Tom Brothwell

Listen: Healthcare in Bristol before the NHS

This week I met with Dr Michael Whitfield to discuss Bristol's dispensaries. For the two hundred years or so before the creation of the NHS in 1948, the dispensaries were one of the main providers of healthcare in Britain, especially for its poorest people. We discussed how the dispensaries opera...

Bristol History Podcast: State Surveillance in Bristol and Beyond

This week I spoke with Colin Thomas and Tim Beasley of the Bristol Radical History Group to discuss the history of state surveillance in their...

Bristol History Podcast: The Bristol Blitz

2020 marked the eightieth anniversary of the Bristol Blitz, which saw 77 Nazi air raids on the city, with six major raids taking place in the winter of 1940-41. I spoke with Eugene Byrne of the Bristol Post to discuss the origins of the Blitz and how Bristolians coped with being bombed. We also e...

Bristol History Podcast: West Country Counterculture in the 1960s and 70s

Explore 'the artistic, radical and experimental communities that flourished at the time.'

Bristol History Podcast: The Mystery of Princess Caraboo

On Thursday 3 April 1817, in the village of Almondsbury just outside of Bristol, a strangely dressed young woman began attracting the attention of local...

Bristol History Podcast: The Pneumatic Institute in Hotwells

At the end of the eighteenth century, ‘pneumatic’ (gas) chemistry was at the forefront of scientific knowledge. In 1799 the remarkable physician Thomas Beddoes opened...

Bristol History Podcast: Centuries of slavery and the city, and how enslaved people helped abolish the trade

Bristol's long involvement in trading enslaved human beings, and the overlooked history of how it was brought down.

Bristol History Podcast: The Bristol Bus Boycott

This week I met with Professor Madge Dresser to discuss the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963. The boycott against the Bristol Omnibus Company over its racist employment policy was the first black-led protest against racial discrimination in post-war Britain. We explored race relations in Bristol aroun...

Bristol History Podcast: ‘Know Your Place’ and Planning in Bristol

This week I spoke with Pete Insole, Historic Environment Officer for Bristol City Council, to discuss the historical mapping tool ‘Know Your Place’. We also...

Bristol History Podcast: Bristol and the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu Pandemic

Arriving at the end of the First World War, the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, killing between 40...

Bristol History Podcast: Witches and Witchcraft in the West Country

This week I met with Mike Slater, West-Country Occult Historian, to discuss the history of witchcraft in the West Country. We spoke about the continuance...

Bristol History Podcast: Graffiti and Street Art in Bristol

Nowadays Bristol is internationally known as a centre of graffiti and street art culture. I met with John Nation – pioneer and promoter of graffiti...