Leigh Woods is a 2 square kilometre (490 acre) area of woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, opposite the English city of Bristol and north of the Ashton Court estate. It has been designated as a National Nature Reserve. Small mountain biking circuits are present in the woods and the area is a popular walking area for Bristolians. Part of the woodland was donated to the National Trust in 1909 by George Alfred Wills, to prevent development of the city beside the gorge. Areas not owned by the National Trust have since been taken over by the Forestry Commission.
To the south of the woods is an expensive suburb of Bristol also known as Leigh Woods. It is situated at the western end of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which opened in 1864, making the development of Leigh Woods as an upmarket residential area practicable. Houses in varying styles were built from the mid-1860s until the First World War. Styles adopted included Italian, neo-Jacobean, Scottish baronial, Swiss chalet, Domestic Revival and Arts and Crafts.
At the western end of the bridge is Burwalls House, a Victorian mansion owned by the University of Bristol and currently used as a centre for continuing education. On a bluff overlooking the bridge is Alpenfels, a mock Swiss chalet constructed for the Wills tobacco family.
Read more about Leigh Woods: Topography, Flora and Fauna
Famous quotes containing the words leigh and/or woods:
“Thank God! none of my children have an atom of poetry in their composition!”
—Augusta Leigh (1783–1851)
“Hard labor and spare diet they had, and off wooden trenchers, but they had peace and freedom, and the wailing of the tempest in the woods sounded kindlier in their ear than the smooth voice of the prelates, at home, in England.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)