News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

Eastville Workhouse Burial Data 1895-1914

By Roger Ball, Gloria Davey, Di Parkin, Trish Mensah

Introduction The downloadable pdf listed on this page contains transcriptions carried out by members of Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) of the death registers for Eastville Workhouse for the period November 1895 to July 1914 This work was undertaken after the first release of data by Bristol Radical History Group in 2015 which covered more than 4,000 unmarked burials from the workhouse in nearby Rosemary Green over the period May 1851 to November 1895. This current data release, covers […]

Coal Not Dole Exhibition

Bristol Miners' Support Campaign Archive

Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) are putting an exhibition dedicated to the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike on display at Bristol Central Library this December. The exhibition celebrates the work of the Bristol Miners’ Support Campaign during the year long dispute. Over the last eighteen months BRHG has sponsored a project to collect and preserve documents and other materials from the campaign, one of many around the country that aimed to support the communities that were at the forefront of the […]

Obituary: Samuel Paradiso

By Roger

Samuel Paradiso was brought up in the Fishponds area of east Bristol. His love of his ‘manor’ played a large part in his life, ranging from his legendary ‘border patrols’, checking no one from BS5 had sneaked into BS16[1], to the local history in his website ‘Boy from Fishponds’.[2] He knew Fishponds inside out and revelled in directing me around using secret short cuts, telling me stories of its hidden heroes and showing me the concealed ‘Lido’ that once had a bar on stilts, or so they say. […]

Mass meeting on the Downs – 16 May 1926

By Richard Musgrove

On 16 May 1926, in the wake of the calling off of the General Strike four days earlier, a mass meeting was held in the evening on Durdham Down. A demonstration had been formed on Old Market which then marched the two and a half miles to the Downs for a rally with speeches in support of the still locked-out miners. Though details of the meeting are scarce, it must have been of considerable size, with the Western Daily Press reporting on the 17 May that there were 15 speakers spread across three […]

General Strike 100

By Rob Whitfield

May 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the nine day 'General Strike'. This solidarity action was an attempt by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to prevent wage reductions and increasingly bad working conditions for 1.2 million coal miners who had already been locked-out by their employers. Around 1.7 million workers, mainly in transport and heavy industry, responded and the country was confronted with explicit class war. Bristol Radical History Group are delighted to be a part of the General […]

1926 General Strike In Bristol

In 1973 the Bristol Trades Union Council got the go-ahead to make a programme on its centenary as part of a BBC's Community Programmes initiative. Engineering worker and Trades Union Council delegate Ron Whiteford contributed his account of the 1926 General Strike in Bristol

Newport Radical Bookfair and Chartist Convention 2025

Free entry radical book fair featuring stalls, book sales, zines, print and stickers plus workshops and talks. More information here. Bristol Radical History Group will have a bookstall at this event. And at the same venue, same day....the excellent.... Tickets for the Chartist Convention are £15 (includes tea and coffee) and require booking. More information and booking here.

Bristol Anarchist Bookfair 2025

Is the rise of the far right, war, authoritarianism, ecological meltdown and the general omnicrisis getting you down? Looking for co-conspirators, some manageable ways to engage with it all, or just some hope? You need the legend that is: the full scale Bristol Anarchist Bookfair, back after a 5 year break in a big new venue. There will be an amazing range of Bristol campaigns across 50 different stalls. Come browse for the crew and the project that suits you best, or that mate you haven’t seen […]

Mike Levine

By Ian Wright

This obituary for Mike Levine mainly concentrates on the development of his political ideas and activities, rather than his personal life and career. Michael (Mike) Robin Levine was born in August 1938 in London, the son of Dorian and Sadie, who were the children of Jews who had migrated from Eastern Europe to Glasgow at the turn of the century. Mike was born a month before the ‘Munich Agreement’, which promised to avert the start of war in Europe, but subsequently led to the Holocaust. Dorian […]

Coal Not Dole

Bristol Miners' Support Campaign Archive group

In 1984, the Tory government was determined to close the coal-producing industry and replace it with imports and with gas from the North Sea, whatever the costs. This was no green revolution. The National Union of Mineworkers was equally determined to resist. If a local pit went, there was nothing else except the dole. A bitter 12-month strike ensued. Coal Not Dole, written by those involved in the Bristol Miners’ Support Campaign, tells the story of the solidarity and support shown by the […]