Church of St Mary the Virgin
The history of Leigh Woods is much more recent than that of Abbots Leigh. When Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge was completed in 1864 there was only one house on the Leigh Woods side of the Avon Gorge. Land was acquired by the Leigh Woods Land Company and plots were sold off on which the wealthy could build houses costing not less than £650 and usually more! Several attempts were made by the residents to build their own church,as travel to the parish in Long Ashton nearly two miles away, on foot or by carriage, was not easy. Land was given by the Land Company and the church was completed and licensed in October 1892. A year later, St. Mary’s, latterly St. Mary the Virgin, was consecrated with its own parish. More St Mary’s history here:
When Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Bridge was opened in 1884, five years after his death, there was just one cottage in Leigh Woods. The land between Rownham Hill and the edge of Nightingale Valley, now North Road, was put into the trust of the Leigh Woods Land Company. They sold plots to the wealthy and set a minimum cost of the houses at £650 (add at least three ‘0’s for today’s value). By the 1890’s many of the properties were occupied. The community had tried unsuccessfully several times to have a church built. They lived in the parish of Long Ashton and the journey down Rownham Hill to All Saints Church in all weathers in horse drawn transport or on foot must have been trying. A fresh effort was made in 1890 when Arthur Gregory Way offered £1000 provided there were no further hold-ups. He was cousin to Sir Greville Smyth at Ashton Court, the patron of All Saints Church, whose permission had to be gained for a part of the parish to be split off and become the Leigh Woods parish. Leigh Woods remains to this day as part of the civil parish of Long Ashton.
At 4pm on 1st November 1890 a meeting was called at the home of Mr John Harvey (Harvey’s Wine). A committee of nine men with business acumen and money was formed including Thomas Davey (Franklin Davey Tobacco Co later subsumed into Imperial Tobacco), Mr Edward Swann (an influential solicitor and banker and on very good terms with the Bishop of Bath & Wells), Mr William Garnett, Mr Hoskens Lowe (timber importer) and Mr John Russell Harvey (John Harvey’s son) and Mr E Burrow Hill (the son of Charles Hill, shipbuilder) who became the committee’s secretaries. By the end of the month sufficient funds had been pledged and, with land given by the Leigh Woods Land Company, to proceed to plans. Nine national architects submitted plans by January 1891 and John Medland FRIBA, a pupil and assistant to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was successful. His plans were later altered as he wildly under priced the project. Amongst the instructions were that ‘it is essential that the Church should be of a rustic and picturesque character of stone or red brick with a tile roof, small spire, rustic porch and in keeping with the surroundings, as contrasted with the formal architecture of a City church’. Other requirements were ‘a bell of good tone, ornamental tiled flooring, heating apparatus and pipes throughout, an organ chamber (no organ initially), clergy and choir stalls, gas pipes (for lighting), a lightning conductor and a weather cock’. Ten local and four national builders tendered for the contract and Messrs R Wilkins & Sons ( Wilkins & Coventry) were successful.
By Saturday 1st August 1891 the work had gone ahead to the point where Lady Smyth could lay the foundation stone with a canister of contemporary artefacts underneath. Although photographs exist of this occasion the stone can no longer been found – it is probably concealed by later additions in the region of the present choir vestry. There was general disappointment that because of bad winter weather the church was not completed until autumn 1892. The continuing job of the committee was to raise further funds to provide all the necessaries to furnish a functional church. Everything from chairs (sold for 5/- with a hassock) to the bell weighing 4cwt (Llewellins & James, Bristol), the communion plate and the alter frontals, the altar table (carved by E. Halliday of Bath) the eagle lectern (carved by J.T.Wilson, London). All this was done in time for the Church to be licensed for marriages by October 1892. After some problems about the legal setting up of a parish, Assistant Bishop Bromby consecrated the Church on St Luke’s Day, 18th October 1893. After which the company enjoyed a luncheon at the Clifton Down Hotel then on Zion Hill.
In the next five years or so the choir vestry was added, a Father Willis organ installed and the Vicarage was built next door. In 1906 Sir George Wills replaced the pulpit (the original given by Lady Smyth), and installed the rood screen in memory of his wife, Susan Britton Wills. The carvings on the pulpit are St Gregory the Great, St Augustine of Hippo and St Jerome – three of the four ‘Fathers of the Church’.
In 1976 the church was merged into a single ecclesiastical parish with Holy Trinity, Abbots Leigh and left the diocese of Bath & Wells for that of Bristol. The Vicarage was sold and the kitchen and improved toilet facilities built from a small part of the proceeds.
The first Vicar was The Rev John Gamble MA, BD. He retired in 1923. His memorial plaque is on the south side of the sanctuary. It was carved by Eric Gill known for his lettering and statues including that on Broadcasting House, London. The second Vicar, Canon William Yates died on Christmas Day 1951, He had been Canon of Bethlehem in St.Georges Cathedral, Jerusalem. These two priests served for nearly sixty years and through two World Wars. There have been eight Vicars and Priests in Charge since, the current incumbent being Rev Dr Hester Jones.
Walking round the Church you will readily identify memorials to the families of the founders. The south wall has windows and plaques in memory of the Davey family including a stone commemorating the son who was killed in the 1st World War. Eleven young men left Leigh Woods to serve their country and did not return and their names are listed in the lych gate, which is our ‘War Memorial’. Midshipman Peter Popert, who was drowned in 1941, has as his memorial the central part of the communion rail. The rest of the rail, the sanctuary windows and reredos below are all in memory of various members of the Harvey family – grapes appear prominently! There is a plaque on the north wall of the chancel in memory of Miss Bromby, daughter of Bishop Bromby, who became choirmistress. She endowed a charity to pay the fees of choirboys who came up from Bedminster every Sunday, to go to secondary school. The west window is in memory of W. Melville Wills and the window near it on the north side is in memory of his wife and his son, who was killed in the 1st World War. The church builders, Messrs R. Wilkins, gave the window in the baptistery.
The Churchyard cannot be used for burials, as the bed-rock is only two feet below the surface. However cremated ashes can now be interred in a consecrated area surrounding the calvary and cross, which is a memorial to E. Burrow Hill. He died in 1897 on Templemeads Station, aged 37, having cycled down to check that his young son was safely on a journey. Our Church, with its chairs not pews, is usefully used for indoor secular events and our churchyard, without gravestones, for outdoor fetes. Most of the churchyard is deliberately kept ‘wild’.