The Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway opened a branch off the Bristol and Exeter line west of the city on 18 April 1867, the trains being operated by the B & ER and using their platforms at Temple Meads.

The line had opened on 12 April 1867 as the Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company ; it opened to the dock on 5 July 1879.

Portishead had two passenger stations on the GWR's Portishead branch line.

A new junction was created, from Portishead station, and a new freight line built from there to the Royal Portbury Dock.

Portishead also had a second, short-lived, railway line: the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway.

It ran between Weston-super-Mare and Clevedon as a standard railway line, and between Clevedon and Portishead as a light railway.

Transport links to Bristol and beyond have been a concern for some residents of the town and a group has been set up to campaign for the reopening of the Portishead to Bristol railway line.

There are various groups and societies in the town, including the Gordano society that is involved in history, conservation, environment, planning and wildlife issues, a horticultural society, and the Portishead Railway Group that is campaigning for the Portishead to Bristol railway line to be re-opened.

The northern part of Ashton Vale, adjacent to the Portishead Railway line, is mixed light industrial and retail outlets.

Portbury did have its own railway station on the Portishead line until the Beeching axe fell and then the village main street was cut through by the M5 motorway opened in February 1973.

The 1860s saw the building of the railway line between Bristol ( Temple Meads ) and Portishead.

A second railway, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway, opened on 1 December 1897, connecting Weston to Clevedon.

Another railway also served the town, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway, which opened in 1897 and closed in 1940.

It opened to Weston-super-Mare in 1897, was extended to Portishead ten years later, and closed in 1940.

The construction of Portishead " B " power station caused the original railway station to be demolished and a replacement station was opened in the High Street on 2 January 1954.

The Clevedon to Portishead extension opened on 7 August 1907.

* Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway, opened 1885 but reincorporated under the act in 1899

The Portishead complex cost £ 31 million to construct and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1995.

In 1877, Avonmouth Old Dock, the first of the Avonmouth Docks, was opened, and in 1884 the Bristol Corporation acquired both the Avonmouth and Portishead Docks.

The section from Weston-super-Mare to Clevedon opened in 1897, and the extension to Portishead in 1907.

The extension to Portishead was built as a light railway and opened on 7 August 1907.

The parish of Portishead was part of the Portbury Hundred.

The Port of Bristol Authority was the commercial title of the Bristol City, Avonmouth, Portishead and Royal Portbury Docks when they were operated by Bristol City Council, which ceased trade when the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks were leased to The Bristol Port Company in 1991.

For more information on the history of the different dock complexes, see Bristol Harbour, Avonmouth Docks, Portishead and Royal Portbury Dock.

Portbury is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England within the Unitary Authority of North Somerset. The parish includes the hamlet of Sheepway which is situated on the moorland at the northern edge of the Gordano valley, between the Gordano services on the M5 motorway and Portishead, near the Royal Portbury Dock.

Portbury is well served by roads given the nearby M5 and A369 which links to Bristol and Portishead.

Webb also collaborated under the name of Rustin Man with Portishead lead singer Beth Gibbons and released Out of Season in 2002, while Lee Harris featured on the Bark Psychosis 2004 album, /// Codename: Dustsucker.

Between 2000 and 2002 the Portishead Railway was repaired and extended to the dock at a cost of £ 21 million.

Portishead are a band formed in 1991 in Bristol, England.

There are split-level carriageways where the motorway climbs the sides of the hills above the Gordano Valley, between Portishead and Clevedon.

The headquarters of Avon and Somerset Constabulary are in Portishead.

Its position meant Portishead was used to guard the " King Road ", as the waters around the headland are called.

As the result of a house-building programme, a further 8, 000 people are expected to settle in the area over the next few years, making Portishead one of the largest towns in North Somerset.

There are also church and youth organisations such as the Portishead Youth Club, a choral society, which was formed in 1955, and an annual carnival.

Portishead are a musical group named after the town of Portishead, Somerset.

On the southern, English, side, are Avonmouth, Portishead, Clevedon, and Weston-super-Mare.

