River Avon", probably intent on recapture of the former manor, but was routed by Aolnoth, his father's 'Staller' (an adjutant position - now in Willam's employ). Aolnoth was killed in the confrontation, but his surviving family become the Berkeley dynasty - see below. There would have existed in Portbury itself a substantial manor house within defensive boundaries that would have held the court and storehouses for grain and weaponry. 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 moved between them with his entourage of upwards of 200 people, so the manor house complex, yet to be found, must have been 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, 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 had its own railway station on the Portishead line until the Beeching axe fell. 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 previously 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. Governance The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council's operating costs