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Short History
By the mid 1830's a regular steam packet was operating between Bristol and
Portishead.
In 1862, the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company were formed, leading to the arrival of the railway in 1867.
Portishead Pier was extended and completed in 1870, in that same year a Portishead dock scheme was announced in competition with a new dock to be built at Avon mouth.
Porthishead docks 1882
The Portishead Dock and Railway Company obtained their act in 1871.
The situation is on the south side of the mouth of the river Avon to the east of Portishead hill that effectual shelters the harbour from west and south-west gales.
The land obtained covered an area of fifty acres, plus approximately a further twenty acres of water the works were commenced in 1873
The Bristol Corporation who are large landowners at Portishead contributed
£100000.
Railway communication is by the Portishead Railway company, a short line that is worked by the Great Western Railway Company.
(from Bristol Past and Present 1882)
Approches to the lock from the sea as it exsisted around about 1974 Portishead Pier extends NNE for nearly 170 m from the coast; the inner part
consists of a stone jetty 130 m long which projects seaward from the west side
of the entrance to Portishead dock, and the outer part, which projects a further
170 m consisting of a pile pier with rock filling. A light is exhibited from
a white column at the seaward end of the pier There are four conspicuous, tall
chimneys of a power station standing ¼ mile SW of the root of Portishead Pier. Click on images above for larger veiw and information |