News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

100 Fishponds Rd.

Life and Death in a Victorian Workhouse

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 […]

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 […]

Eastville Workhouse Burial Ground Memorial Unveiling Ceremony

By Randell Brantley

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Eastville Workhouse Burial Ground: Memorial Unveiling Ceremony

On Rosemary Green, Eastville, BS5 6LB. 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 stone, carved by local stone mason and sculptor Matthew Billington using designs from pupils of May Park Primary School, will be erected on the disused burial ground which has remained […]

From the Young Patriots to the Rainbow Coalition

A review of ‘Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power’

Introduction The last twenty years or so have seen a wave of publications recounting and examining the history of the New Left and radical Black, Latino and Native American organisations of the 1960s and 70s in the United States. Many of these books have been concerned with the spectacular exploits of these formations, particularly the armed struggle fractions which appeared in the 1970s such as the Weather Underground, Black Liberation Army and the paramilitary sections of the American Indian […]

Escape was on Everyone’s Mind

The Tale of Jack Sheppard

The Greenbank, 57 Belle Vue Rd, Easton, BS5 6DP. Matinee Doors 3.00 pm, show 3.30 pm Evening Doors 7.00 pm, show 7.30 pm Paper Theatre by Otherstory See how an ordinary apprentice carpenter from East London became the legendary jail breaker and hero of the people, whose fame spread across oceans. Witness his daring escapes! Watch him outwit judges, jailers and the Thieftaker General - until the hangman's noose beckons and it's now or never, neck or nothing... To reserve tickets, email […]

Black Flags and Windmills

Creating power from below

When both levees and governments failed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective was created to fill the void. With the motto of 'Solidarity Not Charity', they worked to create power from below; building autonomous projects, programs, and spaces of self-sufficiency like health clinics and neighborhood assemblies, while also supporting communities defending themselves from white militias and police brutality, illegal home demolitions and […]

Eastville Workhouse Memorial

By Randell Brantley

Here are some pictures of sculptor Matthew Billington working on the memorial to mark the Eastville Workhouse burial ground on Rosemary Green. Over 4000 men, women and children were buried on the site between 1851 and 1895. The memorial, which is made from Welsh slate, will be unveiled at the end of November. Find out more about the Eastville Workhouse project.