The main facilities are in the village of Pill or alternatively just a few miles away in Portishead.

The local Clevedon Mercury and Portishead Times newspapers are delivered to residents free of charge usually by Saturday morning.

The local Clevedon Mercury and Portishead Times newspapers are delivered to residents free of charge usually by Saturday morning.

In 1994 Portishead released their debut album, Dummy.

A trio fronted by singer Beth Gibbons, Portishead also included sonic manipulators Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley.

Nevertheless, Portishead shared the scratchy, jazz-sample-based aesthetic of early Massive Attack ( who Barrow had briefly worked with during the recording of Blue Lines ), and the sullen, fragile vocals of Gibbons also brought them wide acclaim.

Within a year Tricky had released two more full-length albums which were considered even more challenging, without finding the same popularity as his Bristol contemporaries Massive Attack and Portishead.

After the success of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky albums in 1994 and 1995, a new generation of trip hop artists emerged with a more standardized sound.

Portishead, for example, record their material to old tape from real instruments, and then sample their recordings, rather than recording their instruments directly to a track.

Aberdeen, Avonmouth, Barry, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Dover, Edinburgh / Leith, Falmouth, Fishguard, Glasgow, Gloucester, Grangemouth, Harwich, Heysham, Holyhead, Hull, Kirkwall, Larne, Liverpool, London, Londonderry, Manchester, Milford Haven, Oban, Peterhead, Plymouth, Poole, Port Talbot, Portishead, Portsmouth, Scapa Flow, Stornoway, Stranraer, Sullom Voe, Swansea, Tees, Tyne.

The group performed live at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festival curated by ATP & Portishead in September 2011 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

It fell out of fashion for a while in the middle 1980s, principally due to the emergence of polyphonic and later digital synthesizers, but has enjoyed a huge resurgence of popularity since the 1990s — with contemporary artists highlighting the instrument, including Radiohead, Portishead, The Album Leaf, D ' Angelo, Erykah Badu, Chick Corea, Jamiroquai, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, The Doors and Stevie Wonder.

In 1999 Jones released the album Reload, a collection of cover duets with artists such as The Cardigans, Natalie Imbruglia, Cerys Matthews, Van Morrison, Mousse T, Portishead, Stereophonics, and Robbie Williams.

Geoff Barrow, who went on to form Portishead, was an intern and trainee tape operator at Bristol's Coach House studio when the album was recorded.

McVey ( credited at the time as ' Booga Bear ') and his wife, Neneh Cherry provided crucial financial support and in-kind assistance to the early careers of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky during this period, even paying regular wages to them through their Cherry Bear Organisation.

In 2005 Del Naja organised and performed at a charity concert in Bristol for Tsunami Relief with Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow of Portishead.

The two-night event featured Massive Attack, Portishead, Robert Plant, The Coral and Damon Albarn and raised over £ 100, 000.

The more abstract Autechre and Aphex Twin around this time were releasing early records in the " intelligent techno " or so-called intelligent dance music ( IDM ) style, while other Bristol-based musicians such as Tricky, Leftfield, Massive Attack and Portishead were experimenting with the fusion of electronic textures with hip-hop, R & B rhythms to form what became known as trip-hop.

Portishead consists of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley, while sometimes citing a fourth member, Dave McDonald, an engineer on Dummy and Portishead.

The credits of Dummy indicate that at this juncture, Portishead was a duo of Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons.

Adrian Utley, who co-produced the album with Portishead ( and who played on 9 of the tracks and co-wrote 8 ), became an official band member shortly after the album's release.

After their initial success, Portishead withdrew from the spotlight for three years until their eponymous second album, Portishead, was released in 1997.

In 1999, Portishead recorded the song " Motherless Child " with Tom Jones for his album Reload.

Around the same time, Portishead covered Serge Gainsbourg's " Un Jour Comme un Autre ( Requiem for Anna )" on the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited.

On 2 October 2007, Portishead stated that the new album Third had been mixed and was nearly complete, and was due for release in early April 2008.