist riot attack on Westgate Hotel, 1839 (Ref. SWCC/MND/137/2/46/10)
• Report by Jack Jones (Blaenclydach) about the condition and activities of captured International Brigade volunteers in a variety of prison camps during the Spanish Civil War, 1939 (Ref. SC/275) 

Items from Welsh trade union leader Arthur Horner's personal collection, which includes letters, photos & articles detailing his time in prison in 1918-1919 (conscientious objector) and 1932 (unlawful assembly) (Ref. SWCC/MNA/PP/46)

From medieval times, church and religion have been intertwined with law and punishment. Even in more recent times, church records can still be an interesting source for detailing 'crimes' of a religious nature, blaspheming, failure to attend church, immoral behaviour etc. 

• St David's Priory, Roman Catholic Church - early registers, church records of the parish and schools and a number of items relating to the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Swansea and south Wales (Ref. LAC/99) 
• Methodist Circuit of Swansea and Gower - administrative records of the Circuit and of many of the constituent chapels (Ref. LAC/75) 

Pages from Sunday Notices, 1863. Reports that ‘Dance Houses are hot beds of vice and inequity, we beg of you, my Bretheren, to shun them as you would a pest house' (Ref. LAC/99/C1)

• Account by Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn of his encounter with Rebecca Rioters at the Pontardulais Turnpike Gate, 10 September 1843 (Ref. LAC/26/D/82) and entries in his diary from same time (Ref. LAC/26/D/8, online transcription available 
• Report of the managing committee of the Glamorgan Reformatory School, 1867 (Ref. LAC/38/8)

• Local newspaper cuttings including court cases, 1898 (Ref. LAC/124/3-4)

Prison officer, Wormwood Scrubs Prison, London, August 1982 (Ref. DC3/15/1/2)

Photograph by Raissa Page. Protected by copyright. Not to be reproduced without permission, please contact Richard Burton Archives 

Documentary photographer Raissa Page took many photographs which feature policing, protest and institutions, including: 

• prisons (Wormwood and Holloway), probation, young offenders and the police (Ref. DC3/15) 
• images taken during the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike (Ref. DC3/6)
• other political demonstrations, industrial disputes and trade union activity in the UK (Ref. DC3/24)
• CND, Greenham Common and peace related activities (Ref. DC3/14)

The University collections, such as the student newspapers and oral history interviews, include material relating to student strikes and protest and police involvement, and references to criminal events across the globe.

Fighting between police and protesters at the Springboks match, Swansea. Crefft student newspaper, December 1969. ©Swansea University Students’ Union

Opened in 1886, Cwmdonkin Shelter was a temporary refuge for pregnant, poor, destitute girls and was run by women prominent within Swansea society (the Ladies Committee). Its stated aim was to rescue and reform but also to prevent girls from falling to temptations. Girls were rescued from the docks, police courts and workhouse and were admitted regardless of their religion. They were taught practical skills, helped to return to their communities, sent to long-stay training homes or sent for emigration to Canada to begin new lives. 

The collection (Ref. LAC/22) details visits to the police courts to help girls in trouble. This extract, from an 1895 minute book, tells of a 10 year old girl coming to the Shelter from the magistrates court for begging and pick-pocketing, she was then sent on to a home in London. 

Extract from Cwmdonkin Shelter minute book, 1887-1970 (Ref. LAC/22/A/1)

• National Library of Wales Crime and Punishment database - search the index for records of trials at the Court of Great Sessions in Wales from 1730 to 1830 
• The National Archives 'Criminals, courts and prisons' research guidance
• Old Bailey Online - searchable edition of The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
• Beyond the Old Bailey Online: Archival Sources for Trials - blogpost on sources held at The National Archive
• Welsh Newspapers Online

• Cause Papers Database - searchable catalogue of more than 14,000 cause papers relating to cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York

• Swansea University Law Library subject guide
• Find My Past - Via Ifind staff and students at Swansea University have free access to Find My Past, where you can search records of criminals who passed through the justice system in England and Wales, 1770 and 1935. Includes criminal petitions, judges reports, calendars of prisoners etc.
• South Wales Miners' Library - pamphlets, oral history recordings, videos and posters from the South Wales Coalfield Collection