Did Queen Elizabeth I lose control in the 1590’s?

Professor Hutton gave another highly popular and relevant lecture for the Bristol Historical Association with our biggest audience this year, 136 including 91 local students from ten schools. Professor Hutton tackled what has been known among Tudor historians as the “neglected nineties.” He opened by giving a clear picture of all the lasting achievements of Elizabeth that were well in place in the 1590’s, after forty years of successful rule, including a poor relief system, good relations with England’s traditional enemies and the extension of the Crown’s powers. However, he then began to chip away at our familiar picture by outlining some of problems of the decade. He argued that the deaths of many of her most reliable courtiers like Raleigh, Burghley and Leicester made her a more marginalised figure. Her weakness for “silly young men with gorgeous legs” reached its height with the worst of them of all, the Earl of Essex so “chronically stupid” he should never have been allowed a role in political life.

A rather tragic picture of an elderly queen was presented from the perspective of foreign ambassadors who commented that she was still dressing like a young woman and jealous of her ladies in waiting who were young and attractive. The court was reported as “weary of old woman’s government.” More importantly the onset of corruption and selling of offices painted a picture of government shoring up problems that the Stuarts would be faced with. Underpaid crown servants had to use corruption to pay their staff and even the upright Burghley and his son were part of this system. By the late 1590’s corruption was endemic and Edmund Spencer declared “nothing was done without a fee”. When Parliament faced Elizabeth with the problem in 1601 and a bill to deal with it, she managed to talk her way out of the situation with her customary political skill but the problem remained.
Similarly religion was presented as not the grand compromise but an unresolved problem that other national Protestant states had worked out. As a result, at the end of Elizabeth’s reign new destabilising movements were massing. The Arminianism versus Puritanism conflict was gathering force. The religious fault lines divided counties (such as the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire) and parishes.

The conclusion was that Elizabeth never lost ultimate control and retained her charisma and intelligence but the problems that were amassing under the last years of her rule were an explosion waiting to happen in the seventeenth century. Her successful reign had mortgaged the future of her kingdom. After this thought provoking lecture there was a range of very well informed questions from the audience and some decisive and witty replies from our speaker.

Dr McLoughlin’s talk looked at the emotional, economic and political links between Concorde and Bristol. The Bristol aircraft industry had always been at the forefont of the development of aeroplanes and engines. The Brabazon had led the way after the war. Its cancellation did not stop the company moving into the development of jet airliners. Concorde was prime minister Harold MacMillan’s way of showing that Britain was serious about Europe. The links between Filton and Toulouse led to some interesting cultural exchanges with engineers using imperial and metric measurements and Bristol workers trying to understand why you would have wine with your lunch. The 1974 Labour government were worried about the soaring costs of Concorde and of course it was Tony Benn (a Bristol MP) who fought to ensure it was not cancelled. There were some fabulous interviews with the workers (men and women) who, whilst they were passionate about Concorde, realised that they could never afford to fly in it. There was the story of Brian Trubshaw’s maiden flight with Concorde 002 in 1969 when there were several taxi runs before he decided to take off.

1969 saw the birth of the Boeing 747. Along with the 1973 oil crisis this led many airlines to cancel their orders. Ultimately 20 Concordes were built in Bristol and Toulouse. Seven flew for British Airways and seven flew with Air France. Four were used as development aircraft. In 2003 a Concorde flew back to Bristol and the story seemed to come to an end. In 2006, Concorde was announced the winner of the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum. A total of 212,000 votes were cast with Concorde beating other British design icons such as the Mini, mini skirt, Jaguar E-Type, Tube map, the World Wide Web, K2 telephone box and the Supermarine Spitfire

Dr McLoughlin would like to talk to anyone with memories of Concorde. There are many older Bristolians who may have worked at Filton or who witnessed the early flights. Please contact the Bristol Historical Association and we will pass on your contact details to Keith.

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.