Sea Mills is a suburb of the English port city of Bristol. It is situated north-west of the city centre, towards the seaward end of the Avon Gorge, lying between the former villages of Shirehampton to the west and Westbury-on-Trym and Stoke Bishop to the east, at the mouth of the River Trym where it joins the River Avon. Sea Mills previously was part of the city ward of Kingsweston. Following a Local Government Boundary Commission review in 2015 ward boundaries were redrawn and Sea Mills is now split between the Stoke Bishop ward and the Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston ward. History Pre 20th century Sea Mills was the site of a Roman settlement, known as Portus Abonae. Its origin may have been as a military settlement but by the early second century, a civilian town had been established. It was important enough to feature in the 3rd-century Antonine Itinerary which documents towns and distances in the Roman empire, and was connected to Bath by a road. Archaeological excavations have found evidence of the street pattern, shops within the town and cemeteries outside it. The Roman settlement seems to have been abandoned by the 4th century, and there is no evidence of Saxon settlement. By the Middle Ages Bristol had become a major port, with all traffic between the port and the sea having to pass through the Avon Gorge and past Sea Mills. In 1712, Joshua Franklyn, a Bristol merchant, built a wet dock at Sea Mills, to eliminate the need for large sailing ships to navigate the dangerous River Avon any further upstream. This was located where the River Trym enters the River Avon. However, poor transport links doomed the enterprise and the harbour facilities fell into disrepair by the end of the 18th century. Some remains of the dock still exist and are used as a harbour by pleasure craft. Other industries included agriculture (Sea Mills Farmhouse still exists) and water mills at Clack Mill (a corn mill just below Dingle Road Bridge) and Coombe Mill (for flour production) just beyond the Blaise Estate car park in The Dingle. Both mills were old and appear on the 1746-1803 mapping on the Know Your Place web site. Sea Mills Garden Suburb After WW1 Sea Mills was one of several areas in Bristol to be developed as municipal housing by the Bristol Corporation under the 1919 housing legislation known