Sue, She's so beautiful, I'm glad you didn't kill her. Here, we have large hairy brown spiders that are called 'house spiders' - you only ever catch a glimpse of them and they stay out of the way, quietly eating any annoying baddy insects that make it into the house. We have small white spiders outside in the garden which I've seen catch and kill a full grown bee - I stay well away from them! Wouldn't want to see what happened if they bit me!
I was surprised out in the garden on Monday, turning the compost heap, and I disturbed a nest of what we call slow worms. They are actually legless lizards - very shy, and really quite beautiful too. The one I saw was a female...
BBC - Science & Nature - Wildfacts - Slow worm