The long lost history of South Bristol's coal mines to be told in new festival

It will be sharing the stories of the Bedminster collieries and the miners who worked in them

A festival which will explore the almost-forgotten history of South Bristol’s coal mining and anti-fascist heritage begins this week. The South Bristol History Festival kicked off on Tuesday afternoon (October 1) and for the next few weeks will see a series of events, talks, and guided walks looking into history of the area, in particular around Bedminster and Knowle.

And with the area being built on heavy industry and powered by the coal mines throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Bedminster’s mining heritage plays a prominent part of the festival’s programme.

This Saturday, a talk by local historian Garry Atterton will explore the coal mines and pitheads that once lined West Street, the main road through Bedminster, which has the Jolly Colliers pub at one end and the Miners Arms at the other.

The West St BS3 Neighbourhood Group has been researching the history of the Malago and Argus pits, which were in the area where Tesco and the Airport building are now, thanks to funding from the National Heritage Lottery. They’re gathering hundreds of photos and stories and a small group of locals are producing an on-line Storymap.

"Garry is a local historian passionate about exploring and sharing the stories of the Bedminster collieries and the miners who worked in them,” a spokesperson for the festival, which is organised by the Bristol Radical History Society, said.

“He’ll also be working with Compass Point schoolchildren to produce artwork which will be exhibited on the street during the autumn,” he added.

Then, on Tuesday, October 8, at 2pm, regional union boss and historian Dave Chapple will be holding a talk at Bedminster Library, called ‘Killing Yourself to keep yourself’, which is about the class struggles in the Somerset coalfields, including South Bristol’s.

“Dave’s talk is intended to be an introduction to the Somerset Coalfield, one of the West Country’s best-kept historical secrets,” a festival spokesperson said.

“Whilst ‘Killing yourself to keep yourself’ will cover geography, geology, land owners, mine owners, mining techniques, accidents and disasters, the talk will focus on the miners’ trade union, the Somerset Miners Association (SMA).

“It will look at some of the battles with vicious employers the SMA engaged in, to gain recognition, respect, and improvements to wages and conditions. Dave has undertaken three years of research into the amazing archive of the SMA, held at the Special Collections Department of the Bristol University Library, and, along with historic photographs, will illustrate his talk with copies of some documents from this collection,” he added.

The story of what happened when the blackshirt fascists of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists tried to get support from working class communities in Bedminster and Knowle West in the 1930s will also be told, by local historian Paul Kingdon.

“During the 1930’s militant antifascist responses to Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts were established amongst the Bristolian working-class,” he explained. “Discouraged by their defeats in the inner-city districts of Bristol, the British Union of Fascists (BUF) turned their attention to south Bristol, Bedminster and the new garden suburbs springing up on the outskirts of the city,” he added.

The talk, which will take place at the Dame pub in Dean Lane on Tuesday, October 15 from 7pm, will trace the physical resistance to fascism before the Second World War, and how it moved from the inner city to suburbs like Knowle West.

“It will investigate who the anti-fascist street fighters were and also examine the supporters of the BUF. Who were these defenders of privilege, discrimination, and racism? And why did the majority of the Bristolian working class find the policies of the BUF so repugnant?” he added.

On a similar theme, a walking tour of Bedminster is planned from the Dark Horse pub on Bedminster Parade, starting at 2pm on Sunday, October 20, with Trevor Houghton and Mike Richardson leading a tour examining the ‘radical face of Bedminster in the early 20th century’.

The full programme for the South Bristol History Festival can be found here.