Last Thursday (3rd July) Mary Feerick did a talk to the Trinity Community Services Lunch Club entitled ‘Bristol Wives and Girls in the 1970s’

Over the past few years Mary and Rob have been out to talk to lunch clubs and local history groups including…

Trinity Lunch Club, The Corner Club, Bristol and Avon Family History Society, Knowle and Totterdown Local History Society, Bristol Foster Carers (Speedwell), Bristol Civic Society, Clifton Rotary Club and the Vintage and Classic Motorcycle Club.

More details of the talks we do are on our website. We do not charge for these events.

Wednesday 25th June 2025

60 Bristol sixth formers attended our pizza fuelled history quiz in the Reception Room of the Wills Memorial Building. A big thankyou to the history teachers who encouraged their students to take part. There were 15 teams from six schools. After eight rounds a team from St Mary Redcliffe came first.

Our last lecture was on 11th June.

The John Penny Bristol Blitz Diary is the last word on this subject. No other British city has such a detailed diary for the events of 1940-44. It is now available on our website.

Our penultimate lecture this year focused on Nikita Khrushchev the leader of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union.  The lecture began with a lively focus on the film The Death of Stalin (2017).  Stalin had left no instructions for what would happen after his death and after a power struggle Khrushchev emerged as the leader.  Daria covered the release of prisoners from the Gulag, his ‘secret speech,’ the reforms he introduced often referred to as The Thaw, the regional autonomy that emerged and the progress of the Cold War.  The extent of the Gulag was revealed not only by the numbers imprisoned but the massive network of camps.  The contradictions of the Secret Speech given to a party who knew only too well what they had been involved in were illustrated by how Khrushchev tackled the question of why he had not spoken out, when none of the others in the party congress had either.  Daria showed how this speech affected those in the Eastern Block.  She examined the economic reforms including the low cost housing ‘Khruschevski’, the import of food but also the failure of the Virgin Lands reforms.  The picture that emerged of Khrushchev was of two steps forward, one step back reformer.  A key insight was the emphasis on regional autonomy which in the long term would be a major factor in the fall of the USSR.  This regional autonomy would lead to 300,000 Ukrainians forming a human chain stretching 482 km (300 mi) from Kyiv to Lviv in 1990. The lecture linked the fall of USSR to the limits of Khrushchev’s reforms but also the key question of why the USSR fell but Communist China has survived.  It was followed by a very informed Q&A session which included a strong discussion of how the celebrations of the Great Patriotic War were not a feature of either the Stalin post-war era or Khrushchev’s unlike that of Brezhnev or Putin.  Our audience of 54 included 16 local sixth formers from 4 schools and nine guests who we hope will become members next year.

Designs4Change competition. 

Together Curiosity Un(Ltd) and Bauer Media Outdoor are looking to select 10 winners whose work will feature across a national network of digital screens for 6 weeks from August 14th until September 30th. Celebrating 60 years of the Race Relations Act 1965, millions will see the winners’ work at bus stops, shopping malls and train stations across the country. The ten winners will share in a prize with a media space valued at £100k+ as well as other prizes. 

If you know of any emerging or established artists who are 18+ who doodle, draw or design then we need your help to amplify this amazing opportunity across your networks in the following ways:

• Write a news feature or blog 
• Include a short story in your external or internal newsletter (copy can be found in the social toolkit)
• Connect with us if you have any other ideas

Words4Change

For aspiring wordsmiths, we’ve launched Words4Change. Inspired by the iconic I Have A Dream speech by Martin Luther King, this competition is looking for 3 poets to proudly celebrate equality, justice and inclusion.  Words4Change is powered by The Diverse Artist Network, Quartet and Curiosity Un(Ltd). To submit your poem goto www.CuriosityUnLtd.com. The competition closes at midnight September 12th. T&Cs apply. Goodluck! 

Finally, if you’re a corporate, civic or community changemaker we invite you to make a PLEDGE to join our audacious and historic bid to bring Martin Luther King III (son of MLK) to the UK. Celebrating the Race Relations Act 60 years to the day it became law, this major finale event will take place in November at the prestigious Wills Memorial Building in Bristol. We invite you to be part of this historic opportunity as a sponsor, funder, co-creator, amplifier or volunteer. PLEDGE and you’ll be joining a growing movement bidding to bring MLK III to the UK. For your inspiration you can check out what MLK III has to say about coming to the UK.

