News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

Women’s Threads of Bristol

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

‘Women’s Threads of Bristol’ aims to create a comprehensive visual illustration of places in Bristol that are named after women – roads, buildings, parks, blue plaques, murals – all are relevant. It encourages exploration of who these women were and what they did to earn recognition. But, just as importantly, it asks people to suggest who they think should be on the map. Who were our female community champions? Which women dedicated their lives towards science, health, teaching, equalities, the […]

Facing up to the Fascists: Confronting the National Front in Bristol in the 1970s

Bristol Radical History Group presents an innovative exhibition of resistance to fascism in the city in the 1970s, through a collection of rare contemporary posters, badges, pamphlets, photographs and film. This visually powerful exhibition considers the role that Bristolians played in standing up to and confronting the rise of the far-right and racist National Front during the 1970s. The first warning came fifty years ago – the National Front decided to put up candidates in Bristol. The […]

Cholera Humbug! Epidemics and Radical Politics in the 1830s

An urban walk that explores the political reverberations of the first cholera outbreak in Bristol in 1832. The 1830s was a time of radical political and social division in Britain. At this moment a terrible disease arrived in the country – the Cholera Morbus. It seemed to afflict old and young alike, doctors were baffled by its cause, and for some of its victims it led to a terrible end. The walk examines the social, economic, cultural and political impacts of the epidemic in the South West. The […]

100 Years of Struggle

100 Years of Struggle is an unusual documentary made to mark the centenary of the Bristol Trades Union Council (BTUC) in 1973. Although it was transmitted by BBC Bristol, it was produced by the BTUC at a time when some organisations outside the Corporation were allowed to use BBC resources to have their own say. It was written, researched and presented by members of the BTUC and will be introduced by its director Colin Thomas.

Trades Union Now

Sheila Caffrey will talk about some of the picket lines and broader campaigns seen in Bristol in the last couple of years, and some of the bigger protests and how these have also affected the mood e.g. Black Lives Matter and COP-26, and the role Trades Unions have (or could have!) played in these. Sheila Caffrey is an active trade unionist in Bristol. She first got involved with Bristol Trades Council 15 years ago, after becoming a teacher and a campaigner in the National Union of Teachers […]

Red Notes Choir

Catch Bristol’s wonderful Red Notes Choir, who will support the Bristol Radical History Festival by performing at 11:30am. They’ll be singing in the Ground Floor Foyer by the M Shed main entrance. The Red Notes Choir is a Bristol-based socialist choir. They have a repertoire of songs from around the world on historical, union, peace, green and human rights themes. “We use the streets of Bristol and further afield to spread our message of fighting for the rights of working people, those who are […]

Labour Revolt in Britain 1910-14

The ‘Labour Revolt’ that swept Britain between 1910-14 was one of the most sustained, dramatic and violent explosions of industrial militancy and social conflict the country has ever experienced. It involved large-scale strikes by miners, seamen, dockers, railway workers and many others, and was dominated by unskilled and semi-skilled workers, many acting independently of trade-union officials. Amidst this powerful grassroots energy, the country saw widespread solidarity action, […]

Hilda Cashmore plaque unveiling

By Randell Brantley

The unveiling of a blue plaque to Hilda Cashmore, the first warden of Bristol's Barton Hill Settlement, took place at noon on 8 March, 2023 (International Women's Day). A Quaker, feminist, social reformer and educator, whose work led to her election as the first woman president of the British Association of Residential Settlements, Cashmore was one of a number of influential women social reformers in early twentieth-century Bristol. After the unveiling, Helen Meller, author of the BRHG book […]

‘William Morris’ returns and Alfred Stevens discovered

Art and Labour William Morris (1834-1896) was, and is, one of England’s most famous nineteenth-century socialists. On the 3rd March 1885, the famous Victorian designer came to Bristol to deliver a talk on “Art and Labour,” at the Museum and Art Gallery. Addressed particularly to the workers of the city, the event was sponsored by the Bristol Branch of the Socialist League. His words as an artist and thinker could not have been more relevant at a time when the British Empire was on the ascendent, […]

Painted out of History – Ellen and Rolinda Sharples

Hazel Gower in conversation with Leigh Thomas

Mother and daughter artists Ellen and Rolinda Sharples lived through turbulent times on both sides of the Atlantic during the Georgian era. For a woman to become a professional artist was a radical act, for a blacksmith’s daughter like Ellen it is unique in the history of art. They sailed from Bristol to America, part of a wave of emigrants seeking opportunity in the Land of the Free. Ellen survived capture at sea and painted some of the most significant people of the time including the first […]