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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. The parish has a population of 827. ==History== The Romans built a wharf at Portbury for the export of lead and tin from mines on the Mendip Hills. The wharf itself would have been at Sheepway derived from Old English, is ''scæp'' and ''weg'' meaning ''sheep track''. Portbury is mentioned in the ''Liber Exoniensis'' and was given by William the Conqueror to one of his favourites, Bishop Geoffrey de Montbray of Coutances — the 'battling bishop' - sword in one hand and crook in the other! It had previously been held by the Godwin family who were the most powerful family in the whole country. Godwin was Earl of Wessex, Harold, his son, was the loser at Hastings in 1066. His daughter was queen to Edward the Confessor. So in Saxon times Portbury must have been an important place but no pre-1066 record or trace exists. So it first appears in written history in the Domesday Book which was for taxation of the Hundred of Portbury - the sub-division of the shire of Somerset for justice, defence and revenue purposes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Miscellaneous/ )〕 The Domesday Book quotes 'Godwin held it from the King", Godwin being Harold 11's eldest son and also holding the title of Sheriff of Somerset. There would have existed in Portbury itself a substantial manor house within defensive boundaries that would have held the court and storehouses for grain. The village itself is small but in former times ruled over most of the Gordano valley and the remote satellite enclave of Hamgreen. In later Norman times Robert Fitzharding, the Reeve of Bristol, (the King's local representative) was rewarded with the Manor of Portbury.〔 He purchased other local manors and moves between them with his entourage of upwards of 200 people, so the manor house complex yet to be found must be substantial. He was made the first Earl of Berkeley. It is said that his wife Eva never left Portbury after moving there and subsequent Berkeley heirs were brought up there before Berkeley Castle was made a comfortable home. She founded the 'Whiteladies' convent of St. Mary Magdalene - 'Maudlin' - hence giving Bristol two of its street names. He founded St. Augustine's Abbey now the Bristol Cathedral. It is recorded that the Berkeley family preferred to spend Christmas at Portbury. There is a Berkeley Chantry chapel with early Berkeley family burials in St Mary's Church dating from around 1190. Descendants of the Berkeley family married into the family of Coke of Holcombe, Norfolk who held the manor until 1784 when it was sold to James Gordon and inherited by William Abdy. On his death in 1870 it was sold to Sir Greville Smyth of Long Ashton.〔 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. Although the M5 is close it has actually made the village much less busy as it was on the main through route from Bristol to Portishead, from St. Georges, Easton in Gordano and on through Sheepway to Old Bristol Road in Portishead. The Rudgleigh — Easton Bypass and the Portbury Hundred either side of the Motorway junction isolated Portbury from through traffic. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Portbury」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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