History Walk 2: Bristol – Feeding the people

On this history walk we will discover how Bristolians were fed during the early modern era (17th-19th Centuries). Hear how a rapidly expanding urban area, without the ability to feed itself, was kept supplied. How Bristol in turn helped supply the rural hinterland and its relationship with Wales and the wider world. How the market system worked, and how it was regulated, at times by the civic authorities, or by the “moral economy” and the crowd. What happened when the chain broke, and how did scarcity affect the civil peace in the city? Hear about dodgy bakers, mean forestallers, and riotous women, from the Forest of Dean, the Port of Dublin, and the Welsh Back. All had a role in the port and city of Bristol in feeding the inhabitants.