The next Bristol Radical History Festival will be on Saturday 20th April, from 10am-4.30pm. Once again our partners at M Shed will host us, for what will be our 6th Festival, at the museum on the city’s historic harbourside that tells the story of Bristol and its unique place in the world. We warmly invite you to join us at this popular and free event. So put the date in your diary now! Then tell your friends, fellow workers & communities, comrades and networks. Our festival organising team […]
History is important, people are important and individuals are important. When people pass, we have moments of instant memorialisation, the obituaries are written, and then often we forget, or the memory of that person passes into the background as the noise and bustle of life continues. We can forget the impact, the power, the energy and the force that people can wield with their creative endeavours. Mark Stewart is someone we must never forget, but also one whose impact and legacy are all […]
Downs row – Merchants hit back over criticism
In a report in the Bristol Post of Wednesday 26 January 2022, the Society of Merchant Venturers [SMVs] hit back at critics who want them to give up their half of the Downs and their role in managing the public common. The article, Downs row – Merchants hit back over criticism, was based upon the outcome of a meeting of the Downs Committee that was held on Monday 24th Jan, where campaigners in the ‘Downs for People’ [DfP] pressure group, backed by a Green councillor, demanded that the ancient […]
Not A BRHG Event
Stephen E. Hunt of Bristol Radical History Group will be presenting an online tour, based on the Bristol Radical History Group publication Angela Carter's Provincial Bohemia': The Counterculture in 1960s and 1970s Bristol and Bath. This event is part of Being Human 2020, the national festival of the humanities. Angela Carter was one of the late 20th century’s most acclaimed novelists and came of age as a writer in 1960s Clifton, where she experienced life in post-war Bristol, looking at a […]
It is with great sadness that we heard of the death of Mike Baker on 12th March 2020 at the BRI. I first met Mike Baker around twenty years ago when he was leading a local history walk around Easton with fellow historian Jim McNeil. Mike and Jim were leading members of the excellent local history group Living Easton and they had been asked to host a group of young German trade unionists who were visiting the Easton Cowboys and Girls Sports Club. Afterwards in The Plough, the Cowboys HQ, Mike […]
Prof. Steve Poole (UWE Bristol) will give an overview of the Recovering the Regional Radical Press in Britain 1968-88 project, highlighting the publications in the exhibition on Level 2. "From the late sixties to the mid-eighties, small, co-operatively produced local and neighbourhood papers played an important role in grassroots radical politics across the British Isles. Some achieved passing prominence with occasional news scoops, but most are unremembered now and their history is overlooked. […]
Prof. Steve Poole (UWE Bristol) will give an overview of the Recovering the Regional Radical Press in Britain 1968-88 project, highlighting the publications in the exhibition on Level 2. "From the late sixties to the mid-eighties, small, co-operatively produced local and neighbourhood papers played an important role in grassroots radical politics across the British Isles. Some achieved passing prominence with occasional news scoops, but most are unremembered now and their history is overlooked. […]
Videos from Bristol Radical History Festival 2018
These videos are from Bristol Radical History Festival 2018, held at M Shed on Sunday 6th May, 2018. Strikes, equal pay and workers’ control: the workplace in ’68 Women, politics and protest Feminist perspectives on ‘68 What I remember... memories of 1968 The Bristol Sit in Student protest and occupation in 1968 Pressure Drop What did the protests of ’68 achieve From Festival to Carnival 50 Years of St Paul’s
As the second Bristol Radical History Festival rapidly approaches, it is also worth doing a shout out for several other 1968 events happening in the coming weeks. Remember-Discover-Research-Critique-Celebrate-Commemorate-Repeat and Exceed the <événements> of May 1968! Here’s a quick round-up, but there will be others. National and international events (Tuesday 1st May 2018 onwards) Film screenings: ‘1968 Festival. A festival inspired by ‘1968’ and organised by the Radical Film […]
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Jayne Dentith on 5th July. Jayne was one of the Red Hot Frilly Kickers Can Can troupe who literally kicked off the first ever Bristol Radical History Group event in October 2006. The Frilly Kickers played the role of the ranting women who with radical Quaker preacher James Nayler blasphemously recreated Christ's entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in Bristol in 1656. Jane is shown below protecting James Nayler (Ben) from arrest by […]
