Alan Clarke gave an excellent talk to members on the Bristol Temperance movement. He covered why it had arisen, how the various organisations in Bristol grew, the footprint they had left on the city’s built environment and the politics behind the movement. Starting off with Hogarth’s vivid depiction of the gin craze versus healthy beer he went on to illustrate how temperance behaviour moved on to a movement of for total abstinence (tee-total) by the 1830’s. As cities grew and thousands of working class people poured out of the pubs each night there arose a desire for self-improvement combined with Evangelicalism as an alternative.  

Beer Shops grew up which bypassed the JPs and the licensing laws in the 1830’s. Bristol as a city full of breweries, pubs and a long established wine trade developed a temperance movement to counteract this.  Alan’s impressive research of street directories showed us the many branches of the Temperance Movement that evolved in the city and some of their leaders like Robert Charleston and JG Thornton.

The opening of Temperance Halls, Coffee Houses and Temperance Hotels as an alternative to pubs had left its footprint on the city.  Alan had built up impressive maps of where these establishments had once existed. Many of the Temperance Hotels were close to the train station.

The Coffee Taverns were very much in the South and East of the City and much less in the North where the middle classes lived.  Other signs of this temperance past were the drinking fountains around the city.  The activities of the Temperance Movement included social outings and even football teams.

The political side of the temperance movement was fascinating.  The Liberals were clearly damaged by their association with the idea of total prohibition. The Temperance Movement also left historians a picture of the drinking habits of Bristolians by counting the number of men, women and children leaving pubs across the city on a single night in 1881.  Alan crammed an impressive amount of scholarship into his short lecture but for those wanting to know more there is pamphlet on sale from the ALHA.

BCfm Radio is offering paid commissions of £500 to local audio creatives and producers to develop work to celebrate the under-represented history of Bristol and surrounding areas.

In partnership with Bristol Cable, Bristol History Podcast and In The Dark, we seek to commission 5 local-based practitioners working in the areas of sound, radio, and podcasts to produce a short audio piece or documentary on an under-represented aspect of Bristol history.

Each practitioner will be asked to create a 15 minute audio piece or documentary which will be broadcast on BCfm and made available on podcast platforms through The Bristol Cable and Bristol History Podcast, and also to create a 5 minute version for an In The Dark sound event with a live audience.

Content: The audio piece or documentary must inform, educate and entertain listeners on an under-represented aspect of Bristol’s history, such as Women, Working Class, People of Colour, LGBTQ+, Disabled, a distinct Culture, Religion or Language, and Intersectionality.

We are particularly keen on pieces with strong Bristolian and West Country accents.

There is no standard style or format. We expect work that is unique and creative, that feels contemporary rather than historical and that work responds to theme in a modern context.

Practitioners will be paid a commissioning fee of £500. Additionally, up to £30 will be available for expenses. Practitioners will be paid on a freelance self-employed basis and will be responsible for their own tax and National Insurance.

Paid Commissions for Sound Artists and Producers

We are delighted to announce that we have booked the ‘Matthew’ for a Midsummer historical cruise around Bristol harbour with a fish and chip supper on Wednesday 21st June from 5pm until 7pm. There are vegan and vegetarian options. We hope to provide an historical guide.

There are 40 places. It should cost £35 per person but we have decided to subsidise the trip and so the cost will be £30 per person. If you choose not to eat ‘supper’ you can pay £20

We regard this trip as a reward for our loyal members and their friends. We have had to pay a non refundable deposit to the ‘Matthew’ and so are banking on a full ship.

If you would like to go please:

1. Give Rob the names of passengers. He will keep a list.

2. Pay £30 per person (£20 if you do not require ‘supper’) to ‘Bristol Historical Association‘ sort code: 60 02 38. Account number: 72628723. Please put your name on the transfer.

Rob Pritchard

You may be interested (or know someone else who is) in an MA in Medieval Studies at the University of Bristol.

Here are the details.

Information about the programme: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/2023/arts/ma-medieval-studies/

Download the official Medieval Studies Open Day video

Some recent press coverage about the programme: https://artsmatter.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2021/09/17/bristols-ma-medieval-studies/ and https://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/news/from-the-classroom-to-the-archive/

For further information, contact Dr Benjamin Pohl (benjamin.pohl@bristol.ac.uk) 

Mary Feerick.

