West of England and South Wales Women's History Network Blog

In this blog, Sarah Villiers examines the lives of women living in Easton, Bristol, in the 1900s. Her study reveals that life was hard for many of these women. Sarah gave a talk about her research at our last Annual Conference in October 2022, which was on Women and Money: A Historical Perspective.   Having recently moved to Easton in Bristol, I found my house had been built in the early 1910s. I decided to find out more about my neighbours of that time. I focused on the triangle between three railway lines: to the west, one still extant near Stapleton Road station; a second (now a cycle path) on the east; and the third lying across the top of the triangle roughly following part of Fishponds Road. Most of this area had been market gardens until development rapidly took place. This period coincided with (was stimulated by?) the whole area being incorporated into Bristol City in 1897.   Sources The 1901 census showed a number of households where a woman was identified...

In this blog, Micaela Panes shows how working class women’s contribution to labour politics in south Wales after the Second World War has often been overlooked, and argues that women played a significant part in   local labour politics.         The experience of working-class women activists in post-war Wales is a particularly neglected area in British political history. Scholarship has predominantly focused on what has been considered the ‘golden era’ of women’s labour activism - the interwar years. Unlike scholarship on the interwar period which often has a regional focus, most studies exploring women’s Labour politics in the post-war period tend to take a more national and institutional approach. Although these studies are valuable for our understanding of British Labour and women’s politics, there is a tendency to overlook the significance of grassroots politics and the experience of rank-and-file women. The period 1945 to 1970 is one of great political,...