Avonmouth
| Avonmouth | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 The River Avon at Avonmouth | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST516785 |
| Location: | 51°30’4"N, 2°41’56"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 12,177 |
| Post town: | Bristol |
| Postcode: | BS11 |
| Dialling code: | 0117 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Bristol |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Bristol North West |
Avonmouth is a major port in Gloucestershire and an outlying suburb of Bristol. It stands on the Severn Estuary, at the mouth of the River Avon at the westernmost part of Gloucestershire. Bristol is upriver to the east. On the opposite site of the Avon, on the Somerset side, is Portishead. The M5 motorway crosses over the Avon on a long viaduct here.
Geography
Avonmouth stands at the mouth of the River Avon, on its north bank and on the Severn Estuary. It is the location of a large port, Avonmouth Docks. The Royal Portbury Dock, under the same management, is on the other side of the Avon. Avonmouth is home to several large chemical manufacturing plants and a gas-fired power station. There is also a significant residential area in Avonmouth between the industrialised zone and the M5 motorway. Avonmouth is often considered a satellite town of Bristol as opposed to a suburb, being sufficiently separated.
The M5 motorway runs through Avonmouth, and crosses the Avon by the Avonmouth Bridge. The M49 motorway runs between the M5 near Avonmouth and the M4 motorway at the Second Severn Crossing. The old Severn Bridge and the M48 motorway are linked to Avonmouth by the A403. The Portway, part of the A4, connects Avonmouth to the centre of Bristol. Avonmouth is also is served by a usually hourly train service to Bristol from Avonmouth railway station on the Severn Beach Line.
A new deepsea container terminal is planned in Avonmouth.[1]
Avonmouth Sewage Works Nature Reserve
A 25-acre area of Avonmouth Sewage Treatment Works is managed as a nature reserve by Wessex Water. The man-made lagoons and a pool provide a feeding and resting area for many birds including ducks such as pochard, tufted duck, teal and shoveler. The rough grassland provides a refuge for voles and other small mammals, which are preyed upon by kestrels and barn owls.
Shirehampton and Lawrence Weston
- Main article: Shirehampton
Shirehampton is treated by bureaucrats as one with Avonmouth and it is close against it a little upriver. Shirehampton though originated as a separate village and retains something of its distinct village feel. It has an identifiable High Street, and many of its 6,867 inhabitants know it as a village, and the passage of the M5 assist the separation. Shirehampton railway station provides travel to Bristol city centre.
Lawrence Weston is to the east, and its western parts overlap into Avonmouth's lovcal government ward, the rest attaching itself to Kingsweston ward.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about (Bristol ward) Avonmouth) |