Bristol Radical History Group
Since 2006 BRHG have organised over 250 events; staging walks, talks, gigs, historical recreations, films, exhibitions, trips through the archives and fireside story telling. We have several active research projects, publish a range of books and pamphlets and host an archive on this website.
BRHG projects and events are organised by local people from Bristol and are NOT funded by universities, political parties, business or local government. To break even we rely on members giving their labour for free, donations from the audiences and the sale of publications.
BRHG are associated with several other history groups in Bristol including Remembering the Real World War One, Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group and the Countering-Colston Group. BRHG have also recently become a member of the International History From Below Network.
O
ur friends include Breviary Stuff Publications, an independent publisher of radical history, working class history and history from below. For almost 10 years they have reproduced out-of-print classics along with new titles for affordable prices, unlike the majority of academic publishers. Check out their interesting range of books here.
Bristol Radical History Festival: Saturday 12th October
This year's Bristol Radical History Festival at M Shed has two themes:
# 1919: Year of Revolutions
# Green History: from 18th Century roots to Extinction Rebellion
It’s not just talks! Expect walks, films, a performance space with puppet shows and storytelling, exhibitions, as well as book and merchandise stalls from local and national groups. All events are free with no booking required! More details here...
New BRHG pamphlet: Facing up to the Fascists
As the ultra-right tries to spread its message of hate, Colin Thomas reminds us that we have been here before. This is how the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism resisted the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s and 80s – and won. Read more here...
New BRHG booklet: Refusing to Kill – buy it here
Over 580 men from the Bristol area refused to fight in World War 1. They claimed the status of conscientious objector (CO) for moral, religious or political reasons. Some agreed to take non-military roles while others spent much of the war in prison, often under harsh conditions. This A4 booklet tells the story of these COs and the men and women who supported them and can now be purchased online here...
News Feed
- Film Premiere: Steps Against War - Events
- Strikes and riots: British servicemen in 1919 (Level 1, Studio 1) - Events
- Ireland in 1919 (Level 1, Studio 1) - Events
- Bridport 1919: conflict and tensions in a small industrial town in West Dorset (Level 1, Studio 1) - Events
- “With all the resources at the disposal of the State” (Level 1, Studio 1) - Events
- Regional Radical Press in Britain 1968-88 exhibition (Level 2) - Events
- A people’s history of poetry (Level 1, Performance space) - Events
- Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons - Events
- ‘Nautical Women and the Rum Do’ - Events
- The draining of the mere (Level 1, Performance space) - Events
Pending Events
- ‘Nautical Women and the Rum Do’ - 21/09/2019
- Film Premiere: Steps Against War - 26/09/2019
- Burning Bristol: the 1831 ‘reform riot’ - 28/09/2019
- Film tie-in event: American Climate Rebels - 07/10/2019
- Red Notes Choir performance (Ground Floor) - 12/10/2019
- Regional Radical Press in Britain 1968-88 exhibition (Level 2) - 12/10/2019
- Green Romanticism (Level 1, Studio 2) - 12/10/2019
- Wild scenes at Cardiff (Level 1, Studio 1) - 12/10/2019
- History walk 1: Wulfstan to Colston and the sinews of slavery - 12/10/2019
- The draining of the mere (Level 1, Performance space) - 12/10/2019
- “With all the resources at the disposal of the State” (Level 1, Studio 1) - 12/10/2019
- Black2Nature’s Mya-Rose Craig on the conservation sector: its foundations and its racism (Level 1, Studio 2) - 12/10/2019
- Ecology from below (Level 1, Studio 2) - 12/10/2019
- Ireland in 1919 (Level 1, Studio 1) - 12/10/2019
- A people’s history of poetry (Level 1, Performance space) - 12/10/2019
- Environmental activism in the 1980s and 1990s (Level 1, Studio 2) - 12/10/2019
- Bridport 1919: conflict and tensions in a small industrial town in West Dorset (Level 1, Studio 1) - 12/10/2019
