News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

2026 International Women’s Day Celebration

BRHG will be running their book stall in the Main Hall all day and..... Lord Mayor's Reception | Workshops 14:00 – 14:45 | In Search of Her Stories: using archival records to research women’s history The Bristol Radical History Group explores how to undertake women’s history using a range of resources. The talk draws on group member Judie’s current research into Bristol’s Magdalene Homes and the control of working class women’s lives and bodies in the 19th century. If you would like pre-book any […]

Beyond The Darkness: Crimes from Another Era

By Mihran Mavian, Trans. Mike Jempson

Initially a memoir/diary of the experiences of Armenian communist,the book was first published in Armenian in 1976. It covers Mavian’s experiences between 1944 and 1947. In particular his involvement with the French Resistance, his arrest and incarceration in Compiègne prison and his incredible odyssey of horror as he was moved to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Flossenbürg concentration camps. Remarkably he survived and returned to Paris in late 1945. It is to the credit of Alice Mavian, Mavian’s […]

Abolitionist, Quaker, Sailor, Dwarf and Revolutionary – Becoming Benjamin Lay

Benjamin Lay (1682-1759) was a Quaker abolitionist (and dwarf) and one of the first people to demand the immediate emancipation of enslaved people worldwide. Scorned in his own day and since for his radicalism, he was until recently almost completely unknown among historians and the general public. Becoming Benjamin Lay, directed by Tony Buba, asks, what can Lay’s life tell us about living with courage and conviction in dark times? We are delighted to have historian and writer Marcus Rediker […]

Book Launch: Freedom Ship – The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea

Freedom Ship is a gripping history of the enslaved African Americans who stowed away on vessels that carried them to liberty. Up to 100,000 fugitives successfully fled the horrors of bondage in the American South. Many moved northwards through a network of secret routes and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Thousands of others, most of them completely unknown, escaped by sea. Their dramatic accounts of whispered conspiracy and billowing sails make Freedom Ship essential and […]

Copper, Coal and Colonizers: The Welsh in the West Country and their impact on Bristol’s past

Exploring the Welsh people and places that helped shape the city’s history, from colonists to Chartists, enslavers to abolitionists – with the odd pirate and colonial governor thrown in for good measure. A two hour walk from M Shed to the Colston stump via Welsh Back and the Llandoger Trow. Meet outside the front of M Shed.

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 2-hour walk from Kingsley Hall on Old Market Street via the centre ending at the St James Barton - Bear Pit....(and then to the Cube for a drink, samosas and […]

Red Notes Choir

Catch Bristol’s wonderful Red Notes Choir, who will support the Bristol Radical History Festival by performing at 11:20am. They’ll be singing in the Ground Floor Foyer by the M Shed main entrance. The Red Notes Choir is a Bristol-based socialist choir. They have a repertoire of songs from around the world on historical, union, peace, green and human rights themes. We use the streets of Bristol and further afield to spread our message of fighting for the rights of working people, those who are […]

War on Democracy: Loyalist Propaganda in Britain after the French Revolution

When groups advocating democratic reform in Britain grew and prospered after revolution in France in the 1790s, William Pitt’s government responded with a ruthless programme of repression. Centred on prosecutions for seditious language and High Treason, the loyalist offensive was nourished throughout by anti-gallican, anti-republican propaganda. Tom Paine was burnt in effigy the length and breadth of the country, reformers beaten up by gangs of loyalist thugs, conservative tracts widely […]

The Renaissance in the Upside-Down “Archives” World

The war on Gaza has unfolded in real time across social media, where civilians have become primary producers of historical record. Yet these platforms operate through opaque systems of moderation, algorithmic filtering, and AI governance that shape what survives and what disappears. Archivist and Librarian at the Palestine Land Studies Centre at the American University of Beirut, Ghada Dimashk will examines what happens when the traditional logic of the archive is inverted—when evidence […]

Putting Welsh history on TV

This talk with video extracts, will look at attempts to turn the complexities of Welsh history into accessible television. It will include clips from Horrible Histories, Huw Edwards’s The Story of Wales and the ground-breaking and much-loved series, The Dragon Has Two Tongues in which Wynford Vaughan Thomas and Professor Gwyn Alf Williams offered two very different versions of Welsh history. The latter series, produced and directed by Colin Thomas in 1985, was recently described by […]