Character Area 141 Mendip Hills
Key Characteristics surrounding lowland, extending to a harsher, wetter and foggier climate in the Hills. ● A chain of prominent limestone hills extending inland The central feature of the Mendip Hills is a gently- from the coast and rising up sharply from surrounding undulating limestone plateau, with an outstanding lowlands. assemblage of prehistoric features, on which sits a strongly ● An open, largely treeless, limestone plateau with karst rectilinear pattern of 18th century enclosure, mainly of dry features, cave systems, dry stone walls and sparse stone walls in grey limestone. For centuries before settlement. enclosure, it was open sheepwalks of calcareous and neutral grassland. Remains of the lead industry (such as 'gruffy ● Dramatic gorges, cliffs and escarpment slopes around the plateau. ground'), dating from Roman times onwards, are locally prominent and the more recent abandoned workings have ● A sharp contrast between the open plateau and steep developed as wetlands, ponds and grasslands of high nature- escarpment slopes of the karst landscape and the more conservation value. complex, gentler landforms in the east.
● Many industrial archaeological sites reflecting the lead, coal and cloth industries.
● Perpendicular church towers.
● Country houses in the east with wooded parks.
● Buildings in local stone with pantile roofs: stones include grey limestone, reddish dolomitic limestone and grey or honey-coloured oolitic limestone.
● Outstanding prehistoric ritual landscapes.
Landscape Character AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE The Mendip Hills are characterised by rock outcrops, gorges, The predominantly Carboniferous Limestone landform of caves and the features of a karst landscape. Cheddar Gorge is the the Mendip Hills rises abruptly out of the flat landscape of best example and one of the finest limestone gorges in England. the Somerset Levels and Moors in the west. In the east, it Four outcrops of Old Red Sandstone are present in the descends into a complex pattern of low ridges as it cores of periclinal folds at Black Down, Beacon Hill, North gradually merges with the southern end of the Cotswolds, Hill and Pen Hill, and support heathland and acid grassland the Yeovil Scarplands and the Avon Vales. It combines the in sharp contrast to the rest of the plateau, where most of classic features of a karst landscape, rising more than 300 m the land is agriculturally improved pasture. Settlements above the Levels and Moors, with complex ritual, industrial comprise mainly scattered farmsteads with clusters of wind- and agricultural landscapes extending in time from the shaped trees around them. Trees are otherwise scarce, prehistoric period to modern quarrying. The karst features consisting mainly of old ash pollards and wind-shaped include complex underground cave and river systems, shelterbelts of beech and conifers. The straight Roman, gorges, dry valleys, surface depressions, swallets, sink holes turnpike and enclosure roads across the plateau are a strong and fast flowing springs of what is locally renowned as 'the influence on perceptions of the landscape, in contrast to the purest water in the world'. Despite this great variety, the winding, sunken lanes of the hill slopes and river valleys. unifying factor is the Mendips’ difference from the In some respects the plateau landscape, like the geology and
122122 118 level in feet level height above sea- height above 0-200' 600-800' 200-400' 400-600' 800-1000' 1000-1200' Mendip Hills Area 141 boundary Area Adjacent Area Motorway A Road B Road and station Railway County boundary Unitary authority District boundary
A3098 Character Area Area Character 141 A362 FROME 117 5 Nunney Whatley 133
107
A359 A361 Chantry 7 Leigh upon Mendip Downhead Coleford
Holcombe Cranmore A367 Stoke St Michael 140 Oakhill
Doulting Gurney Slade A37 118 Chilcompton 6 MALLET Binegar SHEPTON
East Horrington A39 Mendip East Harptree Chewton Croscombe Ore BATH AND NORTH EAST SOMERSET UA AND NORTH BATH Green West WELLS 143 West Horrington Ubley Priddy Harptree 6
A368 Hole Blagdon Wookey Westbury-sub- Mendip Mendip District 5
A371 Burrington Draycott 1066' Cheddar Charterhouse SOMERSET Shipham 142
Sedgemoor DistrictSedgemoor 10km A38 Axbridge Churchill Cheddar Reservoir Winscombe
A371 A368
Compton Bishop
4 ST M5 Banwell Hill Bleadon Hutton Loxton 441' NORTH SOMERSET UA NORTH Bleadon 0 Locking Mouth of the Severn
A370 WESTON- SUPER-MARE
123 climate, has more in keeping with northern England than populated. There are older, compact villages in the south Somerset. and some sprawling former coal-mining settlements in the north. At the foot of the steep slopes that surround the plateau, there are compact villages sited where springs emerge from Although popular perceptions of the landscape are governed the hillside; the buildings are of red conglomerate, grey by a few spectacular features such as Cheddar Gorge and limestone and pale grey Doulting Stone. On the slopes the setting of Wells Cathedral at the southern edge, most above, there are mosaics of woodland and scrub, small of the landscape is rural, undisturbed and little-known and fields and the remnants of sheepwalks. The woodlands and it is these qualities that have attracted admirers in the limestone grasslands are generally of high nature- present