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.  

Thanks to all the pub quiz teams who participated in the 2025 quiz at the Eldon House pub. Most teams did well on the picture, sport, ‘better known as’ and music rounds. Quite a few participants found the Bristol blue plaque and fashion rounds more challenging. Rob recognises that perhaps the history music round should move beyond the 1970s. A few folk need to differentiate between their panniers, crinolines and bustles. A lively start to 2025.

It’s not too late to join our pub quiz on Wednesday 29th January at the Eldon House pub in Clifton. If you don’t have a team we have several teams with spaces.

Contact Rob at robpritchard1957@gmail.com

I would like to bring it to the attention of the Bristol Historical Association members that John Williams, Bristol City Archivist 1988 – 2012, died suddenly at home on 27 Dec.

John provided great support to the Branch’s members and authors during his time as City Archivist and I’m sure that there must still be those who remember him and would want to know the sad news.

His funeral is on Thursday 30th January at 2.15pm at Coychurch Crematorium Bridgend CF35 6AB with tea afterwards at Heronston Hotel CF35 5AW.

Donations can be made to ……………………

http://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/in-memory-of-john-williams

Kind regards

Richard Burley

(former Archives Manager, Bristol Record office)

‘The History of the Present’

15^th January 2025

A very well attended lecture (79) heard Martin Conway present the arguments on why 25 years into the 21^st century historians should re-examine the perspectives from which they examine the previous century.  The historians in 1960s and ‘70s came from a specific starting point. A liberal and democratic Europe had emerged out of the darkness of Nazism, the war and holocaust, mass violence and retribution.  Scholars of this generation were supported to explore the archives, presenting the case that Western Europe should not return to the chaos of the 1920s and darkness of the 1930s and ‘40s.  This version of history was written by a population of white, male historians as he cited the work of Tony Judd.  Other areas of European history were often ignored, in particular imperialism and racial diversity.  The arrival of new populations in Europe in the 1950s and ‘60s was largely overlooked while the success of Western Liberal Democracy downplayed the shortcomings of Federal Germany.  The model of a Europe working together towards a united Europe was seen as the narrative that few living in 2025 would recognise. European unity was more like a rubber band close to snapping. 

Professor Conway went on to explore the three factors that contributed to this. First the changed shape of Europe after 1989 with a return to the real centre of Europe not based on a small Western Europe but a Europe more like that of 1848.  In addition, the relevance of the border lands of the southern Mediterranean, the Middle East including Palestine and the war in Syria.  At present there are six states waiting to enter the EU.

The second factor was how the actions of governments were viewed by citizens.  While perhaps 95% of historians had voted against Brexit many voters now saw themselves as consumers who no longer bought the solutions that governments in Europe, especially Brussels provided. Instead, politicians appealed to winners and losers or so-called ‘real people.’  While historians did not want to return to the 1920s and ‘30s politicians were not taking history so seriously and were moving to new forms of democracy. There were real problems regarding employment and housing and insecurity about perceived problems like criminality.  Populist politicians were talking about these issues while historians, not able to find the archives for these issues in a digital age were not paying them enough attention. 

The final factor Professor Conway discussed was the issue of an inclusive democracy.  While the liberal historians of the 1960s and ‘70s were proud of the success of democracy, now they believed the people have gone wrong.  Professor Conway argued historians are not listening to a new type of democracy because it did not fit their values and so losing touch with reality.  They need to square up to the present and look at its positive aspects.  Those who live in academia need to see that the wider world has real problems that do not exist in their experiences.  They must listen to the voices of ‘cab drivers’ rather than dismiss things as ‘not as bad as that.’ This was why historians must move on to the perspective of the present to improve their understanding of the modern European of the twenty first century. 

This thought-provoking lecture prompted some very informed questions from our audience which included several academics from the university.  Having covered a range of points it was only with effort that our secretary managed to wind up the meeting before 9pm.

