As with most histories, initially it becomes dominated by famous names and events and working-class people and rural areas tend to get left behind. Added to this is the concept that those who were, and are, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) tended to move to the cities in order to have more freedom to be who they are, hence a greater concentration on recovering information from urban areas. Now however, with a greater interest in life outside cities, evidence is showing that actually, many people moved to rural areas to blend in more.

In order to explore these different narratives, last year I was commissioned by the Welsh Government to provide training to local museums, archives, and libraries to raise awareness of how to research LGBTQ+ history[1] and how to recognise existing content. The training was only available to local heritage organisations specifically to increase knowledge in those areas. It was extremely well received with a 94% positivity rating and a number of successful outcomes.

One of those outcomes is the idea of creating timelines for every Welsh county, drilling down deeper to establish timelines for towns as well. Several participants are currently constructing these and Conwy county has published theirs - mixing seminal events with local information.

These timelines mean people take pride in local areas, feel a connection to their locale, and encourages them to add their voices and histories to local collections.

There certainly is a lot to find, and a great deal of new information has come to light since I developed a new methodology[2] locating LGBTQ+ in the historic record by looking not at what people are but what they were doing – and the thing they were doing the most was cross-dressing, cross-working, and cross-living. So extensive was this methodology that it resulted in some 4,000 articles many of which were included in my book A History of Women in Men’s Clothes: from cross-dressing to Empowerment (Pen and Sword Books, 2021). Many of these stories are located not in highly populated places, but in rural areas.

One of the interesting aspects of this research is how these stories were considered at the time they were written. For example, an 1851 piece from Llanfynydd, a small village in Wales announces the birth of a hermaphrodite (modern intersex), but in a 4-page newspaper it is tucked away at the bottom of page 2 with no significant heading, and no attention drawn to it. This is true of many of these stories such as female husbands who cross-lived for years, sometimes lifetimes, in rural areas and when their ‘true sex’ was discovered it treated in a similar way, tucked away at the bottom of a page. What does this tell us? That these stories while unusual enough to make it into the paper were never considered shocking or sensational enough to make a bigger headline. This is possibly the reason why so many LGBTQ+ people moved, not to the cities, but to rural areas.

Throughout history one of the frequent refrains from those who do not accept LGBTQ+ people is that it is not ‘natural’ yet many of the local newspapers include stories of hermaphrodite animals and farming columns contains discussion of what to do with free-martins, or how a hermaphrodite salmon ended up on the fish counter in a Glasgow market.

Adverts can be found for Barnum-like travelling shows which often featured bearded women – women who grow beards naturally do so, generally speaking, due to an excess of male hormones. The commentary generated by journalists and editors can be collected and analysed. Other women became tourist attractions due to their masculinity and strength, Marged ferch Ifan has entered the historical narrative purely because of her strength - her presence in LGBTQ+ history is due not just to her masculinity but because of her close relationship to her maid. There were many more women like Marged living in farming areas.

In fact, farming often plays a part in stories of cross-working where numerous women worked as plough-boys, at the harvest, some owned farms. Elsewhere they worked as grooms, pot-boys at inns, gardeners, and many more.

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries ballads were extremely popular and thousands of sheets were printed for people to buy and sing at home. One of the most frequent features is that of the female sailor and soldier, those women who cross-lived as men and served in the armed forces, many of whom were working class women who began life in rural areas. One rare example of a queer ballad was discovered in 2021. Following a talk on my book I was sent a link to a Welsh language ballad about women cross-dressing in order to have sex with other women. After the initial blog, A Queer Bawdy Ballad, (on National Library of Wales blogs) was written another version came to light and an interesting progression could be examined (on National Museum Wales blogs). Initially written for a predominantly agricultural audience, it was rewritten but this time placed in gentrified houses. It is a trope used even today, to place sensational stories among the wealthy who are fewer in number and have more time on their hands, than working-class people.

These examples are only the tip of an iceberg and my collection of articles has been passed to a library where hopefully one day they will be available for anyone to search. In the meantime, if anyone has requests for counties or town names, I am happy to forward any results.

[1] Welsh Government, Museum, Archive, and Library staff in Wales offered LGBTQ+ training, 9 December 2021  https://gov.wales/museum-archive-and-library-staff-wales-offered-lgbtq-training

[2] If anyone is interested in following this up and doing their own research, there is a free guide Queering Glamorgan https://glamarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Queering-Glamorgan-28Aug2018.pdf and A Practical Guide to Searching LGBTQIA Historical Records  https://www.routledge.com/A-Practical-Guide-to-Searching-LGBTQIA-Historical-Records/Shopland/p/book/9780367439606

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.