Walk in Bristol
with Richie
Portishead is a town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary authority area, in the county of Somerset, England.
The town had a population of 25,000 and is located next to the Severn Estuary opposite Cardiff and Newport in Wales.
The town is 8 miles (13 km) to the west of Bristol and 18 miles northeast of Weston-super-Mare.
Portishead has a long history as a fishing port.
As a Royal Manor it expanded rapidly during the early 19th century around the docks, with supporting transport infrastructure.
A power station and chemical works were added in the 20th century, but the dock and industrial facilities have since closed and been redeveloped into a marina and residential areas.
Portishead was also the telephone control centre used by British Telecom (BT) for non-direct dialled calls to maritime vessels, a service known as Portishead Radio.
The headquarters of both Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Avon Fire and Rescue Service are in Portishead. Portishead Lifeboat Station is situated close to the marina.
Run solely by local Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) volunteers, it serves the waters of the Severn estuary and inland waterways into the city of Bristol.
Richie's opinion :
" Portishead is one of three seaside towns under Bristol's postal jurisdiction.
Its beach is stony and rocky, not suitable for swimming, but the Open Air Pool located next to the beach, and it is often full during the short but hot summer heat.
The Lake Ground area next to the Portishead Beach is a really lovely family place to visit, take a nice walk, have a picnic in the grass, watch the swans and ducks on the lake, play in the park or in the playground, have a skate on the ramps, walk up to the north side Battery Point Lighthouse and check the amazing view, but you can row on the rowing boats on the lake, or just enjoy to sit and have a coffee in the Lakeside Cafe.
If you go to south way to a lovely coastal walk that goes by the Black Nore Lighthouse.
Beside the lighthouse there is a nice and really picturesque pebble beach area.
The easiest way from the Portishead Beach to the Portishead Marina (if you want to avoid the steep ways) is the Woodlands Rd, which is the lower road of the Eastwood Local Nature Reserve.
The Portishead Marina is a lovely place with beautiful scenery, its very clean, lots of amenities around.
Lots of great diners, pubs and shops in its area, and if you have time and like it, you can watch the boats coming in and out through the locks.
The area has very limited general parking, so plan ahead.
A little bit far from the Marina , but fantastic place to the lovers of nature the Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve.
Small lakes, meadows, great places for quietly sitting and watching the wildlife and birds ( ducks, swans, geese, gulls, coots etc.) and there are also an abundance of songbirds in the hedges along the pathway.
So - always nice to visit this town."
History
Nearest Public Toilet
Lake Grounds
(Community Toilet Scheme)
Portishead, Beach Road West Bristol BS20 7HB
The name Portishead derives from the "port at the head of the river". It has been called Portshead and Portschute at times in its history and Portesheve in the Domesday Book, and was locally known as Posset.
The town's recorded history dates back to Roman times,although there is also evidence of prehistoric settlement, including polished flint axe heads. There were also Iron Age settlements in the area, of which Cadbury Camp was the largest.
Other sites that have been identified include a 1,200 by 600 feet (370 by 180 m) site that was successively occupied by the Romans, Britons and Danes.
There is some evidence that it may have been the western end of the Wansdyke, an early medieval or possibly Roman boundary with a series of defensive linear earthworks extending to the Savernake Forest near Marlborough in Wiltshire.
After the Norman conquest the manor was held by the Bishop of Coutances and later reverted to the Crown, after which William II gave it to a merchant from Bristol known as Harding and then to his son Robert Fitzharding, who became Lord of Berkeley. The Berkeley family held it for generations until it passed by marriage to the Cokes of Holkham in Norfolk. In the 14th century it belonged to Everard le Frenshe. In 1621 the Bristol Corporation purchased large portions of land in Portishead and revived the Manor Court. The rights of the corporation over the manor were disputed, but they held it until 1836, when they sold it for £8,050. The parish of Portishead was part of the Portbury Hundred.
The town was built at the mouth of a small tributary of the Severn Estuary near the mouth of the River Avon. The old pill or jetty provided protection for craft against the Bristol Channel's large tidal range,and iron rings can be seen in the high street at which fishing boats used to moor.
Its position meant Portishead was used to guard the "King Road", as the waters around the headland are called. In 1497 it was the departure point for John Cabot on the Matthew.
A fort was built on Battery Point,and was used during the English Civil War when the town supported the Royalists, but surrendered to Fairfax in 1645.
Guns were also placed at Battery Point during World War II.
