Nailsea is a town in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, southwest of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, and northeast of

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...

. The nearest village is

Backwell Backwell is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset and in 2011 had a population of 4,589. The village lies about southwest of Bristol, south of the A370 to Weston-super-Mare. The parish includes the hamlets of Ba ...

, which lies south of Nailsea on the opposite side of the Bristol to Exeter railway line. Nailsea had a population of 15,630 in the 2011 Census. The town was an industrial centre based on

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

and

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

manufacture, which have now been replaced by service industries. The surrounding

North Somerset Levels The North Somerset Levels is a coastal plain, an expanse of low-lying flat ground, which occupies an area between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol in North Somerset, England. The River Banwell, River Kenn, River Yeo and Land Yeo are the three prin ...

has wildlife habitats including the

Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors SSSI () is a 129.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn on the North Somerset Levels, notified in 1995. The soils in the area include both clays of the All ...

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

and Bucklands Pool/Backwell Lake Local Nature Reserve. Nailsea is close to the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

and

Bristol Airport Bristol Airport , at Lulsgate Bottom, on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, in North Somerset, is the commercial airport serving the city of Bristol, England, and the surrounding area. It is southwest of Bristol city centre. Built on ...

, and its railway station, Nailsea & Backwell, has services operated by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. Secondary education is provided by

Nailsea School Nailsea School, located in Nailsea, North Somerset, England, is a mixed secondary school and sixth form. It has Technology and Media Arts College specialist school status, and became an academy on 1 September 2012. Academy status means Nailsea ...

(rebuilt in 2009), and primary education by St Francis School, Grove Junior School, Kingshill School and Golden Valley. Churches include the 14th-century Holy Trinity Church and Christ Church, which was built in 1843.

History

The name of the town may be derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for ''Naegl's island'', although it has also been suggested it was spelt ''Naylsey'' in 1657. The parish of Nailsea was part of the

Portbury Portbury is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England within the unitary authority of North Somerset. The parish includes the hamlet of Sheepway which is situated on the moorland at the northern edge of the Gordano valley, between the Gord ...

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

. Little is known of the area occupied by Nailsea before the coal mining industry began, although it was used as a quarry in Roman times from which

pennant sandstone The Pennant Measures is the traditional name for a sequence of sedimentary rocks of the South Wales Coalfield. They were also referred to as the Upper Coal Measures and assigned to the Westphalian 'C' and Westphalian 'D' stages of the Carbonifero ...

was extracted. The Romans otherwise ignored Nailsea from 40 to 400 AD, but left a small villa near Jacklands Bridge. Nailsea's early economy relied on

, which began as early as the 16th century. The earliest recorded date for

in Nailsea was 1507 when coal was being transported to light fires at

Yatton Yatton is a village and civil parish within the unitary authority of North Somerset, which falls within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located south-west of Bristol. Its population in 2011 was 7,552. The parish includes Clav ...

. By the late 1700s the town had a large number of pits. Around this time Nailsea was visited by the social reformer

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a s ...

who founded a Sunday school for the workers. The Elms Colliery,(Middle Engine Pit), one of the most complete examples of an 18th-century colliery left in England, is now in disrepair. It has been designated a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

and is included in the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...

produced by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. Remains of the old pits, most of which had closed down by the late 19th century as mining capital migrated to the richer seams of

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, are still visible around the town. The coal mines attracted

manufacturer John Robert Lucas, who in 1788 established the

Nailsea Glassworks Nailsea Glassworks was a glass manufacturing factory in Nailsea in the English county of Somerset. The remaining structures have been designated as a scheduled monument. The factory making bottle glass and some window glass opened in 1788 and clo ...

that became the fourth-largest of its kind in the United Kingdom, mostly producing low-grade bottle glass. The works closed down in 1873, but "Nailsea" glass (mostly made by glass workers at the end of their shift in Nailsea and at other glass works) is still sought after by collectors around the world. The site of the glass works has been covered by a

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

supermarket car park, leaving it relatively accessible for future archaeological digs. Other parts of the site have been cleared and filled with sand to ensure that the remains of the old glass works are preserved. Hamlet of Nowhere

Nowhere was a historical

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

that existed on the west side of the town until 1967, when it was demolished for development. Nowhere Wood, a small residential woodland, is named after it. The 15th-century

Nailsea Court Nailsea Court in Nailsea, Somerset, England, is an English manor house dating from the 15th century. Pevsner describes the house as "historically highly instructive and interesting" and it is a Grade I listed building. In 1574 the house was ow ...