Wednesday 8^th February 2023.

In the 1970s the Daily Mirror was the best selling newspaper in Europe. Mary’s talk showed how the newspaper’s ‘shopping clock’ influenced politicians in Conservative and Labour governments at a time of rising inflation. Until recently historians tended to focus on the effect of inflation on the middle classes. Mary showed how working class women were regarded as ‘housewives’ even though c58% of them went out to work. The shopping clock was used by workers in their negotiations with employers. Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and even Margaret Thatcher were obliged to respond to the impact of inflation on voters, particularly women voters. Ministers such as Shirley Williams and Roy Hattersley were tasked with dealing with rising prices. Mary’s research has some interesting things to say about peoples’ shopping and eating habits. The talk was incredibly thorough and served to challenge many long held views on the 1970s.  

On Wednesday night 49 members of the Bristol Branch of the HA turned up for David Edgerton’s myth busting lecture.  There was a little nail biting when his train was delayed but it was well worth the short delay.  His thesis that the UK was exceptional in 1900 but had ceased to be by 1945 and had become a normal European country before we entered the EEC in the 1970’s was skillfully developed.  A free trading Imperial Britain had imported a third of all its food and especially its meat and wheat in the 19^th century with large flour mills at every dock and chilled meat shipped from as far as Argentina.  We were also one of the largest exporters of energy with coal providing Lisbon’s Gas and fueling Argentina’s and Egypt’s railways. Our agricultural population had shrunk while our Empire had grown.  However, we still did more trade with Europe and the great British breakfast was made up of Danish bacon and Dutch eggs.  We were never just an Imperial economy.Another well established myth that “Britain stood alone in 1940” was challenged having only begun to be established in 1945 and become a commonplace by 1960’s. The role of the Commonwealth and Imperial countries in 1940 was key.  The Labour party not the Conservative party were presented as the great nationalist party by examining their manifesto of 1945 and their key policies.  Nationalised industries were presented as part of this economic nationalism.  In a very timely way Professor Edgerton looked at how the monarchy was redefined in 1952 with separate monarchies for Canada, Australia, and other Commonwealth countries.  The transformation of UK agriculture from underdeveloped to self-sufficient between 1945 and 1970’s with the use of fertilisers and chemical pesticides led to the disappearance of the cargo ships carrying fresh beef from Argentina and other countries.  We were now self sufficient in wheat and meat so the Edwardian free trading docks were being wound down long before containerization.  The Britain Mrs Thatcher took control of in 1979 was not on its knees.  It had a modernized infrastructure (motorways, railways) an efficient Post Office and telephone system, a strong network of power stations, a modern housing stock including council housing.  The success story of “Thatcherism” was critiqued as a government not investing but sweating the economy.  Rates of growth were higher from 1945-73 compared with the 1980’s to 2000 and the inequality gap had fallen both in terms of income and regions in this post war period. Britain had become another European power not a weird exception. The contemporary arguments about Brexit versus Remain were an obvious conclusion to this excellent lecture.  Not unsurprisingly the questions came thick and fast from our audience and Professor Edgerton felt much of our present-day political system would need to change to recognize the needs of the younger generation. We must look to the see how much we had in common with other European countries who faced many of the same issues. A very thought provoking and lively meeting. 

The Bristol Historical Association pub quiz was a tremendous success. Forty four contestants divided into nine teams took part. There were a good many students, teachers and a sprinkling of veteran historians. They answered questions on art history, inventions, quotations, battles, Bristol, women in history and Sally’s music round. The winners were ‘The Original Blotto Von Bismarck’ with 82 points. They were closely followed by the ‘Umpires of Light’ with 79 points and the ‘Ridgeway Runners’ with 69.5 points. Thank you to the Eldon House for hosting us.

ZOOM lecture. Wednesday 18^th January. 2023.

