Portishead

"PORTISHEAD, (or Portshead), a parish and post town in the hundred of Portbury, county Somerset, 10 miles N.W. of Bristol, and 5 from the Clevedon railway station. The village, which is large, is situated under the hills at the Severn's mouth, and near the end of Wansdyke. At Portishead Point, opposite King's Road, where ships of war on the station usually anchor, is a battery. The parish includes the hamlet of North Weston. It is a bathing place, and has excellent bathing accommodation. A steamer runs to and from Bristol daily during the summer months. A large portion of the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture. In the neighbourhood are the traces of a camp 1,200 feet by 600, successively occupied by the Romans, Britons, and Danes, and which Fairfax took from the royalists in 1645. Limestone, flagstone, aid firestone are worked, and coal is supposed to exist. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £628 12s., and the glebe comprises 30 acres. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Bath and Wells, value £729. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure with a tower containing six bells. The register dates from 1570. The parochial charities produce about £5 per annum. There is a National school for both sexes, also an, infant school in which a Sunday-school is held. The Wesleyans, Independents, and Society of Friends have each a place of worship. The ancient boundary, called Wansdyke, terminates here." From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2003