Glady's Leap (40th Anniversary Edition)

'Gladys' Leap' is the fourteenth studio album by Fairport Convention, released in August 1985.

The album features the first contributions to a Fairport album by founding member, Richard Thompson, since 'Rosie' in 1973. Thompson wrote the opening track, "How Many Times", and played lead guitar on "Head in a Sack".

The title comes from Gladys Hillier, who was a postwoman for Cranham, a village near Stroud in Gloucestershire, England. As a short-cut, to save a two-mile walk, she used to jump a three feet wide brook, a tributary of Painswick Stream, on her round. In 1977 the Ordnance Survey agreed to name the spot in her honour and in 2005, when Hillier was 88, a footbridge was built across the stream (a signpost lists her period of service as 1942-1977). Fairport heard the story, and named the album in Gladys' honour.