In October 1831, the refusal of the House of Lords to pass new legislation for the reform of parliament plunged the whole country into a deep political crisis. Rioting broke out in a number of towns, leaving local authorities hard pressed to restore order. One such town was Blandford Forum in Dorset. Here, protesting crowds attacked the property of anti-reformers, defied the orders of local magistrates to disperse, and fought with an armed cavalry regiment sent out to tackle them. In the […]
Not A BRHG Event
In October 1831 as reform riots shook Bristol, the authorities urgently requested the help of troops stationed in south Wales. An infantry unit marched from Cardiff to Newport with the intention of boarding a steam boat to Bristol, but their way was blocked by a hostile crowd. This book explores the background to this incident, setting it in the context of the reform crisis in Newport, Monmouthshire and other parts of south Wales in the early 1830s.
Not A BRHG Event
BRHG is pleased to support the latest Bristol Radical Bookfair on Saturday 10th December, co-ordinated by Active Distro, and hosted at the Exchange, on Old Market, BS2 0EJ. All are welcome at this free event. As Active Distro state in the FB event and Headfirst Bristol listings: We're under attack from all sides, and we need radical ideas and community more than ever. At the bookfair, you'll find new and second hand titles, kids books, novels, calendars and more from radical publishers, zine […]
“We want out” - Bristol and the British armed forces strikes of January 1919 Roger Ball The massive wave of discontent which swept through the British armed forces at the end of World War One remains a hidden history, hardly mentioned by establishment historians or regimental records. Beginning first in France and Belgium in December 1918 and then crossing to mainland Britain the following month, strikes and protests spread rapidly through the Army, Navy and even into the Flying Corps. The […]
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This talk is part of the above event at Cardiff Museum, The Old Library, The Hayes, Cardiff CF10 1BH In 2006, The Guardian newspaper ran a series of articles in a search “for the most overlooked moment in British radical history”. The 1831 ‘Bristol riot’ featured in the top ten because of its historical obscurity, somewhat surprising considering the scale of the destruction and the human cost. The reason for this obscurity is related to the pathologized characterisation of the event as the […]
This article was recently published in the excellent Chartism online magazine and is the result of a collaboration between BRHG and David Osmond, Ray Stroud, Peter Strong, Les James, historians from Newport and Cardiff. Our thanks to Les James for authoring the piece and allowing us to reproduce it. Members from the Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) brought their bookstall to the 2016 Newport Chartist Convention held at the John Frost School. Di Parkin, Roger Ball, Maureen Ball, Steve Mills […]
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After the defeat of the first reform bill in early October 1831 violent protests exploded in many British cities. The rising in Bristol was the most spectacular and suffered the harshest repression by the military. This talk considers this revolt and, using new research, solidarity actions in South Wales to aid the Bristol ‘rioters’. A workshop at Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair, Room 1, Cathays Community Centre, 36-38 Cathays Terrace, Cardiff CF24 4HX
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United Reform Church Hall, Boulevard, Waterloo St, Weston-super-Mare BS23 1LF The ‘Swing riots’ were a massive wave of protests, machine breaking, arson and extortion carried out by impoverished farm labourers and village artisans between the summers of 1830-31. Beginning in Kent the movement spread rapidly to engulf numerous counties in southern England. The uprising became known as the 'Swing riots' as the collective destruction was usually preceded by threatening letters to landowners signed […]
Taken from Bristol Past and Present by J. F. Nicholls and John Taylor, published in 1882 The Bristol bridge riots of 1793 form another blot on the escutcheon of the city. Some persons in authority appear to have blundered in their calculations, and sought to stretch an Act of Parliament so as to make it cover the error, and then, with a wrong-headedness which it is lamentable to contemplate, resorted to force in order to accomplish their end. The Act authorised the Bridge commissioners to […]
