In the pub last night (and I'm not a big pub-goer, especially on a skoolnite, but never mind) Jeff was claiming there used to be a railway along the route of what is now the Portway. "It's still there" says Sid, "parallel to the Portway out to Avonmouth." Jeff insisted that there used to be a track actually on the line of what is now the Portway road itself. I thought Sid was right. But I've just checked and it seems Jeff was at least partly correct. This map:
https://www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php shows a spur off the still-existing track as far as the Suspension Bridge, and Wikipedia says:
The southern section connected to the existing road network at Hotwells, and a portion of the new road near Clifton lay partly on the line of the Bristol Port Railway.
Although Jeff was also wrong because he reckoned the Portway dated from the 1950s.
Gosh! (names have been altered to protect the guilty, the innocent and the reader)
Maybe I know "Jeff" as I'm sure popular folklore from the time I lived in Bristol dated the Portway back to the 1950s, though it was actually built in 1926.
As a rule of thumb, I think it can be helpful if looking at where old railway lines may have been to look for any major road built in the 20th or 21st centuries, as there is a good chance it was built along the line of an old railway.
When the line of the Portway was indeed just a railway line, I do wonder how many Bristolians used to sneak along the line to get to favoured picnic spots or pubs along the river Avon, or just to experience the quarries along there.
