Join us for the first Winter Lecture of the series as we explore some fascinating Bristol Yarns with journalist and historian Eugene Byrne.
Bristolians have always told tall tales – urban legends, conspiracy theories, fairy tales, unfounded rumours. Eugene Byrne knows a lot of them, having amassed a huge collection of stories that (probably) aren’t true, from the distant to the recent past. They can be entertaining, but they can also offer insights into the times in which they were told.
We’ll meet the Giant Spider of Baldwin Street, a rude unicorn, a homing beacon for alien spacecraft, and a ghost that would only appear to trade unionists. We’ll also see how the city fathers were conspiring to murder the inmates of the workhouse and discover why there’s a plague pit under Primark*.
(*Spoiler: They weren’t and there isn’t.)
Speaker
Journalist and historian Eugene Byrne is editor of the Bristol Post’s Bristol Times local history pages and a Visiting Research Fellow at UWE. He boasts that this will be the only history talk you will ever attend in which “a man in the pub told me” will be cited as a source. Several times.
The Winter Lecture Series is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.
How to take part
Thanks to the generous sponsorship from the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives , this season’s Winter Lectures will be held in person at M Shed.
Please arrive 15 minutes before the advertised start time to take your seat. Parking in the area can be difficult so you may want to allow extra time to find a space if you are driving to the venue.