The King Road was the site of a naval action in 1758 when HMS Antelope captured Belliqueux, one of a French squadron returning from Quebec.
A mill was built on Welhay stream but this was replaced by tidal mills. In the 17th century the City of Bristol bought the manors of North Weston and Portishead for access to the channel and as a place to stay outside of the city and, in the 19th century, as a seaside resort. An outer sea wall was built, allowing the local marshes to be drained and increasing the land available for farming.
The dominant architecture is early Victorian, with some buildings maintaining their original features.
The expansion in residential property coincided with the construction of the dock, pier and the rail link to Bristol.
The Royal Hotel by the pier was built in a Tudor Gothic style in 1830, to provide accommodation and catering for travellers on the steamers from Bristol, Wales and Ireland.
Pill is a village in North Somerset, England, situated on the southern bank of the Avon, about 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Bristol city centre.
The village is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Pill and Easton-in-Gordano (until 2011 named Easton in Gordano).
The former hamlets of Lodway and Ham Green are now contiguous with Pill, and the village of Easton in Gordano is nearby.
The parish extends northwest beyond the M5 motorway to include the Royal Portbury Dock.
Richie's opinion :
" Pill is a really picturesque village in North Somerset, under Bristol's postal jurisdiction.
Its small, ancient harbour is wonderful and the view to the River Avon is stunning , which is full of with boats and sailing boats, when the weather is nice.
Pill marks the start of the National Cycle Network 33 (the Wessex Cycleway), which also takes in Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Bridgwater, Chard and Seaton and the path is first class in the area (ok, sometimes a little bit steep ).
The River Avon Trail begins by an information board on the west side of the small inlet of Pill's harbour.
If you follow the Trail heads off along the edge of the harbour and across a grassy area between the back of the harbour and the viaduct of the former Portishead Railway to cross Watchouse Road and snakes uphill into the Watchouse Hill Open Space.
The Watchouse Hill Open Space has a basketball court and a big playing field, and it is a perfect place for a walk, to fly a kite, the view to the small village, to the Avon River and to the Avonmouth bridge is wonderful.
If you countinue to follow the River Avon Trail, you can find a peacful and lovely walk in a nice green area to the Ham Green Lake, which is a beautiful fishing lake with a variety of stillwater species.
If you want to fish , you must buy a license, but it is a super relaxing place.
So -I can just recommend Pill for a lovely follow-the-River walk. "
History
The name "Pill" comes from the Welsh word Pîl which denotes a tidal inlet or harbour.
The later name Crockerne Pill (literally 'pottery wharf') arose from the fact that an industrial-scale pottery thrived nearby. The Ham Green Pottery kiln was excavated about 50 years ago and is located in the fields above Chapel Pill.
The pottery was made in the period from 1100 AD to 1250 AD and was exported from Pill by boat.
The so-called 'Ham Green' pottery has been found and identified in archaeological digs from the Algarve in Portugal to Iceland.
It is an important archaeological 'dating tool' because the period of manufacture is so precise.
Bristol City Museum has a good selection of pottery artifacts from the site and other locations showing the unique decoration and form of Ham Green pottery but the only item on display is a large jug at the M Shed.
The town was traditionally the residence of pilots, who would guide boats up the Avon Gorge, between the Bristol Channel and the Port of Bristol.
The port moved in the 20th century to Avonmouth and the Royal Portbury Dock.
Pill was once home to 21 public houses and was known as being a rough place, to the extent that the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, says in an entry in his journals for 3 October 1755:
"I rode over to Pill, a place famous from generation to generation, even as Kingswood itself, for stupid, brutal, abandoned wickedness."
The Portishead Railway viaduct in Pill.
The 1860s saw the building of the Portishead Railway line between Bristol Temple Meads and Portishead.
The line, which was opened to passengers in 1863, passed right through the village of Pill, with the result that a large number of buildings had to be demolished to allow its necessary straight and level passage.
The railway also consumed many acres of farm land during its construction.
The small ferry from Pill to Shirehampton closed because of loss of trade once the opening of the Avonmouth Bridge in 1974 enabled pedestrians to walk over the Avon.
So a transport link to and from the parish of Easton-in-Gordano, one that had survived since Medieval times, was closed and the river mud has swallowed up most of the now unattended slipways.
The village and its vanished ferry are commemorated in the Adge Cutler and The Wurzels song "Pill Pill".
In 1971 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed an inshore lifeboat at Pill.
It was withdrawn in 1974.