11^th December 2024

After a seasonal treat of mince pies and wine the final Bristol HA lecture of 2024 began with almost a hundred in the audience.  Professor Hutton was on splendid form as he laid forth his History of Christmas in three elegant parts.  Firstly, he established the typical views and customs of Christmas that most British historians had believed existed in the 1970s.  The Christmas Carol, the yule log, the Christmas Card for example and how historians including himself now believed these midwinter customs had actually developed. He explained the need for a mid-winter festival of presents, lights and feasting as essential for surviving the bleak mid-winter across Europe and beyond.  The Christmas Carol had actually begun as a 13^th century dance and while the dance had died out the music continued.  He traced the origins of mistletoe and holly for decoration.  Servants had initiated the custom of kissing under the mistletoe only to be copied by their employers.  The merging of Santa Claus with the longer established Father Christmas and the giving of presents to children were also explored. He got his audience involved as he recited Clement Clark Moore’s The Night before Christmas. The undoubted influence of German customs and especially Prince Albert and Queen Victoria’s erection of a Christmas Tree were also brought into the picture.

One of the key themes was the element of misrule with servants and peasants entertaining the more powerful with customs such as the Boy Bishop, wassailing, men dressing up as women and the association of antlers and reindeer with Christmas.  The final third of the lecture was the most dramatic, exploring the ancient part of Christmas customs going back to pre-Christian and pagan traditions.  He also demonstrated that within thirty years of the establishment of the 25^th December as the date of Christmas St Gregory was already complaining in 381 AD that the true meaning of Christmas was being lost by excessive feasting and partying.  He ended by tracking backwards from the shopping malls of our own times, through the period of Victorian Christmas customs to the mysterious Christmas traditions of the previous two millennia. The Bristol HA audience responded with lively questions including the links to pantomime and the role of Coca Cola in establishing Santa’s appearance in red.    

Wednesday 20th November 2024

On a very cold frosty night Professor of African History Dr Kate Skinner gave us a fascinating lecture on the treatment of widows in postcolonial Ghana.  She began by putting the hundreds of millions of widows worldwide into context.  Their image as an invisible group often increased by war and conflict was challenged by the Ghanian experience.  

Ghana, formerly the British Colony of Gold Coast from 1874-1957 has not had the wars or interstate conflict of its neighbours.  Today the age of marriage is increasing due to female education, narrowing the age gap between husbands and wives, while the size of families remains twice that of Europe.  A key difference from the image of widows as invisible victims was the portrayal of Ghanian widows in popular culture.  Among Ghana’s younger population older widows were often depicted as witches and driven out of villages but due to the country’s tradition of polygyny there were also young widows with small children.  As a result, there were often complex inheritance disputes when husbands died.  The British had attempted to resolve this by creating an Ordinance Marriage in 1884 but most Ghanaians had stuck to their polygyny traditions.  After chiefs and elders District Commissioners could be appealed to settle inheritance disputes despite their lack of legal qualifications.  Over time rich Ghanaians sent their sons to London to study for the bar. These returned to run Ghana’s postcolonial legal system.

Widows, including first wives were never entitled to their husband’s estate unless he left a will and they and their children were only entitled to a share of the estate with most passing back to the husband’s family.  Professor Skinner’s research of legal cases produced snapshots over time of how wealth was accumulated by men and women.  She was particularly looking at widows’ ‘rage’ rather than the invisible victim notion of widowhood. 

Using two cases where men had died intestate and their widows had taken on their in-laws in the courts she showed how Ghanian widows had shown their power and persistence. In one case the hard work of the widow in running three cocoa farms (linked to the UK chocolate industry) gave her a significant state in the inheritance. One of these cases had led to the 1965 Children’s Maintenance Act (Act 297). 

The questions from our audience also looked at the position of younger widows including child brides who still had little provision or protection compared with the first wife. The lecture raised some links to the situation of women and their families in other cultures and how many people in the audience had made a will themselves.  A lively and very relevant lecture ended at 8.50pm.

Friday 25th April 2025 1pm – 4.30pm

As a follow up to our successful Russia Conference the Bristol Branch is hosting a Sixth Form Conference on African Kingdoms from 1pm- 4.30pm  Friday 25th April 2025 as this an increasingly popular topic and Bristol Schools are leading the way. We are again being supported by the History and Education departments at Bristol University.

The speakers will be Professor Toby Green King’s College London

Professor Kate Skinner of Bristol University

Dr Jose Lingua Nafafe of Bristol University

Dr Esteban Salas of SOAS

The aim will be to support A level students and teachers doing the OCR’s African Kingdoms at  A level. The event is free to all students and their teachers and more details will be on the Bristol HA website soon. Branch members will also be very welcome.

If you are interested please contact MARY FEERICK