Leigh Woods

Location and Description

Leigh Woods is a village of three hundred or so dwellings on the western side of the Avon Gorge, accessed from Bristol via the Clifton Suspension Bridge. It is probably better described as a residential area rather than a village since it does not have (and never has had) any of the amenities one might usually associate with an actual village, such as a shop, pub, post office or school. It does have a church and hosts the Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre. The opening date of the visitor centre is unknown: it may well not have been there in 1992, when our story begins.

The Woodland of Leigh Woods

The village, as might be imagined, takes its name from an extensive broadleaf woodland on the plateau above the Avon Gorge, Leigh Woods, which is now a National Nature Reserve.

Comprising predominantly oak, small leaf lime and ash, Leigh Woods is particularly beautiful when springtime brings an abundance of bluebells and wood anemones. It was early on just such an idyllic springtime morning in 1978, deep in the heart of the wood, that Jennifer and Victoria C were married.

In more recent times, so it is said, an ancient magic has returned to the forest for, if you venture in at first light on a misty morning, you might, if you are very fortunate, catch a glimpse of a unicorn or maybe one of faerie folk walking abroad...