On a very cold night the Bristol HA had their only Zoom lecture so far this season with an audience of 56.  Miri Rubin of Queen Mary University London addressed the lives of Women in Medieval Society.  Ranging over centuries and North and Southern Europe she brought out three main strands; marriage, work, and religion. Whilst acknowledging the wide differences between regions and kingdoms of different peoples, she pulled together some fascinating common strands.  She began with the early pioneers of this topic such as Eileen Power and Natalie Zemon Davies (The Return of Martin Guerre), how to study women and the need to find the evidence and sources for most women rather than the exceptional minority.  Patriarchy was she argued always a useful term.  Both Bible interpretations and the ideas of the Four Humours had supported this system but she also argued that Christian marriage with its emphasis on marriage for life and as an act of free will gave a different structure to European marriage.  In the world of labour women were shown as workers in textiles (especially silk), heavy agricultural work, brewing and even as members of Guilds.  The special status of widows of craftsmen were examined.  In family life the different views of male historians Phillipe Aries and Lawrence Stone that saw childhood as a later invention were set against the pioneering work of Shulamith Shakar which had examined the evidence in family for genuine grief for the death of children and the wide range of emotions of parents rather than the detached parenthood that the earlier male historian had argued for.  Tuscan cities with evidence from a detailed 15^th century Florentine census gave evidence for women living lives as “singletons” and as in modern day cities a population where women outnumbered men.  Religion in parishes, nunneries and through personal devotion was another aspect of female life.  The role of female saints and Mary as role models for women was illustrated with some spectacular art work.  The holy family’s importance with both Mary and Joseph as the “social father” was discussed including a brilliant carving of St Joseph washing nappies and another of both parents at their work while Jesus was in a baby walker made parallels to modern day experiences. 

Art work by artists such as Giotto, Massacio and Van Eyck and by Flemish and German carvers were used as evidence.  The lecture was then followed by well informed questions from members and Miri invited expert contributions from Ronald Hutton on how the Reformation changed the position of women. Thanks to everyone who joined for a fascinating lecture. 

Last Wednesday 14 students from 11 different sixth forms took part in the Bristol heat of the Great Debate.  Our largest number of contestants ever.  Our judges were Adam Vaitilingam KC, Claire Deering and Dr James Watts from the University History Department. The topic was “Why does History matter to me?”  The contestants came from a range of local sixth forms plus two schools which had travelled from as far as Cheltenham and Bourton on the Water on a dark and stormy night.  

The students all gave interesting and articulate presentations on the topic and answered the judges’ questions thoughtfully.  Many contestants related to the question back to their own families in particular grandparents and how this had made them first interested in History these included links to the partition of India and the Troubles in Ireland.   Others reflected on what they had learnt from the History of Medicine or events in the Twentieth Century in the wider world which they felt were still not understood well enough in Western Europe. A very witty presentation by Ella Ferris explained how she had looked for reassurance in our recent political upheavals by studying the reign of Roman Emperors.  Orla McMahon after a three and half hour journey from the flooded Cotswolds gave us some excellent thoughts on the local History of her area going back its Roman British heritage.  Our runner up Molly Fleming from Bristol Grammar School gave a very well researched presentation on the need for continued Holocaust History.  Our winner Catherine Saunders explained how her interest in History had been sparked by a balloon debate. She had researched Katherine Johnson, the black American mathematician contribution to the space programme which had once been written out of American History.  Catherine’s commitment to History was about finding out about these hidden figures and she introduced us to the concept of the Matilda effect where the bias against women in science has hidden the achievements of women like Rosalind Franklin and deprived several more of the Nobel prize.  Catherine was chosen as a worthy winner and presented with her certificate by our judges.  She will go on to the national final at Windsor Castle on Saturday 25^th March 2023. Good luck Catherine and well done to all our contestants, Joe Hendy (Yate) Tianna Biddick (St Brendan’s) Orla Mahon and Maya Samuel (Cotswold School), Imogen Lee and Maddie Chan (Cheltenham Ladies College), Molly Fleming (Bristol Grammar School) Ellie Gooch and Lily Wiltshire (Churchill Academy) Saifullah Ahmed (Redland Green School), Ella Ferris and Niamh West (Clifton College), Catherine Saunders (Redmaids High School) and Alice Li (Badminton School). 

Finally, a big thanks to all the teachers who prepared these students for the competition and who supported them on the night and to all their parents and friends who also came along to support them as well.