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Gordano Civic Society

Copyright © 2025 Gordano Civic Society

Founded 1956

Posset Pieces

No 17: Lost Buildings of Portishead

  60 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £7.50

plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE:PP17

1.  Rackley House with White Lodge

2.  Bruton Manor, Down Road, formerly known as Hollywood

3.  Capenor Court

4.  Tucks' Cottage, High Street

A series of booklets on local history from the Gordano Region of Somerset. Can be bought here on-line, by post, at Society meetings, or from Careys, 17 High Street, or the Ship Inn, Portishead.

No 16: “Portishead Rocks!”

68 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £8.95

plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE:PP16

This edition has been written by local geologist Mark Howson and is the definitive guide to Portishead's famous geology.

1. Introduction

2. Traverse 1 - The oldest and the youngest rocks

3. How do we know the age of rocks?

4. Traverse 2 - Energetic sediments and fish

5. How do we know where Portishead has been?

6. Portishead’s time scale

7. Traverse 3 - Tropical Idyll with Rock-and-Roll

8. Traverse 4 - Upheaval

9. Traverse 5 - Driftwood on the beach

10. Continents, Mountains, Oceans and Portishead

11. Traverse 6 - The Triassic revisited

12. Traverse 7 - A celestial walk

13. Portishead underground

14. The finishing touches

No 15: Summer 2014

40 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £5.95

plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE:PP15

1. Editorial

2. A tribute to Rodney Challands

3. The story of the Virgo family of Walton-in-Gordano

4. More goings-on in Weston-in-Gordano!

5. My recollections of Portishead

6. The curates

7. Map showing former Power Station layout

8. The listed buildings of Walton-in-Gordano

9. Some more information on Beryl's pot

10. May Day in 1925 at Walton-in-Gordano

11. The Clifton Suspension Bridge

12. Marsh Lane

13. The sad case of Hannah Wiltshire

14. Victor Haliwell and the disaster on Lake Windermere

15. The end of the story of Commander Eric Robinson, Peace Pilot

16. The Old Pier Railway Station

17. Walter Russell (1878-1960) and his family

18. From ‘Delineations of Somersetshire’ (1829)

No 18:  Winter 2015

44 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £5.95

plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE:PP18

1.  The Poacher public house
2.  The Bennett family
3.  Old pilings in the mud
4.  Portishead's Working Men's Clubs
5.  Portishead Marine Baths
6.  Local memories
7.  Kew the builders
8.  Snippet – No 1
9.  James George Cole
10.  Portishead radio station
11.  The Haberfield bridge
12.  A drinking fountain for Portishead
13.  Snippet – No 2
14.  Cricket in Portishead
15.  Portishead commemorative souvenirs
16.  Tuck's Cottage – High Street

Editions 11 to 20: Edited by Sandy Tebbutt

No 19:  50 Years of Portishead Youth Centre

32 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £5.95

plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout. CODE:PP19

No 20: Personalities, Past and Present

70 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £6.95 plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout. CODE:PP20

1. Visitors and passers-by at Battery Point
2. Did Isambard Kingdom Brunel visit Portishead?
3. Charles Kingsley 1819 - 1975
4. Arthur Reynolds – Memories of Mr. Portishead by Bryan Stokes
5. Dame Clara Butt: Commander of the British Empire
6. Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein
7. Sir Compton MacKenzie
8. Fay Inchfawn – Author
9. Frances Hariott Wood
10. George Fox, Founder of the Quaker Movement
11. The Artist James Whistler – His time in Portishead
12. Jim Dyer: 1932-2011 by Mary Dyer
13. Edward Sharland, artist and engraver
14. A man called Leslie Harrison by Vic Long and Rita Mitchell
15. Joseph Walter, local painter 1783 - 1856
16. Clive Staples Lewis 1898 - 1963
17. John Fisher 1802 -1877
18. Ken Windibank
19. Martin Sterland, Channel Pilot from 1971 - 2007
20. The Crocker family by Nigel Coombes
21. The Story of Portishead's Christmas Lights by Judith Burrill
22. Princess Henry of Battenberg
23. The Sinnock family
24. Who wants to be a ballerina? by Mary Dyer
25. Vic Long (and son George) by himself
26. Ray Herbert – Coxswain of Portishead Lifeboat by Joan Herbert
27. Mrs Frances Freeling Broderip, author

Unless otherwise shown articles are by Sandy Tebbutt.

No 13: Summer 2013

36 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £5.95 plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE:PP13

1. The signal station at Walton in Gordano.

2. Rectory characters.

3. Redcliffe Bay in the 1950s.

4. Fire!

5. Archeological finds at Gordano School, Portishead.

6. Beryl Broad’s Indian pot.

7. Portishead Horticultural Society 1863-2013.

8. The “Prisoner” of Woodhill - the 37 year asylum of Owen Blayney Cole.

9. Sea bathing.

10. Malicious wounding at Weston in Gordano.

11. Connections with the White Lion.

12. The Redcliffe Bay estate.

13. Sid Stone.

14. Two excerpts from Owen Blayney Cole’s poem “Our Village”.

15. Walton in Gordano.

No 12: Winter 2012

40 pages Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £5.95 plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE:PP12

1. “Ballarat”, Nore Road.

2. Memories of growing up in Portishead.

3. Portishead Pottery and Miss Gwen Horlick.

4. History in the making – volunteering at the 2012 Olympics.

5. The Playtimers.

6. Shipwrecks and drownings off Portishead Point.

7. The organs at the United Reformed Church.

8. The Rectory.

9. The Portishead Rectory ghost revisited.

10. The Four Mills of Portishead.

11. The Jubilee Bells of 1897.

12. Mr D Bransby-Dixon’s memories of Portishead (Down House).

13. Monica Russell’s letter to Father Christmas.

14. Brunel’s Broad Gauge railway carriage.

15. Begging in Portishead.

16. The Schimmelpennick connection.

No 11: Summer 2012

Size: 176 x 250 mm  (6.9 x 9.8 in)

Price £5.50 plus post & packing (GB) which is added automatically at checkout.

CODE: PP11

1. Someone to watch over me by Nigel Coombes.

2. Aubrey McGuire, holder of the Bristol Humane Society Silver Medal by Rob Campbell.

3. Doreen Harding’s Story.

4. The Ecclesiastical Census of 1851 by Sandy Tebbutt.

5. My Story by Alan Stonestreet.

6. Portishead Power Station by Johnny Johnston.

7. “Bravo Bristol” by Clive Burlton.

8. The Cherry Orchards of Clapton-in-Gordano by David Hounsell.

9. Beating the Bounds by Sandy Tebbutt (with notes from the late Trevor White).

10. The Naish Hill Climb and James Gordon’s Carriageway by Sandy Tebbutt (with help from Ian Salisbury and David Hounsell).

11. What Teenage boys were up to in 1949 by the late Jim Dyer.

12. Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1809-1812 by Sandy Tebbutt.

13. The Queens’ Diamond Jubilees.