News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

Bristol Radical History Festival 2022

Saturday 14th May, 2022

Saturday 14th May 10.00am - 4.30pm Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) have organised a full programme of events for our 2022 Radical History Festival, in collaboration with our hosts at M Shed. We have a great line up of speakers including: Colin Prescod (Chair of the Institute of Race Relations) on hidden histories of the Windrush generation Winston Trew on state surveillance of the Black Power movement in the 1960s/70s Dr Lizzie Seal (Sussex University) on the abolition of the death penalty […]

1949 Dockers’ Strike in Avonmouth

The 1949 Docks Strike was notable as an international solidarity action in support of strike action by Canadian seamen of the Canadian Seamen’s Union. Canadian employers had used scab crews (in the Seafarers’ International Union) to load ships. One of these, the SS Gulfside, had remained strike bound in Avonmouth from 1st April. A second ship, the SS Montreal City arrived with a cargo of tomatoes and bananas. As tugmen and dockers refused to work the blacked ships, the Labour Government brought […]

An Alternative History of Westbury-on-Trym Workhouse

Gilbert’s Act of 1782. ‘An act for the better relief and employment of the poor’

By Rosemary L Caldicott

In November, 2019 Louise Ryland-Epton gave an engaging talk entitled ‘By Pity and by Terror? A Contrary View of Workhouses’ at the M Shed, Bristol as part of the UWE Regional History Centre series of talks. As I had read and examined reports on shocking victimisation, neglect, exploitation and dehumanising treatment of later workhouse inmates I was intrigued to hear about an alternative, pre 1834 Poor Law Act, workhouse erected in Westbury-on-Trym. We are all familiar with the many indignant […]

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 – […]

Book Launch: Regicide or Revolution?

What Petitioners Wanted, September 1648 - February 1649

The trial and execution of Charles I in 1649 has in the past been portrayed as the outcome of a crazed 'bloodlust' for revenge by supporters of parliament. This simplistic and dubious narrative obscures more than it reveals, and what is hidden by it is quite remarkable. Norah Carlin's new book Regicide or Revolution? What Petitioners Wanted, September 1648 - February 1649 is a collection and examination of the petitions from numerous units of the New Model Army and commoners around England in […]

Bristol International Women’s Day

missing thumb

Members of Bristol Radical History Group will be running our stall at this event. Come and say 'hello!'

Bedminster War Resisters

Digital map with history walks

A map of resistance to World War 1 in Bedminster, a district of South Bristol. It shows the homes of over 40 Conscientious Objectors and others who took part in resistance to World War 1, as well as places where they worked, met and organised, and other sites of significance. The map grew out of research for Steps Against War, a history walk created by Otherstory and a group of local people, in collaboration with Remembering the Real World War 1. The project was supported by the National Lottery […]

Steps Against War

History walk about Bedminster war resisters in WW1

This is a film of Steps Against War, a history walk with puppets and song, telling the stories of Bedminster people who resisted the First World War. Bedminster, a district of South Bristol, was home to at least 40 Conscientious Objectors, and others who took part in networks of resistance. The walk was a community production led by Otherstory in collaboration with Remembering the Real World War 1, and was performed in Bedminster in April 2019. The project was supported by the National Lottery […]

Miscellaneous 2020

Wednesday 1st January to Thursday 31st December, 2020

Greece: The Hidden War Part 2

Film screening and discussion

Directed by Anthony Howard, 1989, 60min A rare chance to watch part 2 of the Channel 4 documentary series on the Greek Civil War of 1946-49 made in 1986; we screened part 1 in 2018. This documentary explores how the clash between British and US interests in Greece and the left-wing Greek Resistance against the Nazi occupation led to Civil War - and Greece becoming the first battleground of the Cold War. The liberation of Athens in 1944 was followed by a period of extreme right-wing terror […]