Bristol Radical History Group
Since 2006 BRHG have organised over 250 events; staging walks, talks, gigs, 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.
Commemoration, Conflict and Conscience Festival
New BRHG booklet: 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 committed social activist was part of a complex network of individuals and organisations working to improve the lives of Bristol women and men. Read more here...
New BRHG booklet: 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 take non-military roles while others spent much of the war in prison, often under harsh conditions. This booklet and the exhibition on which it is based tell the story of these COs and the men and women who supported them. Read more here...
News Feed
- Rosie Sleightholme - Events
- Exhibition: A colour chart for killing - Events
- Exhibition: ‘The Art and Nature of Conscience’ - Events
- A history walk with puppets: Steps Against War - Events
- Harbottle and Jonas - Events
- Revisiting The Monocled Mutineer with Paul McGann - Events
- The Red Violinist - Events
- Otherstory puppet theatre: ‘Taking a Holiday’ - Events
- Event Suite: Closing speech by Bruce Kent (CND) - Events
- Event Suite: Conscience Panel - Events
Pending Events
- Who would know that Britain has been almost consistently at war since WW1? - 18/04/2019
- This Evil Thing - 21/04/2019
- These Dangerous Women - 23/04/2019
- Exhibition: ‘The Art and Nature of Conscience’ - 25/04/2019
- Studio 2: Making It Home - 27/04/2019
- Studio 1: Conscientious Objector Stories From Around England 1 - 27/04/2019
- Room 1: Internment and internee stories from England and Germany - 27/04/2019
- Room 2: Art and War - 27/04/2019
- Room 3: Shot at Dawn Campaign - 27/04/2019
- Studio 1: Opposition to Conscription in Wales and Ireland - 27/04/2019
- Studio 2: War School - 27/04/2019
- Room 1: Paying for Peace or Paying for War? - 27/04/2019
- Room 1: England Arise! A Drama - 27/04/2019
- Studio 1: Bristol Radical History Group Book Launch - 27/04/2019
- Room 2: A Hundred Years Of Opposition To War - 27/04/2019
- Room 3: WW1’s Hidden Voices - 27/04/2019
- Studio 2: Mutiny - 27/04/2019
- Studio 1: Researching Conscientious Objectors - 27/04/2019
- Room 2: Treatment of War Veterans: Then and Now - 27/04/2019
- Room 1: Commemorating War 1 - 27/04/2019
- Studio 2: Women Campaigning for Peace in World War 1 - 27/04/2019
- Rosie Sleightholme - 27/04/2019
- Otherstory puppet theatre: ‘Taking a Holiday’ - 27/04/2019
- The Red Violinist - 27/04/2019
- Revisiting The Monocled Mutineer with Paul McGann - 27/04/2019
- Harbottle and Jonas - 27/04/2019
- Studio 2: ‘Emmerdale’s Conscientious Objector’ - 28/04/2019
- A history walk with puppets: Steps Against War - 28/04/2019
- Studio 1: Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness Conscientious Objectors - 28/04/2019
- Studio 2: Film Premier – ‘The Singapore Mutiny’ - 28/04/2019
- Room 1: The campaign to clear Alice Wheeldon’s name - 28/04/2019
- Room 3: Commemoration Panel 2 - 28/04/2019
- Room 2: Women and Opposition To War – 1 - 28/04/2019
- Room 2: Women and Opposition To War – 2 - 28/04/2019
- Room 3: Student Voices After The Great War - 28/04/2019
- Studio 1: Conscientious Objector Stories From Around England 2 - 28/04/2019
- Room 1: Commemoration Through Drama - 28/04/2019
- Studio 2: Film showing – ‘Watford’s Quiet Heroes’ - 28/04/2019
- Studio 2: Film showing – ‘The Last Clarion House’ - 28/04/2019
- Event Suite: Conscience Panel - 28/04/2019
- Event Suite: Closing speech by Bruce Kent (CND) - 28/04/2019
Recent Books
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 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
Davis Day
When Thomas Davis and his wife Annis and their family from Pillowell in the Forest of Dean decided to emigrate to Canada in 1890 they could not have known that their choice would […] More
Edward Colston Research Paper #1
Introduction Edward Colston was an investor, official and eventually deputy governor of the Royal African Company (RAC) from 1680-92. Over this period the RAC purchased and […] More
Recent Pamphlets
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
The Maltreated and the Malcontents
The history of Bristol’s Great Western Cotton Works in Barton Hill, which opened in 1838, is little known. The story of its workforce — mainly low-paid women and children — has […] More
Recent Events
Steps Against War
Otherstory puppetry will be leading a history walk with a difference on April 7th in Bedminster. The walk will use the medium of puppetry to tell the untold stories of Bedminster […] More
History Walk: Riots, Massacres and Reform 1700s-1832
This 1.5 hour walk in the centre of Bristol takes us through a century of working class history, charting the path of the ‘crowd’ from the ‘moral economy’ of the 1700s, through the […] More
Exhibition: A colour chart for killing
During the centenary commemorations the fallacy of the First World War as ‘The War To End All Wars’ provides an invaluable platform for its legacy to Britain as a military nation […] More
Life and death in two Bristol Victorian workhouses
Congresbury History Group, Congresbury Methodist Hall, 2 High St, Congresbury, Bristol BS49 5JA Roger Ball, co-author of 100 Fishponds Rd: Life and death in a Victorian workhouse […] More
John Deed: Heart of Darkness
“Heart of Darkness” is a drama from the controversial Judge Deed series. It was transmitted in 2006 but the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit decided that this episode should not be […] More
Film Screening – Greece: The Hidden War
A rare chance to see the 1986 Channel 4 documentary that explored the clash between British forces and the left-wing Greek Resistance against the Nazi occupation in 1944, which led […] More
Slaughter No Remedy, Harry Patch, Walter Ayles and the […]
For Harry Patch and Walter Ayles, the outbreak of the First World War was a testing time. From sharply different backgrounds, they initially responded very differently, Harry […] More
Radical History: Smuggling and Poaching in Dorset
As part of BridLit Fringe Kev Davis and Steve Mills from the Bristol Radical History Group explore the history of smuggling and poaching in Dorset. Should Smugglers be considered […] More
How did World War One end?
The centenary of the end of WW1 in 1918 will be widely commemorated across the country on Remembrance Sunday this year. However, the military style parades and ceremonies send a […] More
Film Screening: Niemandsland – No Man’s […]
During World War One, five soldiers from different nations end up together amongst ruins in no man’s land and decide to stick together. Shot in 1931, this is the first […] More
Otherstory puppet show: Taking a Holiday
Taking a Holiday tells the amazing story of the secret beneath a Bedminster bike shop. It is a story of struggle in wartime – full of intrigue, escapes, comradeship…and bikes. What […] More
History walk – ‘Canting Humbugs’: Resistance and […]
This 1.5 hour history walk led by members of the Remembering the Real World War One history group explores resistance to the conflict in Bristol. From mass meetings of trade […] More