, southwest of the town, is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Governance

Nailsea was part of

Long Ashton Rural District Long Ashton was a rural district in Somerset, England, from 1894 to 1974. It was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894. In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 to become part of North Somerset. The parishes ...

from 1894 to 1974. It is now within the

North Somerset North Somerset is a unitary authorities of England, unitary district in Somerset, South West England. Whilst its area covers part of the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Somerset, it is administered independently of the non ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, which covers part of the

ceremonial county The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...

but it is administered independently of the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 million. The term ''shire county'' is, however, an unoffi ...

. Its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in

. Four

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distri ...

exist in ''Nailsea'': *Nailsea Golden Valley *Nailsea West End *Nailsea Yeo *Nailsea Youngwood It is in the

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It elects one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

system of election. Since the 1992 general election the constituency has been represented by

Liam Fox Liam Fox (born 22 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Defence from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Conservative Party, Fox has served as th ...

of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Geography

The

Land Yeo The Land Yeo is a small river which flows through North Somerset, England. It rises on Dundry Hill and supplies Barrow Gurney Reservoirs before flowing through various villages to Clevedon where it drains into the Bristol Channel. During the ...

river flows to the east of the town. The

to the west have been drained and farmed by generations of farmers.

Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors SSSI Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors SSSI () is a 129.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn on the North Somerset Levels, notified in 1995. The soils in the area include both clays of the All ...

is a 129.4

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

. The soils in the area include clays of the Allerton and Wentloog Series and peat soils of the Sedgemoor and Godney Series, which are drained by a network of large rhynes and smaller field ditches, which support exceptionally rich plant and invertebrate fauna communities. Exceptional populations of Coleoptera occur, amongst which are at least 12 nationally scarce species and 2 nationally rare species, including Britain's largest water beetle the great silver water beetle (''Hydrophilus piceus''). There are several other local nature reserves. The Bucklands Pool/Backwell Lake Local Nature Reserve, southeast of the town centre and close to the

Nailsea and Backwell railway station Nailsea and Backwell railway station, on the Bristol to Exeter line, is in the village of Backwell, close to the town of Nailsea in North Somerset, England. It is west of Bristol Temple Meads railway station, and from London Paddington. The ...

, was constructed as a balancing pond in the mid-1970s, and has since become home to various wildfowl and dragonflies and a foraging area for bats. Bird species seen on the reserve include

gadwall The gadwall (''Mareca strepera'') is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. Taxonomy The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. DNA studies have shown that ...

northern shoveler The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Euro ...

pochard Pochard is a common name used for several species of diving ducks: *Four species in the genus ''Aythya'': ** Common pochard, ''Aythya ferina'' ** Baer's pochard, ''Aythya baeri'' ** Ferruginous pochard, ''Aythya nyroca'' ** Madagascar pochard, '' ...

tufted duck The tufted duck or tufted pochard (''Aythya fuligula'') is a small diving duck with a population of close to one million birds, found in northern Eurasia. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek '' aithuia'', an unidentified seabird ment ...

grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern ...

and

mute swan The mute swan (''Cygnus olor'') is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home ...

s. Nearby towns and villages include

, Wraxall, Portishead,

Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is an English seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 i ...

, and

Tickenham Tickenham is a village and civil parish near Clevedon and Nailsea in North Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 910. It has a primary school, a village hall and a garden centre, but no shops, although it formerly had a post office. ...

. Nailsea is from the centre of

, and close to the tourist centres of

and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

. It is by road from the port and service area at

Avonmouth Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of Bristol, England, facing two rivers: the reinforced north bank of the final stage of the Avon which rises at sources in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset; and the eastern shore of the Severn Estuar ...

Climate

In common with the rest of

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

, Nailsea has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately .

Seasonal temperature variation Seasonal lag is the phenomenon whereby the date of maximum average air temperature at a geographical location on a planet is delayed until some time after the date of maximum insolation (i.e. the summer solstice). This also applies to the minimu ...

is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest, with mean daily maxima of approximately . In winter mean minimum temperatures of or are common. In summer the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

high pressure affects the south-west of England, although

convective Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convect ...

cloud sometimes forms inland and reduces the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by

convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convec ...

. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by the Sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around . About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.

Economy

Primary income often comes from employment in the

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, including industries such as insurance and banking, defence related employment, retail and management. Employment within Nailsea includes work in shops, schools, estate agents and banks. Larger businesses in Nailsea include

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

, and Bristol Wessex Billing Services Ltd., the billing company jointly owned by

Bristol Water Bristol Water is a British water company which supplies 266 million litres of drinking water daily to over 1.2 million customers in a area centred on Bristol, England. It is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991. Sewerage services in th ...

and

Wessex Water Wessex Water Services Limited, known as Wessex Water, is a water supply and sewerage utility company serving an area of South West England, covering 10,000 square kilometres including Bristol, most of Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire and parts of ...

