Solidarity Across the Severn Book Launch

Book Launch at the Newport Rising Hub

Solidarity across the Severn: Newport, Bristol and Reform in 1831 by Roger Ball.

In October 1831 as reform riots shook Bristol, the authorities urgently requested the help of troops stationed in south Wales. An infantry unit marched from Cardiff to Newport with the intention of boarding a steam boat to Bristol, but their way was blocked by a hostile crowd. This book explores the background to this incident, setting it in the context of the reform crisis in Newport and other parts of South Wales in the 1830s.

Roger Ball was a founding member of the Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) and subsequently received a PhD in History from the University of the West of England with a thesis entitled Violent Urban Disturbance in England 1980-81. Roger has more been employed as a researcher working on several academic projects including studies of the…