13 February 2025

Winter Lecture: Colonial History – Two Country Walks Through England’s South West

Professor Corinne Fowler opens up the colonial dimensions of local history in South West England in February’s Winter Lecture.

Empire transformed English rural lives in so many ways that colonial history presents a challenge to the idea that phenomenon like enclosure, agricultural labour and land struggles were an entirely domestic matter.

This talk opens up the colonial dimensions of local history in South West England, concentrating on two country walks through the Cotswolds and Dorset. The first walk is an Indian walk through Gloucestershire, and the second explores the history of the Dorsetshire labourers, known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and their experiences of British penal colonies in modern day Tasmania and Australia.

The talk will show that colonial activities overseas, and incoming profits, changed the lives of the rural poor. These histories, usually considered separately, continue to shape lives across Britain today.

Speaker: Corinne Fowler is Professor of Colonialism and Heritage in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. In 2020 Corinne co-authored an audit of peer-reviewed research about National Trust properties’ connections to empire, which galvanized the heritage sector to address its colonial stories and became a major media story. The report won the Museums and Heritage Special Recognition Award, 2022 and an Eastern Eye Award 2023. Before this, Corinne directed Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted, a child-led history and writing project (2018-2022), resulting in a book of commissioned writing called Colonial Countryside (Peepal Tree Press, 2024).

Corinne’s new book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain was published on 2 May 2024 by Penguin Allen Lane. She is co-investigator on the Rural Racism Project, led by Professor Neil Chakraborti at the Centre for Hate Studies.

You can pre-order a signed copy of Corinne’s new book for collection on the night when booking a ticket to the Winter Lecture. Signed copies are available for in-person bookings only.

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 and online via Zoom.

If you are attending in-person, 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.

If you are attending online, this lecture will take place over Zoom. Details of how to join the session will be in your registration email.

Please note, this lecture will not be recorded unless specified above.

Book tickets

Tickets are ‘pay what you can’.

Please select whether you require an ‘online’ or an ‘in-person’ ticket when you book.

All funds raised support the work of Bristol Museums.

Book now