. Other businesses are situated at units in the town. Nailsea has three large industrial and business estates located at Southfield road, Blackfriars road and Coates Estate (former site of the local cider making industry). Nailsea's shopping area includes Somerset Square, Crown Glass Place, Colliers Walk, and a

high street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

. There are four

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

chains in the town (

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

) and some national banks and

estate agent An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged i ...

s. The Coates Cider factory in Nailsea was first opened in 1788 and was bought by Showerings of Shepton Mallet in 1956. The brand was subsequently merged with Gaymers and absorbed by Matthew Clark Brands. Prior to Coates, there was Heath Brewery, owned by the Thatcher family, which was situated behind the former Friendship Inn. The site of the old factory is now called 'Coates Estate' and is home to a diverse range of both local and national businesses.

Culture and community

Nailsea has several pubs and used to have a small nightclub called Decades, formerly known as the AJ's Bar. There are dedicated youth clubs and two Scouting divisions, which organise the Nailsea Carnival and Mayfair respectively. Nailsea has theatre, musical and orchestral groups. Most are open to all ages and meet and perform regularly at different venues including The Scotch Horn Centre, Nailsea Methodist Church, The Mizzymead Centre, The Grove Recreation Centre, and Nailsea Little Theatre. Nailsea's outdoor recreational areas include the playing fields by the Grove Centre and the public park to the rear of the Scotch Horn Centre and Tesco. There are three children's play parks and smaller areas of green land in the town's housing estates. The Millennium Park contains a

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, q ...

(NSP), and a children's play park. There are no cinemas in Nailsea, but The Curzon in nearby

has been operating since 1912. The adjacent village of Wraxall has a couple of tourist attractions.

Noah's Ark Zoo Farm Noah's Ark Zoo Farm is a zoo developed on a working farm in Wraxall, North Somerset, west of Bristol, England. In 2009 the zoo was expelled from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the main industry regulatory body, "for ...

has displays of exotic, agricultural and domestic animals including

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s and most recently a

giraffe The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...

. It offers hands-on experience with animals and a chance to learn about

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

Tyntesfield Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival house and estate near Wraxall, North Somerset, England. The house is a Grade I listed building named after the Tynte baronets, who had owned estates in the area since about 1500. The location was form ...

, a 19th-century Victorian country house and grounds, was bought and opened up by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 2002. An edition of the ''North Somerset Times'' is published as the ''Nailsea Times''. Nailsea has a popular carnival annually which has been held since the 1960s, in which all of the local schools and scouts participate. It also holds a very popular beer & cider festival also held annually, usually during the weekend on the second or third week of July at Nailsea and Backwell Rugby Football Club, which started in 2004. The festival holds over 160 local brews every year.

Transport

Nailsea and Backwell railway station MMB 56

The principal road serving Nailsea is the B3130. It leads westwards to Clevedon, where the motorway network can be accessed at Junction 19 or 20 of the M5; eastwards it links with the A370 (for Bristol) and the A38 (for

). Another link to the A370 at Backwell offers a route south and west for traffic to other local towns such as Weston-super-Mare. Nailsea's main car parks are in Clevedon Road, Station Road and Link Road, all of which are free for the first three hours. Bus services in Nailsea are operated by

First West of England First West of EnglandCompanies House extract company no 25088
...

. The main routes are the X8/9 which runs every 15 mins to Bristol and was jointly run by First and

Abus ABUS August Bremicker Söhne KG, commonly known as ABUS, is a German manufacturer of preventative security technology based in Wetter, North Rhine-Westphalia. Its name is an acronym of its original name, August Bremicker und Söhne ("August Bre ...

, and the X7 between Bristol and Clevedon. Following the withdrawal of Abus on the X8/X9, all services in Nailsea are operated by First with exception of service 88 between Nailsea, Portishead and Clevedon operated by Carmel Coaches.

Nailsea & Backwell railway station Nailsea and Backwell railway station, on the Bristol to Exeter line, is in the village of Backwell, close to the town of Nailsea in North Somerset, England. It is west of Bristol Temple Meads railway station, and from London Paddington. The st ...

is on the edge of neighbouring Backwell. It is managed by

, who run all services from the station, but is only staffed for a few hours on busy mornings. Trains run seven days each week, with a weekday off-peak service of two trains per hour in each direction, running between and or and . Mornings and evenings see some direct services to and from

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...

. Platform 1 (westbound) can only be accessed by steps, but Platform 2 (eastbound) can be reached either by steps or a 1 in 12 (8%) ramp. The station has a car park for 100 cars, but is due for expansion. Over 350,000 journeys are made from the station each year.

is less than from the town centre.

