The Marina dock in Portishead had a right-angled southern dogleg navigable down to Sheepway, giving the town its name - the "Port's headland".

It first appears in written history in the Domesday Book in the Hundred of Portbury, a sub-division of the shire of Somerset.

From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1068 we know that Godwin returned from exile in Ireland with a small force "at the mouth of the River Avon", probably intent on recapture of the former manor, but was routed by Aolnoth, his father's 'Staller' (an adjutant position - now in Willam's employ).

There would have existed in Portbury itself a substantial manor house within defensive boundaries that would have held the court and storehouses for grain and weaponry.

In later Norman times Robert Fitzharding, the Reeve of Bristol (the King's local representative), was rewarded with the Manor of Portbury.

The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, playing fields and playgrounds, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.

Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.

The parish falls within the unitary authority of North Somerset which was created in 1996, as established by the Local Government Act 1992.

[6] The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the North Somerset constituency.

There was a small Augustinian Priory founded in Portbury on land donated by Isabella, Countess of Albemarle in the twelfth century, of which there is still a substantial part remaining in the centre of the village.

The Anglican parish St Mary's Church dates from the 12th century, with alteration and extension in the 13th and restoration between 1870 and 1875.

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