The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway ran from Ashcombe Road in Weston-super-Mare to Portishead via Worle, Wick St Lawrence, Clevedon and Walton-in-Gordano.
A single track branch line from the Great Western Railway at Weston Junction to Weston-super-Mare opened in June 1841 and another from the GWR at Yatton to Clevedon opened in July 1847. A branch line from Bedminster to Portishead opened in 1867. A loop line from the main GWR line opened in March 1884 to serve Weston-super-Mare. However there was no direct link between the growing towns of Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead.
A railway line from Portishead to Clevedon was first proposed in 1865. In 1884 the Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon & Portishead Tramways Company proposed building a standard gauge tramway to link the three towns. The Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon & Portishead Tramways Act was passed in August 1885, but work on the Weston-super-Mare to Clevedon section didn't begin until 1887, due to financial and legal problems.
The original plan was to run from Weston-super-Mare town centre on the street along the Boulevard. However the track along the Boulevard was taken up before the line opened, due to complaints from the local council and the terminus station in Weston-super-Mare was at Ashcombe Road.
The 5 years allowed by the 1885 act for the completion of the line expired in 1890 and another act had to be passed to allow a time extension. The line finally opened from Ashcombe Road to Clevedon on 1st December 1897. In 1899 the tramway was designated a light railway and the name of the company was changed to the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway Company.
The extension to Portishead was delayed due to financial constraints and finally opened on 7th August 1907. There were objections to the extension because the line had to run through the streets in Clevedon.
The 14 mile long line was a standard gauge light railway. It had 19 stations, but most of them were only halts, with no platforms and only a hut for shelter.
There was no connection with the main railway line at Weston-super-Mare. It did connect to the Bristol to Portishead branch via a siding at Portishead and it was also connected to the Great Western Railway's Yatton to Clevedon branch at Clevedon for a few years by a very sharp radius link.
The WC&PR served Conygar, Nightingale and Black Rock Quarries in the Gordano valley and they each had their own sidings. The gasworks at Clevedon and a nail factory in Portishead also had their own sidings off the WC&PR. In about 1913 a short branch line was constructed to a wharf on the River Yeo at Wick St Lawrence.
Colonel Holman Frederick Stephens managed the WC&PR from 1911 until his death in 1931. He was based at Tonbridge in Kent and was known as the Light Railway King, because he also ran several other similar railways. William Henry Austen was the manager from 1931 until 1940.
In 1919 the WC&PR started to manufacture and use concrete sleepers to replace worn out wooden ones. Concrete sleepers were not widely used by other British railway companies until after the Second World War. In 1921 the company bought its first petrol railcar.
The WC&PR operated on a shoestring and was rarely profitable. Most of the engines and carriages used on the line were bought second-hand from other railways. Only two engines were bought new.
The increasing importance of road transport in the 1930s and the decrease in output from Black Rock Quarry made the line even less profitable and it finally closed on 18th May 1940. The track was taken up between October 1942 and the end of 1943.
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