Open Spaces
Leigh Woods has been built on since 1865 and the land south of Nightingale Valley was fully developed by 1909—the rest has been preserved by gifts of land by the Wills family, and is now owned by the National Trust.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge was opened in 1864 and provided an alternative route to Bristol; in 1906 a swing bridge was opened to give access to Hotwells. Traffic continued to grow throughout the 20th century and a bypass was opened in 1968.
Ashton Court is a large estate that lies at the east end of the village. It was originally owned by the Smyth family, until they were forced to donate it to Bristol City Council in lieu of inheritance tax. Ashton Court is host to several festivals each year, including the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, and the scenic landscaped grounds with views of Bristol are widely used by local residents for walking, golf and mountain biking.
Dawsons walk is an area of green space donated to the people of Long Ashton. It has been developed into a circular woodland and countryside walk. Access to the walk is from Lampton Road or from public footpath between Bourton Mead & 40 Long Ashton Road.
The Long Ashton Footpath Users Group have replaced 29 stiles on the public rights of way around the village with kissing gates to create a complete circular walk around the village, accessible to older people and those with mobility problems, although it can be muddy in places. The route, way marked with yellow Village Circular Walk discs, takes in views of the valley, passing through local farms and woodland.
Read more about this topic: Long Ashton
Famous quotes containing the words open and/or spaces:
“The poorest children in a community now find the beneficent kindergarten open to them from the age of two-and-a-half to six years. Too young heretofore to be eligible to any public school, they have acquired in their babyhood the vicious tendencies of their own depraved neighborhoods; and to their environment at that tender age had been due the loss of decency and self-respect that no after example of education has been able to restore to them.”
—Virginia Thrall Smith (1836–1903)
“through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)