News Feed - Bristol Radical History Group

They inspired us #1 – past tense – The Southwark Pudding Wonder

Excellent flyer produced by one of our progenitors, past tense (and still going strong), who helped inspire Bristol Radical History Group to form in 2006.

Gafael Tir – A history of land rights and protest in Wales

Gafael Tir, the Welsh sister show to the popular Three Acres and a Cow, is presented in collaboration with Bristol Radical History Group. The show explores the history of ‘y werin’ (the Welsh common folk) and their struggle for a better life. Their tales are told and old ballads sung as we meet kings, crossdressing farmers, radical preachers, land workers and unions; a thousand years of history. Drawing on Welsh folk arts, the show touches on politics, human rights, freedom of thought and […]

Miscellaneous 2026

Thursday 1st January to Thursday 31st December, 2026

The Centenary of the 1926 General Strike

May 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the nine day ‘General Strike’. This solidarity action was an attempt by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to prevent wage reductions and increasingly bad working conditions for 1.2 million coal miners who had already been locked-out by their employers. Around 1.7 million workers, mainly in transport and heavy industry, responded and the country was confronted with explicit class war. “I will not see the strikers’ own food left to rot!” Chris Bowkett from the […]

Coal Not Dole Exhibition

Bristol Miners' Support Campaign Archive

Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) are putting an exhibition dedicated to the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike on display at Bristol Archives over February. The exhibition celebrates the work of the Bristol Miners’ Support Campaign during the year long dispute. Over the last eighteen months BRHG has sponsored a project to collect and preserve documents and other materials from the campaign, one of many around the country that aimed to support the communities that were at the forefront of the strike. It […]

Bristol Radical History Festival 2026

Saturday 25th April to Sunday 26th April, 2026

The Bristol Radical History Festival returns this Spring for its eighth edition, with history talks, panel discussions, films, history walks, performance and exhibitions. There will also be space devoted to stalls, where you can stock up on history pamphlets, books and more, from over 30 publishers and distributors. The festival is held over two days at two main venues: Saturday 25th April at Bristol's social history museum on the city’s historic harbourside, M Shed; and, Sunday 26th April at […]

Measles and influenza – a lesson from history…

Epidemics in Eastville Workhouse 1895-1914

By Roger Ball

Finding epidemics During the collation of Eastville Workhouse death register data for the years 1895 to 1914, the researchers noted some unusual clusters of deaths, particularly amongst the young. In a similar manner to our survey in the Victorian period (1851-1895) a simple method was developed for determining possible epidemics of fatal diseases amongst the inmates. In order to remove the effect of seasonal variations in death data and the increasing numbers of inmates in the workhouse over […]

Press releases: Standing up for the forgotten & Pauper burials

By Roger Ball, Mike Jempson

The following two press releases have been released this week (07 December 2025) and can be downloaded in pdf format here: Press release 1: Bristol Press release 2: National Press release 1: Bristol Pauper burials in private and public cemeteries in Bristol New research – Ridgeway Park, Greenbank and Arnos Vale In 2015, to great public interest, Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) released details of more than 4,000 paupers who had been buried in unmarked graves in Rosemary Green, […]

John Williams: The Making of a Miners’ Agent

John Williams was born in 1888 in Kenfig Hill and started work at the International Colliery in the Garw Valley at the age of thirteen. In 1922, Williams was selected for the paid post of agent for the Forest of Dean Miners Association (FDMA), which was the trade union representing Forest of Dean miners. Williams remained committed to representing the Forest miners until his retirement in 1953 and lived in the Forest from 1922 until he died in 1968. The social, political and industrial movements […]

What lies beneath?

Unmarked burials in private and municipal cemeteries in the Victorian and Edwardian periods

By Roger Ball

Introduction In 2015 Eastville Workhouse Memorial Group (EWMG) released the death records of more than 4,000 inmates of Eastville Workhouse. These were paupers who were buried over the period 1851-1895 in a piece of waste ground adjacent to the institution at 100 Fishponds Road, Eastville, known today as Rosemary Green. The massive public response to the release information about these ‘lost Bristolians’ spurred EWMG and the local community of East Park estate to raise money for two memorials […]