News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

False Narratives

When dubious images set the political agenda

Over a 30-year period Bristol-based journalism ethics charity The MediaWise Trust challenged national newspapers over inaccurate, intrusive and unethical coverage. One method was to investigate and expose stories that distorted facts in a bid to set political agendas. The examples in this exhibition reflect just a few of the topics the Trust took on. Its Refugees Asylum-Seekers & the Media (RAM) Project (1999-2005) and the video On the Receiving End featuring exiled journalists had a […]

Aspirations of Women

Reflections from those who were schoolgirls in the South West in the early 1980s

This new exhibition uncovers valuable life stories as women from working class backgrounds reflect upon their experiences within a large comprehensive school. These marginalised voices give personal accounts which expose overarching themes and experiences, including gender discrimination and a rigid educational establishment. They also consider how the expectations imposed upon them during these years, to a degree, shaped their early adult lives. Many tell how later in life they went on to […]

Fighting Women: Interviews with veterans of the Spanish Civil War

Isabella Lorusso author of Fighting Women: Interviews with veterans of the Spanish Civil War will be speaking about her collection of interviews from the 1990s with women veterans of the fight against fascism in Spain in the 1930s. Fighting women is a choral book, a set of interviews conducted with Spanish women who took part in the civil war. Some took up arms and fought on the front, others joined the POUM, Free Women or different anarchist groups. They all fought against Francoism and for the […]

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 and produced by Professor Marcus Rediker, asks, what can Lay’s life tell us about living with courage and conviction in dark times? Book a place here. This […]

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 two-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 […]