PORTISHEAD, a parish in the hundred of PORTBURY, county of SOMERSET, 8 miles (W.N. W.) from Bristol, containing 506 inhabitants. The living is a rectory,, in the archdeaconry of Bath, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at £32. 15. 7, and in the patronage of the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists, The parish, is bounded on the north by the Bristol channel; and there is a battery at Portishead point for the defence of King Road, where ships of war on this station usually anchor. The Britons, Romans, and Danes, successively occupied this spot: the form of the camp approaches that of an irregtdar rhomboid, its longer diameter being four hundred, and its shorter about two hundred, yards; it was con- verted to similar purposes during the great civil war, for, according to the parliamentary records of that period, the royalists posted here surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had been sent against them. The ancient boundary called Wansdyke terminates here. It is in. contemplation to form a landing pier at this place, for the delivery of the Irish mails, to communicate with a suspension bridge, now about to be constructed over the Avon, at St. Vincent's rock.