Bristol History Podcast

This week the podcast will feature the audio from a short film telling the extraordinary tale of those people - mainly young women - who worked filling shells with mustard gas at two Avonmouth factory sites during the First World War. Many thanks to Diana Taylor for allowing us to use the audio from her short film: Gas Girls.

This week I met with Bristolian author Derek Robinson - creator of 'A Darker History of Bristol'. We discussed his life and career as a writer; what it takes to write good historical fiction and Bristol's changing attitude towards its own history.

W.G. Grace was born in Downend in 1848. Through his remarkable achievements on the cricket field he became one of the most famous faces in Victorian Britain. I met with cricket writer Scyld Berry to discuss the life, career and impact of W.G. on his sport and British society more generally.

Part two of my conversation with the Bristol-based writer ACH Smith. In this episode Anthony and I discuss writing creatively about Bristol's history; working with muppets-creator Jim Henson; cricket; and what counts as success in the world of literature.

The writer ACH Smith is a London boy who fell in love with Bristol. I met with him to discuss his long and illustrious career as a novelist, playwright, poet, memoirist, TV arts presenter, university lecturer and cricket writer.

'Trip hop' is the term most frequently applied to the creative explosion in the Bristol music scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s - centered around artists such as Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. I spoke with composer and academic Jeff Wragg to discuss the cultural origins of 'Trip hop' and explore the way that these artists went about creating such enduring music.

John Locke was born in the small Somerset town of Wrington in 1632 and went on to become a philosopher of global renown. I met with Dr Andrew Pyle of Bristol University to dicuss Locke's contributions to politics and philosophy, and to understand the impact of his work in the divided and dangerous place that was 17th century England.

Alcohol has always been important to Bristol and Bristolians. I met with Dr Evan Jones of Bristol University to discuss the changing economic and social dimensions of boozing throughout the city's history. How have our drinking habits changed over time? And who was more fond of a tipple - us or our ancestors?

From 2020, Bristol's Colston Hall will change its name - the venue wants to disassociate itself from the 17th century slave trader and philanthropist Edward Colston. Here I share some of my thoughts on the renaming in a mini audio essay.

The Avon Gorge is one of the most striking sights in British geography - but how was it formed? Was it due to an ancient river blasting through layers of limestone or… was it instead the result of an epic competition between two giants attempting to win the hand of a fair maiden? This week I met with Oliver Rigby, children's author, to discuss the myth of the Bristol giants.

This week I met with Professor Madge Dresser to discuss women throughout Bristol's history. How did women’s roles change as the city grew? Were they able to avail themselves of the economic opportunities that increasingly opened up to their male counterparts? Professor Dresser tackles these and other questions.

In this second part of our look at Bristol's riotous past, I met with Dr Roger Ball of the Bristol Radical History Group and Dr Steve Poole of UWE to discuss riots, uprisings and disturbances in Bristol's more recent past, with a particular focus on the events in St. Paul's in 1980 and Stokes Croft in 2011.

Bristolians have often been condemned or commended for their riotous history. For this podcast I met with Dr Roger Ball of the Bristol Radical History Group and Dr Steve Poole of UWE to discuss Bristol's 'riots' in the 18th and 19th centuries. What constitutes a 'riot'? Can we discern political intentions behind crowd activity? And how do popular disturbances and uprisings fit into modern Bristol'...

This week I explore the medieval origins of Bristol with Dr Evan Jones of Bristol University. When and why was Bristol founded? And what factors led to it becoming one of England's largest and most powerful urban centres by the end of the fifteenth century?

Hannah More was a Fishponds girl who went on to become one of the most famous women in Georgian England. She was many things: a playwright; a poet; a religious writer and a philanthropist. I spoke with Dr Anne Stott to discuss More's upbringing, achievements and reputation.

This week I explore the life of Bristol's Nobel Prize winning physicist, Paul Dirac. Born in Bishopston in 1902, educated at what is now Cotham School, by his early twenties Dirac was writing papers that have profoundly influenced our understanding of how the world works. Professor Sir Michael Berry and Dr Vincent Smith of Bristol University's School of Physics join me to tell this remarkable stor...

This week I met with Dr Edson Burton to discuss the history of Bristol's West Indian Community. The first Caribbean immigrants arrived in Bristol following the Second World War and have since had a major impact on the city and its development. We talk about the challenges and opportunities facing migrants, both then and now: assimiliation, discrimination, cultural expression and innovation.

This week I present a short essay entitled 'Thinking Historically', in which I explore some of the ways in which history is perceived and outline why I think that engaging with our past is so important.

Slavery played an important role in Bristol's economy from the late 17th through to the early 19th century. How did this trade - so palpably barbaric to modern sensiblities - begin and then flourish? How was it eventually abolished? And what is the legacy of slavery in Bristol today?

This week I talked with historian Adrian Vaughan and discussed his work on the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. 'Izzy' enjoys a stellar reputation, both in Bristol and throughout the UK - but how much is this popular perception based on historical reality? Adrian has sought to challenge some of the myths that have grown up around Brunel.

In this week's episode I met with Roger Ball of the Bristol Radical History Group to discuss the history of Eastville Workhouse. What kind of burial could a Victorian pauper expect? What were the ideas and ideologies behind the workhouses? And how far have attitudes towards poverty changed since the Victorian era?

Welcome to the first episode of the Bristol History Podcast. This week I met with Laura Hilton of the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust to discuss the history of Bristol's most iconic landmark. We discussed the origins of the Bridge; its funding and construction, as well as how it was built and who was responsible for its design. We also explored the continuing cultural significance of the Bridge an...