Last year the Bristol HA ran an A level student conference for one of the largest A level topics, Modern Russian History, with 200 students.  This time we went for one of the newest topics, African Kingdoms 1400-1800.  Working again with Bristol University and the support of the OCR’s History subject officer Richard Kerridge we got off to a flying start.  By November 2025 we had planned the afternoon conference for April 2025.  David Rawlings and Mary Feerick had recruited expert speakers including Professor Toby Green from London University and Professors Kate Spinner and Jose Lingna Nafafe from Bristol.  They aimed to lecture on the main topics of the OCR’s module; Benin, the Kongo and Dahomey. Richard Kerridge at OCR flagged up the event to sixth forms and interest was already firm before the Christmas holidays.  This enabled teachers negotiate the paperwork and logistical problems that often make visits difficult.

Bristol’s Education and History departments supported the event by supplying some of the speakers, enabling us to book a free lecture hall and providing free refreshments. David Rawlings of the Education department used the African Kingdoms Whatapp he had established.  The Bristol HA co-ordinated the external speakers, covered their expenses, dealt with applications and encouraged other teachers to use the conference for their own CPD.  Richard Kerridge came along to answer questions for OCR and the OUP sent Nicola Scarisbrick and Kate Buckley with samples of Key Stage 3 textbooks on African History. 

The support from schools and colleges was terrific.  Nine centres brought their students, 130 in all and the total attendance was 151. Most of the students were local since Bristol and the South West is one of the major areas this topic is studied. There were students from Chew Valley, Trinity Academy, St Brendan’s College, Montpelier High School, Winterstoke Hundred Academy and Saint Mary Redcliffe.  In addition, three schools, made long journeys; Belper School and Derby High School from Derbyshire and Trinity School from Croydon.  Thirteen more teachers without students came along as part of their own professional development.  The lectures were on contrasting topics. Toby Green, author of a Fist full of Shells, did a lecture on Benin and the Politics of Restitution.  Not only was it highly relevant to the teachers and students but he also gave them information of the newest digital resources available. Jose Linga Nafafe’s lecture shared his award winning research on Lourenço da Silva Mendonça, and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the 17th century. This challenged the traditional British narrative that it was Clarkson and Wilberforce who led the way in the abolition of the slave trade.  Our final speaker Professor Kate Skinner gave a very concise and enlightening lecture on how the kingdom of Dahomey was different from the other African Kingdom the students studied, including its involvement in the Slave Trade.  There was very enthusiastic feedback from teachers, students, and the lecturers.

‘I just wanted to thank you for the amazing event last week.  It was so well run and all three lectures were fascinating.  I’d love to attend any future conferences, and will also potentially bring students next time.’

‘That 150 people came and really did seem to take something away from it is just great!…

Thanks again, it was a great day’  Toby Green.

For those students and members who could not attend David Rawlings managed to film all three lectures and these should be appearing on the website soon.  Toby Green has also sent us his PowerPoint which is a real up to date resource for teachers and students.

Professor Alexandra Walsham University of Cambridge, President of the Historical Association. Wednesday 2nd April 2025.

In the space of 45 minutes Alexandra Walsham presented a fascinating overview of the treatment of ‘heretics’ and the argument that Britain evolved into a tolerant nation during the Reformation.  She began by exploring these contrasting terms including interpretations of previous generations of historians including Henry Kamen and Perez Zagorin.  Tracing back the treatment of ‘heretics’ in the 15^th century she showed how during the Tudor and Stuart periods the state stepped in to combine the crimes of heresy and religious conformism with that of treason.  While Elizabeth did not ‘make window on men’s souls’ during her reign she faced a series of plots and risings in which Catholics were hung, drawn and quartered rather than burnt as heretics. 

‘Secret Catholics’ were increasingly known as ‘Roman Catholics’ and in James’ reign fear of plots increased. In Charles I’s reign the Counter Reformation and the possibility of a Catholic royal marriage increased anxiety but there was also increased persecution of ‘Puritans.’  The Irish Rebellion of 1641 led to the fear of a Popish plot in the rest of the Kingdom. This culminated in a second reformation during the Civil War.  There was intolerance of radical sects and but also Anglicans and Catholics.  In the Restoration there was not liberal toleration but the exclusion of radical dissent and fear by some clergy of a return to ‘Popery.’ This was illustrated by the protest of a mock pope and cardinals in 1679. 

John Locke the philosopher’s ‘Letters on Toleration’ argued that persecution of different beliefs produced hypocrisy and there should be relativity and plurality of truth.  But the Glorious Revolution of 1688 did not produce this version of toleration with only toleration shown to Protestant dissenters but not to Catholics or atheists or Arians.