century. E W Hutton writes of the plateau as 'a conservation interest and the varied textures of the semi- lonely windy place, as grey as a winter sky and mysterious natural grasslands are a particular feature of the southern as the last few days of the year, a place of rolling and empty slopes. The woodland, lying within narrow valleys or fields, of sudden and immense views, of a strange and grim covering the steep slopes, emphasises the variety of the enchantment.' But the Mendip Hills combine this remote slopes and landforms – the most spectacular of which are quality with a complex pattern of settlement and vegetation the gorges of Cheddar and Burrington Combe, cut into the reflecting a rich history and many fine individual buildings. edge of the plateau. Here and at Wookey Hole there is the easiest access to the cave systems hollowed out below the hills, and the caves and Cheddar Gorge are popular tourist attractions. To the west of the plateau, the land breaks up into groups of individual hills such as Bleadon and Crook Peak, narrowing towards the prominent ridge of rough grassland and scrub at Brean Down, jutting out into the sea. Beyond the Down, the limestone islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm emerge from the Bristol Channel. Until the 18th century the western hills were mainly open sheepwalks and they still retain much of that character. For example, Crook Peak and Wavering Down are still open downland in contrast to the small hedged fields at their foot. The hills are prominent landmarks from across the Bristol Channel and for long distances across lowland Somerset. To the east of the plateau, a complex landscape of narrow, steep-sided, commonly densely-wooded valleys, with more JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE open agricultural land on the intervening ridges, descends The central core of the Mendip Hills comprises Old Red towards Frome. The ridges have very varied field patterns Sandstone inliers and is flanked by Carboniferous Limestone. In and there is a fluctuating density and quality of hedges and this view from Blackdown, the heathland on the sandstones contrasts with the high rolling limestone plateau reaching into the hedgerow trees, with occasional dry stone walls. Some distance beyond Priddy. outstanding parks lie near Frome and make good use of the subtle landforms. Greater variety is found within the valleys Physical Influences where there are attractive mosaics of woodland and grassland and complex dispersed settlements with splendid The central and western parts of the hills are formed chiefly churches like Mells and Kilmesdon. These reflect the by the massive and projecting bulk of the Carboniferous prosperity of the medieval cloth trade. There are many Limestone, with exposed rocks, dry gorges, sink-holes, other features of historic interest. Disused mills and areas of sunken ground and cave systems. This classic karst industrial buildings, abandoned cottage plots, streamside landscape was shaped by the action of water, which ponds and leats, and dismantled railways have now been percolated through the soluble limestone creating cave absorbed into a rural landscape. Small, abandoned quarries systems and underground streams which subsequently cut into the valley sides are a contrast with the larger post- collapsed, causing many of the surface features seen today. war superquarries which are of much greater depth and Natural surface water is virtually absent on the plateau and extend onto the higher ground. On the other hand, the the soils are mostly freely-draining brown-earths of low earthworks of the former coal industry have blended with fertility. Here, much of the limestone is overlaid by acidic the landscape and are now largely lost in new woodlands. wind-blown deposits with patches of thinner limestone This eastern part of the Hills is much more densely derived soils. On the slopes there are thin calcareous soils,
124 some of which support limestone grassland, but also deeper the plateau itself. Early man occupied the caves and soils which have weathered to become acidic in their upper commenced the clearance of woodland, so that the pattern layer and support a rare vegetation type known as of open grazing land on the plateau top was probably limestone heath. Where Silurian volcanics and the Old Red already well-established by the Neolithic. The henge Sandstone form outcrops on the limestone plateau, there movements of Gorsey Bigbury and Priddy Circles are are freely-draining acidic soils which, in the higher areas, evidence of extensive Neolithic activity and, in the Bronze have formed podsols, largely devoid of minerals and Age, over 300 barrows were constructed across the organic matter. Mendips plateau, forming a ritual landscape of national significance. Large Iron Age hillforts like Dolebury and The oldest rocks in the Mendip Hills are Silurian volcanics smaller sites like Banwell are evidence of a complex pattern and Old Red Sandstone (Devonian) rocks which outcrop in of territories and lordship. the cores of four periclinal folds. The main mass of the Mendips is made up of Carboniferous Limestone which The Hills' deposits of lead, silver and other metals probably extends beneath the eastern part of the Hills but is overlain drew the Romans to the area, with a major mining by more recent rocks