Portbury Twinned With Apathy

By Alan Vowles

An amusing and interesting look at our ancestors throughout history. Beginning in the Stone Age and taking you through to the end of the Second World War, this book - which is liberally illustrated with original cartoons by 'Bruce'- tells the story of a small Somerset Village using historical and anecdotal evidence. Read of the hunter gatherers setting up camp on a bleak deserted hillside and follow the history of the area as Romans, Anglo Saxons, Normans, Roundheads, Cavaliers, Monks, Lords, Knights and Bishops set up home there. Each chapter in history is prefaced with a short narrative to set the scene.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781326167578

Book preview

Portbury Twinned With Apathy

Portbury, Twinned with Apathy

©Alan Vowles

First Edition

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who has passed on his or her stories or given me direction for research over the last twelve months.  Particular thanks to Andrea for all her help with research material and contributions. In addition, worthy of mention is Jon Meek for giving me the title.

Finally a big thank you to all those who told me I needed to write this book.

Preface

Why the title ‘Portbury – twinned with apathy’? 

Portbury village is a unique geographical and ecological but mostly individual village.  During my research, I could not fail to notice that throughout history the villagers have fallen into two categories; those that care about the laws, respect their neighbours and never appear in print and those that do not care about the laws, their neighbours or how they are remembered in history.  

A fellow villager, Jon Meek, coined the term ‘Portbury, twinned with apathy’ this year at the social club concerning the support for the premises and it immediately rang a chord with me.  The comment was made when of the 874 residents of the village only two turned up for a village social function. 

At any one time in history, there were up to 1000 people living in Portbury but only a very small number made it into the history books and that was not for being law abiding, sensible or nice people.  The term ‘apathy’ as used here is not implying a negative attitude, merely an observation on the history books and the apparent apathy of the population during crisis. It also does not apply to those poor unfortunates who through no fault of their own also made the headlines.

If you have heard of Portbury village then it is for one of two reasons; you live there or nearby or you think a village was built there to support the M5 motorway and Service Station.

Portbury has in fact been around for millennia.  It was here before Clevedon, before Portishead, before Weston Super Mare and even before Bristol.  It was colonised by Bronze Age people, Iron Age people, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Lords, Knights, Monks, Cavaliers, Roundheads, Peasants and now businessmen.

Having lived in Portbury on and off for the past 40 plus years I have been attracted by the many stories, myths and anecdotes heard around the village.  Stories of Monks, forgotten castles, tunnels, Roman soldiers, Iron Age fortresses, hidden streams and treasonous vicars abound. 

For these reasons, I began researching all I could about the village.  Using public records, miles of field walking, photography, talking to locals and internet research, I soon built up a bundle of facts that were clogging up my computer.  The overriding thought in my head was that these facts should not be hidden, but should be shared.  The people of the village and the wider community should know about Portbury.  Some stories are funny, some harsh and some ludicrous but whatever they contain they all point to one undeniable fact.  Portbury is interesting!

Note on copyright. Feel free to use any facts from the book and share the fun but all content and artwork that is not a ‘fact’ is copyright.

Thank you for buying this book and I hope you enjoy the read.

Glossary of terms used

This book is full of words or terms that may not be familiar to some readers, so for that reason I have included a summary of some of them and their meanings below.

Assizes-Periodic criminal courts held across England and Wales until 1972.

Bronze Age - 2500BC to 800BC.  This term is usually only applied to British archaeology.

Domesday Book - The book was commissioned by William the Conqueror and completed in 1086 AD.  The contents detailed all the holdings of each Shire in the land.  Quite simply it was a stocktake of England.

Hundred - In England & Wales a ‘hundred’ was the division of a shire for military and legal purposes. Originally, introduced by the Saxons a hundred was land that contained 100 households. There is some debate amongst experts that under Norman rule the meaning became an ‘area that could provide 100 men at arms’.

Iron Age - 800BC to 43 AD.  This term is usually only applied to British archaeology. The period ended with the Roman