They couldn’t be two more different areas - one a post-war garden suburb council estate with an unfair reputation and a tight-knit sense of community pride, the other an upmarket regeneration of waterside apartments that include some of the Bristol area’s most exclusive addresses.
But new research by a housing expert and social historian has unearthed an unlikely link between Hartcliffe and Portishead Marina.
For in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, Bristol agreed to an exchange with Somerset that enabled Hartcliffe to be built. Bristol handed over Portishead Docks to Somerset County Council and Portishead’s urban district authorities, and in return, Somerset transferred more than a thousand acres of land on the Dundry Slopes from the County of Somerset to be included in Bristol’s city area.
