Abolition Shed 1 – details

A Vision for O & M Sheds, Welsh Back, Bristol Subsequently sold to a developer Introduction Bristol has played a key role in events, ideas and literature that have shaped people’s freedom and parliamentary reform. Previously these topics have been neglected because they don’t quite fit the national narrative. The narrative has to change for the 21st Century. Bristol can lead the way. For a fleeting moment there’s a golden opportunity to make it happen; a vital retelling of the role Bristol […]

Cry Freedom Concert

Life Before Thatcher
Sweet Liberation (community choir), Richard Burley & Danny Ward (acoustic set), Red Notes Choir (4 part harmony), Lynda Sanderson & Pauline Setterfield (opera singer and organist). A celebration of roles played by St. Wulfstan, Thomas Clarkson and the Seven Stars pub played in gaining freedom.

Cry Freedom, Cry Seven Stars!

During the Abolition bicentenary of 2007, Bristol Radical History Group commissioned a commemorative plaque to celebrate the anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson and the Bristol sailors who provided him with evidence of the horrors of the slave trade. Join us at the site of these momentous events, the Seven Stars Pub, for the unveiling of the plaque at lunchtime. Download a Plaque unveiling invitation (650KB jpeg file) Watch highlights of the unveiling: If you see this text the video has […]

The Surfin’ Turnips/ Who’s Afear’d/ Paul McCoch

Bristol Radical History Week wouldn’t be the same without a performance from Bristol’s favourite pirate punkers ‘The Surfin’ Turnips’. Tonight they play a special acoustic gig with their Dorset brothers-in-cider Who’s Afear’d and newcomer Paul McCoch. We will also be perforimg a reconstruction of the Regicide of Edmund I which will also be performed a Pucklechurch on Sunday. All proceeds go to the Thomas Clarkson: Abolition of Slavery plaque for which we and the Seven Stars are currently raising […]

Slavery: Resistance & Rebellion 2

Sugar and Tobacco: Drugs of Capitalism - Dave Cullum This lecture studies the impact of Bristol's international trade on the developing industrial economy of England in the 18th and 19th centuries, with a focus on diet, nutrition and addiction amongst the new urban proletariat…. Listen to this talk: Download this lecture The Anti-slavery Movements in Bristol - Madge Dresser There were three anti-slavery campaigns in Bristol between the late eighteenth and the early twentieth centuries: the […]

Cry Freedom, Cry Seven Stars

Thomas Clarkson In Bristol, 1787

Cry Freedom Cry Seven Stars Front Cover
Cry Freedom, Cry World Heritage Site In 1787 abolitionist Thomas Clarkson researched the slave trade with help from Landlord Thompson while staying at The Seven Stars public house in Bristol. This pamphlet looks at how the histories of the pub and the abolition movement are intertwined, and why it should be the first pub to have UNESCO World Heritage status. The Seven Stars public house is one of the most important buildings in the entire history of Bristol, if not the country. It stands as a […]

Skimmity Hitchers Gig

Skimmity Hitchers (AKA Quiffey’s new band) Day: Tuesday 9th November Time: 8:30ish Venue: The Seven Stars, Thomas Lane, BS1 6JG Cost: Your soul There was a time when the naughty little Quiffey boy was in a band called Who’s A’feared. Well they are no more but the quiff would not lie flat and so a new band the Skimmity Hitchers have been formed to continue the Dorset toss. Or as the Quiffmiester himself puts it: Back at last to one of Bristol’s finest and most historical boozers, we hope to […]