Previously known as Bishopston, Horfield & Ashley Down Local History Society. From the website: “was formed in 1988 to encourage knowledge, appreciation and preservation of local history in the area. Meetings are held at 7.30pm every third Tuesday of the month except January, August & December at Horfield Quaker Meeting House, 300 Gloucester Road, Horfield, Bristol, BS7 8PD. The Society welcomes new members; there is an annual subscription of £20 to join.” See website for current […]
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Levellers Day – 50th Anniversary
THEME: Confronting poverty and injustice
Not A BRHG Event
Saturday 17 May 2025, Warwick Hall, Burford OX18 4RY, from 10.30 On 17 May 1649, three soldiers were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders in Burford churchyard, Oxfordshire. They belonged to a movement popularly known as the Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance. During the Civil War, the Levellers fought on Parliament’s side, they had at first seen Cromwell as a liberator, but now saw him as a dictator. They were prepared to fight against him for their ideals and he […]
Film showing: London Recruits
If you missed the showing of London Recruits as part of this year's radical history festival then there is another opportunity to see it on Thursday 1 May at the Curzon in Clevedon. The film will be followed by a discussion by some of those who took part in actions against the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1960s and 70s. By the late 1960s, the Apartheid regime in South Africa had reached brutal new heights. Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters had been imprisoned, killed or forced […]
CND Demands a Continuing Supply of History
We have a selection of posters, photos and printed materials from the early 1980s when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher agreed to siting US Cruise missiles in the UK at the same time as the Soviet Union was deploying its new SS20 missiles in Eastern Europe. There was anger and anxiety across Europe, rejuvenating the anti-nuclear movements and triggering huge protest demonstrations. The membership of CND in Bristol and across the UK expanded rapidly and the new energy and ideas transformed the […]
Up the Archives
Housing, Gaols and Mozambique
Join our historians in the Bristol Archives Education Room to view original maps and documents from the special collections. We have materials on the three of the themes at the Bristol Radical History Festival: Incarceration: The plans for Bristol gaols in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including those that were never built, giving a fascinating insight into prison design and purpose in the period. Prof. Steve Poole will guide us through so-called 'the fitting receptacles of the […]
We Will Eat Grass
John Williams and the Forest of Dean Miners’ Association, 1922–1928
“We will eat the grass off the field rather than submit to 8 hours” declared William Hoare at a mass meeting of Forest of Dean miners on July 3, 1926. This is the story of those miners during the dramatic events surrounding that year’s general strike and the nine-month miners’ lockout. In 1922, John Williams, who began working in a South Wales pit at age just thirteen, became the full-time trade union official for the Forest’s miners. Inspired by syndicalism, he believed that determined struggle […]
Bristol Miners Support Campaign – 1984-85
The 1984/85 miners strike was arguably the most significant labour dispute in British history. Before the strike began, Arthur Scargill (President of the 200,000 strong National Union of Mineworkers) told his members and anybody else who would listen, that the future of the coal industry, and the people and communities whose futures depended on it were at stake. This was perfectly summarised in the strike slogan COAL NOT DOLE. The Tory Government used a combination of starvation, police […]
Faces of the Irish Diaspora: Portrait Exhibition
The exhibition illustrates the diverse experiences of identity, heritage, migration and belonging of local Irish people in Bristol. The portraits include objects of significance to their stories, and celebrate the contributions made by Irish immigrants to the life and culture of the city. Faces of the Irish Diaspora features the work of local photographer Frances Tolson, who has taken portraits that capture the essence and spirit of each individual and beautifully recorded the objects that hold […]
Housing – ‘No Coloureds, No Irish, No Dogs’
The struggle against racial discrimination in Bristol housing
In conversation with Silu Pascoe, members of the 'Windrush Generation' share memories and experiences of how they overcame racial discrimination when finding somewhere to live in Bristol. In particular, Joyce Morris-Wisdom recalls the 'pardner-hand' system that enabled her parents to become home-owners. Guy Bailey OBE outlines the setting up United Housing Association which was the first Black-led housing association in 1980s Bristol.
Red Notes Choir
Catch Bristol’s wonderful Red Notes Choir, who will support the Bristol Radical History Festival by performing at 11:30am. They’ll be singing in the Ground Floor Foyer by the M Shed main entrance. The Red Notes Choir is a Bristol-based socialist choir. They have a repertoire of songs from around the world on historical, union, peace, green and human rights themes. We use the streets of Bristol and further afield to spread our message of fighting for the rights of working people, those who are […]