Uncategorized Archives - Page 2 of 17 Bristol Radical History Group

West Street Stories

Did you know that West Street was once the busiest high street in Bedminster? Or that there was a coalmine on the actual street, and the first ever Co-op shop in Bristol was started at number 88 by the miners? We'll be bringing the Facebook page 'West Street Stories' to life with a photo exhibition and printed memories, and inviting local people to pop in to add their stories to our collection. Organised by Way Out West, the West Street BS3 neighbourhood group: weststreetbs3@gmail.com

acta’s historical plays

Ingrid Jones has worked for acta community theatre for the past thirty years. Over this time she has devised and directed numerous community plays many of which had a local history focus, including: 1963, Gas Girls, Clippies, Ladies Mile, Sailor’s Tales, Lost not Forgotten and more recently Welcome to the Hippodrome. In this presentation Ingrid will be talking about acta’s method of digging out local stories and the process of developing them into theatre performances. Time will be given for any […]

Reel Lives – a social history of Bristol

Bristol Radical History Festival 2023 poster, featuring a Walter Crane print

Reel Lives (6 x 25 mins) is a six part series that tells the social history of the 1930s to the 1960s of Bristol and Somerset through home movies and the stories of ordinary people. It was produced by David Parker of Available Light for HTV Bristol. A must for all Bristolians.

Parent Power: the fight against the closure of Gay Elms and Whitehouse primary schools in Withywood and Hartcliffe

7.00pm, Weds 7th December, Bishopsworth Library, Bishopsworth Rd, Bristol BS13 7LN In October 2000, Bristol City Council announced that it was considering shutting Gay Elms and Whitehouse primary schools, because in its view there were too many surplus school places in the Withywood and Hartcliffe areas. Sally Miewa, acting head of Whitehouse primary and Jackie Ball, chair of Gay Elms’ Parents Teachers Association expressed shock and anger on hearing the news and immediately began to organise […]

Hartcliffe: the estate born out of conflict

7.00pm, Wednesday 30 November, Hartcliffe Community Centre, Hareclive Rd, Bristol BS13 0JW The talk will cover the conflicts around the building of Hartcliffe on the outskirts of Bristol. The promise of the original plans and the comparison with what was finally built. The talk will draw upon council documents, media reports and comments of local residents at the time. Paul Smith grew up and lived in Hartcliffe for over 30 years. He represented the area as a councillor from 1988-1999 and […]

More Earth Will Fall

Documentary film making and ethics

Poster with the words Behind the screen on one side of a screen, and an abstract audience on the other side

Filming people in distress for his documentary ‘Earth Will Fall’, shot in a favela in Brazil, raised difficult ethical issues for documentary maker Sam Liebmann. He will discuss, with video clips, the problems of representing people fairly and with dignity while filming in areas of high social conflict. Book tickets here.

Bristol docks and cholera

M Shed 10th anniversary series

Cholera reached Bristol on the 11 July 1832. The London Quarterly Review described the new disease sweeping the world in November 1831: ‘It has mastered every variety of climate, surmounted every natural barrier, conquered every people.’ This disease had been prevalent in the Indian sub-continent for centuries, thriving in crowded and impoverished conditions. The disease caused severe diarrhoea, dehydration, collapse and often death. However, on 12 July 1832, the newspapers reported that they […]

The Legacy Steering Group – Local historians out, Merchant Venturers in?

By Randell Brantley

The Legacy Steering Group (LSG, initially known as the Slave Trade Legacy Roundtable and now formally known as the Bristol Transatlantic Slavery Legacy Group) was founded by Deputy-Mayor Asher Craig in February 2019. The LSG was launched in the wake of the decision to change the name of the Colston Hall and because of persistent calls for a memorial and museum to remember the millions of Africans who suffered and died during the period of transatlantic slavery, of which the port of Bristol was a […]

Nautical Women – Women Sailors in History

By invitation of Pill Library and Children's Centre Crockerne House, Underbanks, Pill, BS20 0AT Wednesday, 19 February 2020 @ 2pm Author Rosemary Caldicott will be telling us about her book in which she investigated the intriguing histories of nautical women. These include stories of cross-dressing women who went to sea to earn a living and the mad, tragic and often funny consequences they encountered and endured. Living in or near Bristol, we’re all quite familiar with images of sailing ships – […]

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. Jeremy Corbyn MP – From Wiltshire to Westminster. A dramatic cover featuring Combe Gibbet set against a thunderous, threatening Wiltshire sky greets the reader of this short book. The work certainly does not fail to deliver on one aspect of Wiltshire’s past dark and cruel criminal justice system. On the other hand the […]