- History walk 2: Romantic, Radical and…Reactionary - 12/10/2019
- Back to the land (Level 1, Studio 2) - 12/10/2019
- Roots of Resistance: Earth First! (Level 1, Performance space) - 12/10/2019
- Strikes and riots: British servicemen in 1919 (Level 1, Studio 1) - 12/10/2019
- Reflections on Radical Technology in the 1970s (Level 1, Studio 2) - 12/10/2019
- 3 Acres and a Cow: A history of land rights and protest in folk song - 25/10/2019
- Nautical Women - 07/11/2019
Recent Books
Radical Culture
Worral's book concentrates on the period of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The narrative is based mainly in London, and looks at those who wanted to replicate the […] More
Wales
Clevedon-born author and historian Jan Morris describes herself as ‘by loyalty Welsh’, and writes about her subject with warmth and eloquence. As a book that captures the spirit of […] More
Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone
Just finished Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone, courtesy of Tangent Books and Richard Jones. It's a detailed history of the band from the early eighties through to 2018 by […] More
Make Rojava Green Again
The ‘Make Rojava Green Again’ campaign of the Internationalist Commune of Rojava began in early 2018. I am pleased and impressed that they have now published this inspirational […] More
Hitler’s British Traitors
Regardless of the 2015 publishing date given, this book is currently (last checked December 2018) just available in hardback, and must have been withheld due to the ongoing release […] More
Wiltshire’s Radical History
Contributors: Steve Poole – Hanged at the scene of their crime. Rosie MacGregor – Angela Tuckett. Nigel Costley – West Country Rebels. Melissa Barnett – Dame Florence May Hancock. […] More
The Sons of Belial
This is a very good book, extremely informative. Even though the bulk of the book is set in the North West of England, there is a wider historical scope. Which would be very useful […] More
The Gallows Pole
The Gallows Pole is a wonderful novel set in 18th Century Yorkshire. It is based on a true story about the Craggs Vale Coiners. Coiners clipped coins. If you look at your £1 coin, […] More
Socialist History (51)
Journal Review: “Left Intellectuals after 1956” may not sound like the most exciting of titles but the latest edition of Socialist History (no 51) contains a lot of fascinating […] More
Bristol from Below
Within the Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG), we are constantly pressing for more history from below. Researching, writing and celebrating our history. The history of those who […] More
No Is Not Enough
When a new Naomi Klein book comes along it is certain to be a part of the zeitgeist. So the recent publication of No Is Not Enough: Defeating the New Shock Politics is no […] More
Army of Shadows
My partner brought me this book for Xmas. It was priced at 2/6, about 12p in today’s prices. I hoped she paid more than that, but this classic is priceless. This copy was […] More
Recent Articles
The South West Tribunal
Foreword During the Second World War, over 60,000 men and 1,000 women applied to register as conscientious objectors (COs) in England, Wales and Scotland. Although this was at […] More
The last piece of the jigsaw
Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them Introduction One evening in 2010 some members of Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) were poring over some old maps of […] More
The National Museum of Antigua and Barbuda
If you walk down Market Street in St. John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, you will come across a grand stone building that was once the court house and now known as […] More
The Edward Colston ‘corrective’ plaque
Introduction Just over a year ago a project was launched to research, design and install a ‘corrective’ plaque on the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol City Centre. It was […] More
Lest we forget – A Life of Pleasure?
A Life of Pleasure After a tip off last year by a member of BRHG I took a trip to Bristol Archives to take a look at some diaries written by Harry Bow in the 1890s. Bow, a […] More
Myths within myths…
In the light of recent moves to place a ‘corrective’ plaque on the statue of Edward Colston in the centre of Bristol and calls for it to be removed to a museum it seems the time is […] More
Should society memorialise a Slave Trader?
