A Trip to the Two Bridges
In July 2019 project PI Lisa Stead took a trip much deeper into Devon beyond Exeter and Topsham to explore other Vivien Leigh connections in the region.
Entering Dartmoor, the aim was to head for the Two Bridges Hotel: a site which claims a special connection to Vivien Leigh as somewhere she stayed as a guest in her youth and in later years after her separation from Laurence Olivier. The audio and photograpic content collected here was recorded on that trip and reflects on what I learned from speaking with the staff at the hotel and exploring its Vivien Leigh Room, a suite dedicated to her life and career.
The big question was: is this really, as the myths surrounding the site suggest, the place where the then Vivian Hartley met her future husband (Herbert) Leigh Holman at what she records in her diary as the 'Hunt Ball'? As the weekend unfolded the questions I was asking altered to consider the relationship between 'myth' and 'fact' and between global star histories and regional family histories.
Click on the images to found out more about different locations in the hotel and their connection to Vivien Leigh. You can also watch the video for an audio commentary about this trip which features further photos of the hotel interior and some moody shots of a very wet and windy Dartmoor.