"The trade which made Bristol prosperous was also valuable to the English government. About half the Parliamentary revenue of the Crown came from Customs duties and Bristol contributed around £50-60,000 of it, perhaps up to ten percent of the whole". Jonathan Harlow looks at smuggling through Bristol's port, and various attempts made to lessen the amount of criminal activity".
Category: Archives
Community Capitalism and the Governance of Victorian Bristol
"The phrase ‘community capitalism’ was coined by Charles Harvey and John Press: Before 1914, there existed in Bristol a close knit business community with a commitment to the economic well-being of the city. The leaders of this community– men like Sir George White, Albert Fry, Christopher Thomas and Joseph Wethered – formed an economic elite with powerful social and political connections. They jointly promoted many companies, held many directorships,and controlled a large number of major enterprises. This was not so much family capitalism as community capitalism".
The Glenside Irish: Irish Nurses at Glenside Hospital, 1920-1957
"When discussing the Irish in twentieth century Britain, one could be forgiven for thinking first of the ‘Irish Navvy’, building workers who were as notorious for their alleged drunkenness as for their prevalence on construction sites in post-war Britain... This article will focus on the Irish nursing staff employed at Glenside Hospital, Bristol’s psychiatric hospital from the end of the First World War. This is predominantly based on staff records from the hospital, which were often very detailed and included next of kin, as well as nationality, length of employment, religious affiliation and general comments from the matron on the suitability of the individual for nursing".
‘So much loss and misery’: taking the long view of the West Country flooding
"‘Those who have not been within six miles of Bridgwater within the last fortnight have missed one of the most remarkable sights ever witnessed in this country’, remarked the Western Gazette in November 1875. ‘Floods are no new thing in Somersetshire... but never,since the moors were artificially drained, never since railways were introduced, have the floods attained such a height, covered so enormous an area and caused so much loss and misery, as during the last few days". Steve Poole looks at the history of flooding in the West Country and how it has been presented, whilst taking into consideration how it has shaped the physical development of the region.
Aftermaths of war: Bristol in three civil defence plans, 1939-1967
"Three civil defence exercises covering Bristol – in 1939, the 1950s and 1960s – not only have an eerie fascination for their word-pictures of a city plunged into imaginary wars; the written scenarios also throw light on what concerned the scenario writers. As the likely damage in war became more than the authorities could handle, so the planners’ responses took a sinisterly authoritarian turn"
The Missing Coins of Ilchester: An analysis of the Roman coins from the Stevens-Cox collection
Somerset has a rich history of human habitation stretching back many centuries, and indeed the Roman occupation made a considerable impact on the county. Benedict Sayers gives an insight into a collection of Roman coins discovered at Ilchester, and what they can tell us about the history of the region.
‘Freedom of Soul’: Bristol and Opposition to the First World War
"In the first decade of the 20th century, the Bristol Socialist Rambling Club had better things to think about than the possibility of world war. On their expeditions, they recorded, tea was ‘partaken of at a pre-arranged beauty spot’, ‘games were participated in’ and a choir‘delighted all by rendering of part songs and glees". Colin Thomas looks at the actions taken by the Left in Bristol in the run-up to World War One, and what paths were taken as the conflict loomed over Bristol.
The 1913 Suffrage Pilgrimage, Electioneering and Women’s Politics in Bristol
"The aim of this article is also to shift attention away from the suffragettes towards a consideration of the broader base of suffrage politics in Bristol in the immediate pre-war years. By examining the non- militant, or constitutional movement, we can gain a more complex picture of the nature of support for women’s suffrage and can assess its long lasting influence on the politics of the city".
A Missing Nave and the Development of Private Housing at Bristol Cathedral (PART TWO)
"In RH 26, Joyce Moss outlined some of the difficulties surrounding the development of secular housing in and around the sacred ground of Bristol Cathedral between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Here she concludes her study with a further examination of the surviving evidence and some further thoughts about the conflicting interests of ecclesiastical morality and financial stability as many of the houses became dilapidated and were demolished in the 1830s".
‘Slandering the Poor’: Maud Davies and Life in an English Village
"The title of this article was the headline in the Warminster & Westbury Journal, January 1910, for a report of a recent meeting of Corsley Parish Council. Most places would be delighted if anew book was published about them, but when in 1909 a young scholar produced a study of this parish on the edge of the Longleat estate, between Warminster and Frome, the council tried to suppress it and have it withdrawn". Jane Howells provides an insight into the controversy, and why the council attempted to keep it quiet.