If you were to walk around the rear side of the former house and home of Captain Thomas Phillips in Brecon, located along Captains Walk, you will notice a rather handsome slate […] More
Frederick Douglass in Bristol
After the Frederick Douglass event in the city on Bank Holiday Monday (28 May, 2018) in which BRHG members took part and which drew several hundred people we are publishing this […] More
A Brief Political And Economic Introduction To Bristol […]
There were a number of economic and political changes during the 16th and 17th centuries which prepared the ground for the establishment of the glass industry in Bristol. In 1522 […] More
Two rebel women
I interviewed Florence Exten-Hann in March 1973 and this article appeared in the socialist feminist magazine Red Rag (no.3 1973). It draws also on notes she wrote about her life […] More
Joshua Fitch and Colston’s Girls’ School
Introduction On 11th November 2017 Colston's Girls’ School (CGS) announced that they would not be changing the name of the school, despite its associations with Edward Colston, the […] More
Edward Colston Research Paper #2
Introduction This research article is an examination of the Royal African Company (RAC) and the role of Edward Colston (b. 1636 d. 1721) within the organisation as both an investor […] More
Recent Pamphlets
Facing up to the Fascists
As the ultra-right tries to spread its message of hate, Colin Thomas reminds us that we have been here before. This is how the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism resisted the […] More
Refusing to Kill
Over 580 men from the Bristol area refused to fight in World War 1. They claimed the status of conscientious objector (CO) for moral, religious or political reasons. Some agreed to […] More
Mabel Tothill
June Hannam’s pamphlet examines the life and work of Mabel Tothill (1869 – 1964), Quaker peace campaigner, socialist and Bristol’s first woman councillor. It reveals how this […] More
Nautical Women
In Nautical Women, Rosemary Caldicott explores the stories of women whose lives were inextricably linked to the sea. She tells of the women of sailortowns struggling to keep out of […] More
Zionism And History
How can we explain the persecution of Jews throughout European history, culminating in the horror of the Nazi holocaust? The founders of the Zionist movement argued that the cause […] More
Men of Fire
The emergence of ‘New Unionism’ in 1889, and the accompanying outburst of strikes across the country, was one of the most extraordinary and significant events in trade union […] More
Ring Out the Thousand Wars of Old
During World War One, 28 men from the Forest of Dean sought recognition as conscientious objectors rather than be called up to fight. This is the story of these men, the options […] More
Turbulence
Turbulence describes how the expanding armaments industry of the First World war drew thousands of unskilled and semi-skilled workers – women as well as men- into Bristol’s […] More
The War after the War
“Every intelligent person now admits that the antagonism among the nations of Europe that led to competition of armaments and the present world war was fundamentally due to a […] More
Lady Blackshirts
During the 1930s a small group of ultra-nationalistic women, who considered themselves feminists, joined Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. Surprisingly some of these women […] More
The Smoke-Dragon and How to Destroy it
Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) was one of the most progressive thinkers, writers and activists of the late19th and early 20th century. He was an early supporter of the Bristol […] More
The Enigma of Hugh Holmes Gore
The Anglo – Catholic convert to the left, Hugh Holmes Gore, was a key figure in Bristol’s labour movement during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Gore linked Clifton […] More
Recent Events
Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the […]
David Bollier will give an overview of the latest thinking on the commons, based on his new book Free, Fair, and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons, which presents a […] More
‘Buried like Dogs?’
Elaborate funeral ceremonies became very important to middle-class Victorians, with increasingly meticulous rituals designed to mark the passing of family members. However, for the […] More
Green Romanticism
Stephen Hunt will discuss the ecology movement’s deep roots in the Romantic era at the Dorset Radical Bookfair at the Corn Exchange, Municipal Buildings, High St East, Dorchester, […] More
Mining Labour Wars
Based on his co-authored book, Anthracite Labor Wars, Prof. Bob Wolensky will speak about a 40-year "labour war" that resulted from the mining arrangements between the Pennsylvania […] More
Bristol’s Nautical Women
Glenside Museum, The Chapel, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD An evening of nautical intrigue! Author Rosemary Caldicott will be telling us about her […] More
Behind the Myth of Peter the Painter
Bristol Radical History Group is excited to host the UK book launch of "A Towering Flame: The Life and Times of the Elusive Latvian Anarchist Peter the Painter" (published by […] More
Bedminster Union Workhouse
As part of their History Week, Bedminster Library (Bedminster Parade, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4AQ) have a talk by Rosemary Caldicott, author of The Life and Death of Hannah […] More
Performance: War in Mind
This new powerful dramatic performance looks at the real lives of people affected by shell shock in the First World War. Driver William Charles Phillips, a Tetbury man who though […] More
Pauper Graves Memorial Unveiling
In 2012 Bristol Radical History Group launched a project to research into the thousands of unmarked graves of paupers from the Eastville workhouse (at 100 Fishponds Road) who were […] More
Event Suite: Closing speech by Bruce Kent (CND)
The Commemoration, Conflict & Conscience festival weekend will be closed by Bruce Kent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) More
Event Suite: Conscience Panel
A rich and complex history: conscientious objection to the military in the First World War (Lois Bibbings) This talk revisits what we know about objectors – in terms of their […] More
Studio 2: Film showing – ‘The Last Clarion House’
A film about the Nelson Independent Labour Party Clarion House and its role in the struggles of suffragettes and conscientious objectors. The Clarion Cycling Club was formed in […] More