1926 General Strike Archives - Bristol Radical History Group

General Strike Centenary Series

By Randell Brantley

To mark the centenary of the 1926 General Strike and miners’ lockout, BRHG members are involved in a project to commemorate the strike in Bristol and the surrounding area. As part of this effort, BRHG has released a series of 8 pamphlets, covering aspects of the strike in Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire. Buy The Series Of 8 Pamphlets General Strike Centenary Series #1 The Spirit There Is Magnificent: The General Strike in Bristol, May 1926 Rob Whitfield ISBN 978-1-911522-90-4 #2 Standfast […]

The Spirit There Is Magnificent

The General Strike in Bristol, May 1926

By Rob Whitfield

“All railways stopped, no papers published and trade union men … ordered to stop work” Bristol’s trade unionists were ill-prepared for a General Strike when the call came from the Trade Union Congress to support the locked-out miners. The government, however, had made extensive preparations with warships sent to the docks, troops to the electricity power station and special police constables on the streets. Nevertheless, workers pulled together with impressive resolve and energy as detailed in […]

Standfast and Solid

The 1926 General Strike in Bath and its industrial hinterland

By Trevor Turpin

A city of two halves. A century ago, Bath was, as today, popular for its Roman Baths and Georgian terraces. Although hidden from its genteel visitors, it was also an important industrial city with an extensive coal mining area in its hinterland. Unsurprisingly then, it played a prominent role in the 1926 General Strike. In Standfast and Solid, Trevor Turpin vividly tells the story of that tumultuous period when mining families were brought to near starvation and when trade unionists and many of […]

A Tale of Two Towns

Nine days in Gloucester and Stroud, May 1926

By Tony Conder, Stuart Butler

Solidarity in an urban industrial and rural agricultural landscape. In this short pamphlet, Stuart Butler and Tony Conder bring to life a turbulent nine days in Stroud, with its cloth mills and industry, and Gloucester, an important transport hub with major docks at its centre. As the Stroud Journal reported the General Strike, "At midnight on Monday the wheels of industry ... began to slow down. Trains disappeared from our local railway lines The big daily newspapers failed to appear on our […]

Bristol and the 1926 General Strike

Exhibition

The exhibition will be launched on Saturday 16 May.

The Future in our Past

Book launches, poetry and exhibition opening

Callum Cant and Matthew Lee will talk about their new book The Future in our Past: The General Strike, 1926/2026 published by Verso. Richard Devereux will read poems from his newly published collection Coal and Fire (Culture Matters). Authors of two of the new BRHG General Strike Centenary Series will launch their new pamphlets: Mike Richardson’s Class or Company Loyalty? The printing industry and events of May 1926 in Bristol. And Chris Bowkett’s Conflicts of Interest: Co-operators, trade […]

Opening Up the Archives

Bristol and the General Strike in 1926

Join the archivists and our historians in the Education Room to view original documents from the special collections. This year we will be focusing on Bristol and the General Strike in 1926.

Patriots, volunteers and scabs

The 1926 General Strike in Bristol

For nine days in 1926, the country ground to a halt as over four million workers downed tools in support of the miners. Mapping the flashpoints from the 1926 General Strike in Bristol, this behind-the-scenes walk around the city centre delves into the hidden histories from the strike, the use of propaganda and how the state fought back. A two-hour walk from Kingsley Hall on Old Market Street via the centre ending at the St James Barton – Bear Pit. Start point: Hydra Books, opposite Kingsley […]

Patriots, volunteers and scabs

The 1926 General Strike in Bristol

For nine days in 1926, the country ground to a halt as over four million workers downed tools in support of the miners. Mapping the flashpoints from the 1926 General Strike in Bristol, this behind-the-scenes walk around the city centre delves into the hidden histories from the strike, the use of propaganda and how the state fought back. A two-hour walk from Kingsley Hall on Old Market Street via the centre ending at the St James Barton – Bear Pit. Start point: Hydra Books, opposite Kingsley […]

Bristol men and women who were involved in the General Strike

By Rob Whitfield

Tens of thousands of workers in Bristol were involved in the miners’ lock-out and the General Strike. Here is a brief selection of the names of people who were involved. We would welcome additional information, and especially photographs, regarding these workers, and any other workers involved. Please send them to brh@brh.org.uk. The trade union leaders Each of the unions involved were national organisations with their own national leaders. At local level there were union organisers and the […]