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Bristol Local History Book Fair

Join us for the annual Bristol Local History Book Fair. Books and pamphlets on sale from Bristol publishers, authors and societies. Browse a wide selection of local history titles and listen to free talks in the afternoon: 12.00pm – Martin Powell: the story of the world’s first test tube baby 1.30pm – Helen Thomas and Rosie Tomlinson: The Bedminster Tobacco Women project 2.30pm – Jacqueline Wadsworth: Florence, Maude, and the First World War 3.30pm – Molly Conisbee: A brief history of the […]
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Some reaction to today’s memorial unveiling

By Randell Brantley
Download the programme from the unveiling ceremony. The BBC put an article on their website: Eastville Workhouse's 'forgotten paupers' memorial unveiled. Beautiful, moving memorial this morning on Rosemary green, for 4000 men, woman & children buried in unmarked graves. pic.twitter.com/SP6jvzHK6R — Hannahbella Nel (@Hannahbellaaaa) November 16, 2015 A follow up on our story with @BrisRadHis about unmarked paupers' graves: pic.twitter.com/DeWhWHodIq — BBC Inside Out West (@InsideOutWest) […]
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100 Fishponds Rd.

Life and Death in a Victorian Workhouse

By Roger Ball, Di Parkin, Steve Mills
In 2012, radical historians poring over old maps of east Bristol discovered a disused burial ground at Rosemary Green, close to the site of Eastville Workhouse. Over the following years, a team of local researchers revealed that in the nineteenth century more than 4,000 men, women and children from the workhouse had been interred in unmarked graves. Built in 1847 as a result of the New Poor Law, Eastville Workhouse was the largest in the Bristol area housing over a thousand inmates. 100 […]
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Colston and slavery still obscured?

At last year’s Merchant Venturers Charter Day service at the cathedral the Bishop of Bristol, stated that Edward Colston had: lived a life of significance... [and there]... may be still some speculation on some of the circumstances around his business roots right here The Bishop of Bristol’s clumsy attempt to rewrite history, effectively claiming that Colston’s involvement in the business of the slave trade was ‘speculation’ is unsurprising. A similar kind of air brushing occurred during a BBC […]
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Eastville Workhouse Burial Ground Memorial Unveiling Ceremony

By Randell Brantley
Eastville Workhouse map 1880
Eastville Workhouse Burial Ground Memorial Unveiling Ceremony Rosemary Green, Eastville, BS5 6LB 11.00am Monday 16 November 2015 Download the full press release - Press Release Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group Event details. Residents of East Park Estate are to unveil a memorial to more than 4,000 men, women and children who died in Eastville’s notorious Workhouse between 1851 and 1895 and were buried in unmarked paupers’ graves in what is now Rosemary Green. A six foot Welsh slate standing […]
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Opening the archive

Eastville Workhouse burial ground

Members of the Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group have used death registers at Bristol Record Office to identify the people given pauper's burials at Rosemary Green adjacent to the site of Eastville Workhouse. They found the names of over 4,000 men, women and children buried in unmarked graves and evidence of how Poor Law Guardians kept the cost of burying inmates as low as possible. As part of Explore Your Archive week, join us at this free drop-in session to see these interesting archival […]
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Book Launch

100 Fishponds Rd: Life and death in Victorian Workhouse

In 2012 some radical historians poring over old maps of East Bristol came across a disused burial ground at Rosemary Green close to the site of Eastville Workhouse at 100 Fishponds Rd. Over the following years a team of local researchers revealed that more than 4,000 men, women and children, inmates of Eastville Workhouse, were interred in unmarked graves in Rosemary Green from 1851-1895. 100 Fishponds Rd: Life and death in Victorian Workhouse is a summary of their research and a history of […]
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