Avonmouth

Coordinates: 51°30′04″N 2°41′56″W / 51.501°N 2.699°W / 51.501; -2.699
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Avonmouth
Avon and Somerset
FireAvon
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Bristol
51°30′04″N 2°41′56″W / 51.501°N 2.699°W / 51.501; -2.699

Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of

Avon which rises at sources in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset; and the eastern shore of the Severn Estuary. Strategically the area has been and remains an important part of the region's maritime economy particularly for larger vessels for the unloading and exporting of heavier goods as well as in industry including warehousing, light industry, electrical power and sanitation. The area contains a junction of and is connected to the south by the M5 motorway
and other roads, railway tracks and paths to the north, south-east and east.

The

council ward of Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston is as drawn a simplified name as it includes Shirehampton and the western end of Lawrence Weston.[n 1]

Geography

Easton-in-Gordano). Avonmouth is home to chemical manufacturing plants,[1][2] and north of the Avonmouth Docks is the gas-fired Seabank Power Station.[3] Its light industrial and warehouse companies include Nisbets
.

Its long-established residential area in Avonmouth is between the industrialised zone and the M5 motorway, uniquely for Bristol west of the M5 motorway.

Easton-in-Gordano. The Wales-connecting M49 motorway runs between the M5 near Avonmouth and the M4 motorway at the Second Severn Crossing. The old Severn Bridge and the M48 motorway are linked to Avonmouth by the A403. The Welsh cities of Newport and Cardiff
are both clearly visible from Avonmouth's coastline.

The

Severn Beach Line
.

A new deep-sea container terminal is planned for Avonmouth.[4]

History

The mouth of the Avon was recorded as Afenemuþan in the

ancient parish of Westbury-on-Trym in Gloucestershire.[7] Bewys Cross, a stone monument possibly dating from the 15th century, was located on the bank of the Severn close to the old mouth of the Avon. Early 19th-century maps show the area as farmland. At that time the deep water channel of the Avon ran through the present-day site of Avonmouth Docks and separated the mainland from a small island named Dumball Island.[6]
: 8 

The first development at Avonmouth was a landing stage built in 1860 by

Bristol Corporation at "Avon's Mouth". The first record of the modern name was in the title of the Port and Channel Docks (Avonmouth Dock) Bill debated in Parliament in early 1863.[6]: 15  When the Bristol Port Railway and Pier was built in 1865 the terminus station was named Avonmouth. A hotel, the Avonmouth Hotel, was opened at the same time. A small new village was built to serve the new docks, which were finally opened in 1877. Also in 1877, the BPRP line was connected to the main railway network by the Clifton Extension Railway, and a new railway station named Avonmouth Dock was opened by the docks. Bricks for the docks were supplied by the Crown Brick Works in West Town, Shirehampton,[8][9] visible on the 1879 Ordnance Survey map.[10] The Crown Brick Works were owned by Edwin Stride, with his sons Jared and Jethro (who later developed Sneyd Park), together with George Davis and William and Jarman Peters.[11] The Crown Brick Works company was dissolved in 1886[12]

The new Avonmouth Dock and the original nucleus of the settlement were transferred from Gloucestershire to the City of Bristol in 1894, and the rest of the expanding settlement became part of the City in 1904.

First World War it housed the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. It was finally demolished in 1926 when the Royal Edward Dock was expanded.[13]

Between 1919 and 1926, the Portway was built, providing more direct road access to Avonmouth from Bristol.

Shirehampton had become a separate parish in 1844, and a Church of England chapel was established in the new settlement of Avonmouth late in the nineteenth century. Avonmouth became a separate parish in 1917.[6]: 7  Avonmouth's first church, completed in 1934, was bombed in World War II by the Luftwaffe in one of the six major raids of the Bristol Blitz, in 1941. It was later rebuilt in 1957.[14]

In December 1971, the M5 motorway was opened to Avonmouth, and extended south into Somerset when the Avonmouth Bridge was opened in May 1974.[15]

On 3 December 2020, four people were killed in an explosion at the water treatment plant.[16][17]

Local places of interest

Avonmouth Sewage Works Nature Reserve

The 10-hectare (25-acre) Avonmouth Sewage Treatment Works is managed as a nature reserve by

barn owls.[19][20]

The Range Distribution Centre

Avonmouth is home to the largest single footprint warehouse in the United Kingdom,[21] a 1,250,000 sq ft portal frame building operated by The Range as a distribution centre. The enormous building occupies 55 acres of land[22] and is part of the Central Park project located close to the Severn estuary shoreline. Previously, the largest single footprint warehouse in the United Kingdom was a building operated by Amazon in Dunfermline, Scotland which covers 1,000,000 sq ft.

Governance

Avonmouth is part of the Bristol North West constituency, which elects a member of Parliament (MP).

As a ward of Bristol City Council which has local elections in three of every four years, Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston June 2016 to May 2018 three councillors:

Apart from Avonmouth itself, the ward includes Shirehampton and part of Lawrence Weston. Shirehampton is a part of Bristol which has a medieval-founded village nucleus and contains buildings dating more than a century earlier than the earliest examples in Avonmouth. Today the pre-1893 mother parish of Shirehampton has definitive boundaries and c. 6,867 inhabitants.[24][25] Shirehampton railway station provides travel to the city centre. The western end of the Lawrence Weston area crosses the boundary into the Avonmouth ward, however the majority of the area falls within the Kingsweston ward. The combined area is separated from the rest of Bristol by a small amount of green land, see buffer zones.

Notes

  1. malapportionment
    which arises from adult population change increasing or decreasing electors per councillor

References

  1. ^ "Hazardous Chemicals and Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH)". Bristol City Council. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Chemical experts check 'contaminated' land at Avonmouth". BBC. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Consultation update on proposed new gas-fired power station" (PDF). SSE. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Site investigation underway for Bristol box terminal Avonmouth,Bristol, Bristol Port Company, Container terminals,". 13 December 2010. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  5. ^ a b c d e Richard Coates (2013). "The street-names of Shirehampton and Avonmouth" (PDF). Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  6. ^ Great Britain Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, Shirehampton, Gloucestershire. Retrieved {{{accessdate}}}.
  7. ^ E.Thomas - Shirehampton Story p.187-196 (1993)
  8. ^ E.Thomas - Down the 'Mouth (1992) pp.38-45
  9. ^ Ordnance Survey 25" map of area (1879)
  10. ^ Richard Coates - A Short History of West Town http://www.shire.org.uk/content/history/West%20Town.pdf
  11. ^ London Gazette 5 November 1886
  12. .
  13. ^ "Avonmouth St Andrew". National Churches Trust. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  14. ^ "The Twyning Green (J8) to Edithmead (J22) section of M5". The Motorway Archive. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  15. ^ "Avonmouth: Four people killed in large explosion near Bristol". Sky News. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Avonmouth water works explosion: Four people killed". BBC News. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  17. ^ "Planning Application" (PDF). Bristol City Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  18. ^ "Site Details". Severnside Birds. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  19. ^ "Avonmouth Wind Turbine - Water Vole Mitigation". EcoSulis. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  20. ^ "The Range opens one of the largest distribution centres in the UK - eDelivery.net". eDelivery.net. 29 June 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  21. ^ "Central Park". centralparkbristol.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  22. ^ "Bristol City Council – Find councillors".
  23. ^ "St Andrew". A Church Near You. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  24. ^ 1991 census data; 2001 data not readily separable from Avonmouth.

External links