Sirhowy Valley History - the Truckshop

The Company Shop

Many Valley workers in the early part of the 19th century were not paid in money but with tokens or notes that could only be exchanged at the Company or 'Truck' shop.

This iniquitous practice ensured that employees were given no choice in the disposal of their hard earned wages.

The Truck Shop was their only source for food, clothing, supplies and even furniture.

Penny Token issued by the Tredegar Iron Company
The goods supplied were often over-priced and of inferior quality.

Coupled with the infamous ' long pay ' whereby workers often went as long as six weeks before wages were paid, many people were forced into accumulating large debts.

Not all employers, however, supported the practice and Tredegar was more fortunate than other areas in this respect.
In 1830, Sir Charles Morgan made an impassioned speech to the House of Commons deploring the system and demanded legislation be put in place to end it.

In Blackwood, John Hodder Moggridge was also known to be an opponent of the system.

The practice, known as 'trucking' was made illegal by the 1831 Truck Act, which gave employees the right to be paid in conventional money but was restricted only to workers employed in certain trades.

It took until 1887 for the Act to be extended to apply to all workers.

Interesting to note that in recent times this prevented employers from paying employees by bank transfer.

The Truck Act had to be repealed in 1986 to enable wages to be paid by this method.

The Truck Shop was also known by some as ' Tommy Shop ' A term which gave rise to the phrase ' tommy rot ' , used by its customers to describe the quality of the goods therein.