This case study analyses the targeting, sacking and raising of the Bishop’s Palace by rioters in Bristol on 29 October 1831. It begins by considering the public disapproval of the Anglican Bishops for their role in the defeat of the Second Reform Bill in the House of Lords and their perceived accumulation of wealth. The two attacks by crowds on 29 October are studied in detail with reference to the actions of the rioters and interventions by special constables, the military, and church officials. In the final section some of the rioters arrested for being involved in the attacks are investigated and the disparities in understanding the events from a class perspective are compared to the Gordon riots in London more than fifty years earlier.
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