Bristol riots handbill
Special Collections
On Sunday 31st October 1831 the magistrates of Bristol distributed copies of this handbill around the city, including the many places of worship, seeking to recruit a force of special constables to prevent further acts of riot. Relatively few people responded, probably because of the unpopularity of the Corporation and the Recorder of Bristol, on which and on whom the mob’s fury had been concentrated. It is possible that a copy of the handbill reached Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as his diary records going into Bristol, and finding that the hussars had been withdrawn, arming himself with a chair back in the devastated Mansion House.
- Photographer: Jamie Carstairs
- Copyright: University of Bristol
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