FAIRY GLEN LEIGH WOODS BRISTOL

Researching some of these cards can lead you astray and sometimes into a dead end. I could never find the exact location of Fairy Glen which I suspected had been a favourite spot for the Edwardian crowd. Seven years passed. Then in 2021 a CW member GOTHICK commented : “ Thanks for this! Interestingly, I got here while researching the other side of the river (I live in Hotwells, close to Leigh Woods but on the other bank) where there is *also* an area called Fairy Glen, in the woodland of the Avon gorge directly opposite Leigh Woods. (See https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/43207/9/35/297 for a postcard from the Vaughan collection. It's still known by that name now; I initially found it from a modern guide to the paths on my side of the gorge.”

Leigh Woods is a 2 square kilometre area of woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, a few kilometres from the centre of Bristol. It has been designated as a National Nature Reserve. In 1909 George Wills gave 80 acres of Leigh Woods to the National Trust to protect the land from housing development and secure public access.

To get there the Millers would have travelled over the Avon by Brunel's famous suspension bridge. But that is another story. Tomorrow!

It seems that Leigh Woods has been part of Bristolian life for centuries. The woods have the largest areas of old growth forest in the South West of Great Britain. But the area was once mined for 'celestine' and Bristol diamonds - quartz crystals found in geodes in dolomitic conglomerate in the gorge. These were used in popular souvenirs for visitors to the Hotwells spa in the 18th and 19th centuries. They became a synonym for "something bright but worthless".

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/leigh-woods