Living Easton: Local History
Good site with interesting information about the Bristol community of Easton's history. See their excellent list of slave revolts in the Atlantic and prepare to be astounded!
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Avon Local History and Archaeology
Avon Local History and Archaeology Promoting local history in the Avon region and bringing together all those with an interest in it ALHA was founded in 1976 as an offshoot of a committee of the new County of Avon. Avon County has long since been abolished, but ALHA still flourishes as an independent organisation owing nothing to local or national government. ALHA flourishes because, whether politicians choose to incorporate it or not, the Avon region is an economic and social and historical […]
Big Bang
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The 1831 Hammer Film
The night before the 1831 riots, hundreds of Sledge Hammers were 'borrowed' from the Acraman's Iron Foundry in Bathurst Basin (now Bristol General Hospital). These hammers were used during the riots to break down the doors of the four prisons in Bristol. The day after the riots, all but two of these hammers were returned. This fact, at the time, was used as evidence of prior planning by the "mob". The hammers were recreated for the Bristol Radical History Week 2006 exhibition by Jasper Johns at […]
The Anarchist Manifeto
The original Anarchist Manifesto by Anselme Bellegarrigue from 1850. Originally published in French. A 280 kb PDF file. Download the file here.
Dorothy Hazard And Other Bristol Separatists
Taken from Bristol Past and Present by J. F. Nicholls and John Taylor, published in 1882 In Bristol from 1604 the Rev. William Yeamans, a Puritan vicar of the church of St. Philip and Jacob, was the central rallying point for the godly, who sat under his light for nearly twenty years, keeping many fast days in private houses, namely, at one Wm. Listun's house, a glover, near Lawford‚s gate, and at one Richard Langford's house, a house carpenter in the Castle, and sometimes at other places, where […]
Bread or Batons?: The Old Market ‘riots’
By Roger Ball
The pictures on this page were found in Bristol Central Reference Library, to reproduce please email refandinfo@bristol.gov.uk The April and August 'riots' of 2011 in Bristol, along with those of the 1980s, have been characterised as being exceptional events in the city's history. However, Bristol has a long history of violent disturbances from the food and price 'riots' of the 18th Century, through the reform uprisings of 1831 to 'Black Friday' in 1892. One period which has received less […]
The BRH Summer Party On Brandon Hill
Reclaim the Hill!: A celebration of the radical history of Brandon Hill and Stop the College Green Dispersal Order. Despite the vagaries of the English summer of 2007, a small but feisty mob of radical historians, skate boarders and cider drinkers gathered on Brandon Hill in Clifton on August 19th. We were both celebrating the 175th anniversary of the invasion of the Great Reform Dinner and protesting against the dispersal order served on Bristol citizens this summer. What is the connection? […]
The Friends of Durruti and the Maydays in Barcelona (1937)
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the 'Barcelona Maydays' an uprising in response to the Republican Government's attempt to seize power in revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. Tensions had been building over several months between the anarcho-syndicalist CNT membership and the Soviet controlled Republican army which centred on the questions of militarisation and 'War or Revolution'? When armed 'Communist Party' units attacked the Telephone exchange in Barcelona, thousands […]
The Haymarket, Chicago and Mayday
On Tuesday May 4th 1886 near the Haymarket, Chicago, police attempted to violently disperse 200 remaining members of a peaceful demonstration called to protest about the police killing the day before of two workers at a strike at the McCormick Reaper Works. As the police moved against the crowd a bomb was thrown by an unknown person which killed a police officer and in the ensuing chaos the police opened fire killing and wounding demonstrators and police alike. In the days following the incident […]