In 1875 Ada Vachell left Cardiff for Bristol. A year later she founded the Guild of the Brave Poor Things. She had been inspired by Dame Grace Kimmins who had created the Guild of the Brave Poor Things in 1894 in the South East to create a band of men, women, and children of any creed or none, who are disabled for the battle of life, and at the same time are determined to fight a good fight.
A great resource to understand the aims and purpose of the Guild can be found in an excellent 3rd year undergraduate dissertation. It was published in 2009 by Bristol University History Department. It covers the key issues at the time for the charity and those it seeked to help.
Image taken from Mantin Dissertation
Dissertation:
Michael Mantin: ‘A Great Army of Suffering Ones’:
The Guild of the Brave Poor Things and Disability in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
In 1910, the Guild had raised the money to build their own building. The Guild Heritage in Old Market, Bristol (even then it was Old!).
We decided in Autumn 2011 to commission a further piece of research into the Guild Heritage building and the charity. This booklet was published in draft in Summer 2012 and is available here