 Alexandra concluded her lecture by illustrating how persecution continued well into the 18^th century and the Whig myth of a tolerant Britain was far from the reality.  The scholarly lecture which covered so much ground was followed by some excellent and well informed questions that touched on issues including the persecution of witches, the treatment of those who left Britain for the colonies in order to worship more freely and how Christians described themselves. 

Lecture by Professor Simon Potter 5^th March 2025

Professor Simon Potter gave us a fascinating lecture on Wednesday about the BBC’s role in what is known as ‘soft power’ and its relationship with British Foreign Policy.  It challenged many of our preconceptions about the BBC which are based very much on what we watch and listen to in the UK.  He also looked at the view that the BBC was a safe and unbiased broadcaster.  Its development from the wireless production company the British Broadcasting Company of 1922 to its royal charter in 1927 as a public broadcaster and its links to the monarchy from 1932 were traced.

He showed how the BBC set up a relay network of radio stations all over the globe and as the empire was wound down this were increasingly located in remote locations.  In particular he looked at how the BBC evolved its World Service from an overseas broadcast for the Empire into the multilanguage broadcaster.  Also, how it developed an Arabic service in 1939 and a Portuguese and Spanish service aimed at Fascist countries in the late 1930s.  The BBC radio service’s role in wartime was riveting in particular the influence of the World Service on America and in turn the introduction of soap opera with Front line family on the advice of American broadcast experts.  During the Cold War the Foreign Office’s role in subsidising the BBC’s World Service showed the blurring of ‘soft power,’ information and propaganda.  This included paying for the BBC to record on vinyl some of its greatest radio hits like the Goon Show and Take it from Here. Something like 25% of World Service programmes were actually Foreign Office funded.  In the second half of the lecture Simon showed how the more expensive medium of television took a very different path with BBC enterprises selling flagship programmes like the Forsyte Saga and Civilisation to the USA.  Simon brought the subject right up to date with the cuts to the World Service under David Cameron and re-emergence of radio because of the internet.   The BBC’s identity as a neutral broadcaster was questioned but we were also reminded of its achievements. It’s future was queried.  Our audience shared some of their experiences of the BBC including one former employee and some lively questions were asked and answered.

12^th February 2025

Our February Bristol HA lecture was another very well attended event with 107 in the audience.  It included 44 sixth formers from 5 sixth forms as well as many members and guests. 

Dr Richard Fisher explained the context of how pre-reformation cathedrals were divided into monastic and secular types. Richard was able to clarify the differences between the deans, canons, priors, vicars and so on. He involved the audience by using a map to show where English cathedrals were sited. His research focused on how the Three Choirs Cathedrals (Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester) only 25 miles apart, differed in how they related to their communities.  He had examined maps to show how the cathedrals were sited and how the structures of the cathedrals reflected relationships with their communities.  Hereford was very much the parish Cathedral with easy public access and also a community where Catholic sympathies lasted much longer.  Mary’s restoration was easily achieved as little had changed in the building during Edward’s reign and in Elizabeth’s early reign it was described as full of ‘rank papists.’ Gloucester’s famous Cathedral on the other hand had very little contact with the people of Gloucester and was a ‘gated community’.  Archives showed that the community at Gloucester left very little to these great buildings preferring to leave money to their parish churches. Richard showed how Gloucester Cathedral was divided between the older public nave at the west end and the far richer perpendicular east end with its choir, presbytery and lady chapel. Worcester Cathedral by contrast had good relations with the people of Worcester and its symmetrical layout between its Nave and ‘retro-choir’ showed the Laity had a real stake in the Cathedral.

Richard then moved on to the creation of Bristol Cathedral which began as a Norman abbey.  It was not a corrupt abbey in the 16^th century but not a popular one either.  Again, Bristol’s citizens chose to invest in their parish churches more than the Abbey. In fact, there had been disputes between the people of Bristol and St Augustine’s Abbey for centuries. The abbey was briefly closed from 1540-41 but a new Cathedral was created in 1542, and it was refounded by Mary in 1554.  After the Reformation the partially built west end of Bristol Cathedral was taken down leaving a truncated cathedral. The west end was not rebuilt until the 1860s.  Bristol’s Cathedral was not one of the ‘plum’ Church of England dioceses with far less clergy than its Three Choirs neighbours.

There were many well-informed questions from our audience who appreciated how much they had leaned about the cathedrals of our region.