Education

Secondary education in Nailsea is provided by

, which attained Technology and Media Arts College specialist status before a £28.8 million revamp in 2010. Nailsea has infants, junior, primary schools, and a music school, some of them including: Kings Hill C of E, Golden Valley, Hannah More Infants, St Francis Catholic School and Grove School. Ravenswood School caters for children with special needs and learning difficulties. There are also playgroups for children in the area who are too young for infants school.

Religious sites

In the 2001 census 78% of Nailsea's respondents claimed

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

as their religious preference; 16% claimed to have "no religious preference", the second largest group. All of the religious buildings are Christian in nature. Christ Church and the 14th-century Holy Trinity Church are

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

parish churches. Christ Church was built in 1843 by

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

and

William Bonython Moffatt William Bonython Moffatt (1812 – 24 May 1887) was an architect, who for many years was a partner with Sir George Gilbert Scott at Spring Gardens, London. Moffatt was the son of a small builder and pupil of James Edmeston. He was originally taken ...

and has been designated as a Grade II

. Holy Trinity features a tower with six Bells, a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, and a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

centre called "The Trinity Centre". It is Grade I listed. Nailsea Methodist Church was founded in 1789; the first building opened three years later. In 1914 a new chapel was opened on Silver Street, and a youth club was added in the 1960s. In early 1992 the old church was replaced with a larger, flexible, multi-purpose building and the youth club was refurbished and renamed the Wesley Centre after Methodism's founder,

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

. There is also Nailsea

Baptist Church Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

St Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a Mysticism, mystic Italian Catholic Church, Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most vener ...

, Southfield Church, the

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...

and the Community Church.

Sports

Nailsea has four football clubs, AFC Nailsea, Selkirk United, Nailsea United FC and Nailsea Town F.C. The two clubs also organise junior

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

teams in the area, catering for under 8s to under 16s. Nailsea Cricket Club was formed in the mid-1850s and runs six sides across senior, junior, and women's cricket, covering an area of West Bristol and North Somerset. Nailsea also has a ladies hockey club, which was formed in 1924. The club has two league teams: a youth team and a veterans team. The Scotch Horn Centre provides both an

aerobic exercise Aerobic exercise (also known as endurance activities, cardio or cardio-respiratory exercise) is physical exercise of low to high intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. "Aerobic" is defined as "relating to, inv ...

and a free weights gym, as well as

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

courts, and room for other indoor sports. Nailsea does not have a public swimming pool despite a long-running campaign by the Nailsea Swimming Pool Interest Group to build one. Other leisure facilities in the area include a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

in nearby Backwell and a golf club in

. Nailsea also has a croquet club with four full-sized lawns (Nailsea and District Croquet Club). Nailsea and Backwell Rugby Football Club's 1st XV play in level 8 of the RFU league system as of 2012, and the 2nd XV in Somerset 2 North ( level 10).

Notable people

One of Nailsea's best known celebrities was

Adge Cutler Alan John "Adge" Cutler (19 November 1930 – 5 May 1974) was an English singer best known as the frontman of the comic folk band the Wurzels. Cutler was known for his songs, but also his dry, West Country humour, and gained the unofficial ...

, the Somerset folk singer, whose backing band was

The Wurzels The Wurzels are an English Scrumpy and Western band from Somerset, England, best known for their number one hit " The Combine Harvester" and number three hit "I Am a Cider Drinker" in 1976. They are known for using British West Country phrases ...

. He worked at the Coates cider factory. The Wurzels' album ''Live at the Royal Oak'' was recorded at The Royal Oak, a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

on the High Street. Cutler is buried in Christ Church graveyard.

Mervyn Kitchen Mervyn John Kitchen (born 1 August 1940), is a former English first-class cricketer and international umpire. In his playing days he was a left-handed batsman for Somerset County Cricket Club, making 15,230 runs in his 354 first-class games betwee ...

was born in Nailsea in 1940. He became an English first-class cricketer. In his playing days he was a left-handed batsman for

Somerset County Cricket Club Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Somerset. Founded in 1875, Somerset was initially regarded as a minor ...

, making 15,230 runs in his 354 first-class games. He topped the county averages in 1966 and 1968. He went on to umpire in 20 Test matches and 28 One Day Internationals before retiring in 2005. Another Somerset cricketer, Stephen Newton, was also born in Nailsea in 1853. The

gymnast Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...

Charles Sederman Charles Victor Sederman (9 January 1881 – 9 September 1952) was a British gymnast who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics. He was born in Nailsea and died in Cardiff. A member of the Welsh national gymnastic team from 1906 until 1909, he also p ...

, who competed in the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...

, was born in Nailsea in 1881. Professional golfer Chris Wood grew up in Nailsea, and currently resides there.

References

External links

Nailsea Town Council
*

{{Good article Towns in North Somerset Civil parishes in Somerset