of late Carboniferous, Triassic and settlement and fort being established at Charterhouse. Jurassic ages. The Upper Carboniferous rocks include part Several major roads were constructed across the Hills, of the Somerset Coal Measures. Triassic strata include red linking to other settlement and industrial sites and military mudstones of Mercia Mudstone and red conglomerate of routes. Whereas the history of the area after the Romans the Dolomitic Conglomerate. At the eastern end of the left is largely unknown, it is apparent that the Saxons came Hills, Jurassic rocks, including limestones of the Inferior to a well-settled and substantially cleared landscape. They Oolite, overlie the older rocks unconformably. The geology established or took over strong rule from central places like of this area is very complicated in detail and gives rise to a Banwell and Cheddar and this has influenced much of the wide variation in ground conditions. Soil conditions vary subsequent landscape pattern. Wells became a Bishop's See with the nature of the parent materials although in general in the 8th century and has been an important centre there is a predominance of deeper, more fertile, loamy ever since. soils. These have allowed more intensive agricultural use. From the late Saxon period to the 14th century, the plateau and much of the surrounding land was a Royal forest. However, this status exerted less influence on the landscape than the exploitation of the vast sheepwalks, which covered the higher ground, and the development of a prosperous clothing industry in the surrounding villages and towns. Lead mining revived in the 12th century, if not before, but was insignificant as a source of wealth compared with cloth. The prosperity of the industry is reflected in Abbot Selwood's attempt to layout a new settlement at Mells in 1475, the spectacular church towers and the fortified mansion of Nunney Castle. Surrounding the sheepwalks, cultivation of the land around the villages intensified, with a complex pattern of cultivation, partly in open fields, locally extending up the hills as lynchets. Post-medieval industry also had a strong influence on the formation of the landscape. The cloth industry continued to flourish until the 18th century and the cores of the principal Mendip Hills towns and villages took their present form JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE with clusters of roughly-dressed or rubble stone cottages The City of Wells sits in a bowl along the southern scarp. In this view, from Ebbor across Wookey Hole, St Cuthberts Church contrasting with the grander merchants' houses. The lead tower is more obvious than the Cathedral.The Mendip Hills mining industry began to develop rapidly in the 16th continue east of Wells into the distance, with Kings Castle Wood forming a prominent bluff. century and reached its peak in the 17th. The present chaotic patterns of 'gruffy ground' reflect the piecemeal Historical and Cultural Influences nature of mining. Landscapes like the village of Shipham and its surroundings were formed in a flurry of chaotic There is abundant evidence of prehistoric settlement and excavations and piecemeal enclosure of small plots of land. activity on the western Mendip Hills, especially in the caves After about 1670, the lead industry began to decline but and fissures of the plateau edge and on the high lands of revived in the mid 19th century when tips were re-worked.
125 Much of the present evidence of mining dates from that Buildings and Settlement period. Other industries developed in the post-medieval period such as paper making and edged tools (notably along Settlement on the plateau and western slopes takes the the Mells valley) but the coal industry was a dominant form of scattered farmsteads, chiefly built in locally- influence on the eastern Mendip, only coming to an end in quarried grey limestone. The compact villages around the the 1970s. The sprawling villages, tips (now commonly edges of the slopes, and the larger villages and towns such covered with new woodlands) and remains of older bell as Axbridge and Cheddar, lie close to watercourses. The pits, are still evident in the east Mendip Hills landscape. older buildings in these villages are of limestone or red Evidence of the wealth of post-medieval Mendip is present conglomerate, with some pale grey Lias near the coast. in the landscape parks like Mells and Humphry Repton's Weathered dull orange-red pantile roofs are a typical Ston Easton. feature. The eastern part of the Hills has a much denser, During the prosperity of the cloth industry, there was only although still dispersed, scattering of farmsteads and gradual change in the farming landscape but, at the end of nucleated villages with the larger towns of Wells and the 18th century, the open sheepwalks were enclosed with Shepton Mallet around its edge. A greater variety of the present pattern of dry stone walls and hedges. building materials is to be seen in this eastern area. In Reclamation of the land for agriculture was poorly managed addition to limestone and conglomerate, honey-coloured and by the 1930s much of it was scrub and rough pasture, oolite has been used, particularly to the north around only to be improved in the post-war period. Kilmersdon, and greyer Doulting Stone, for example at Doulting and Wells. White Lias occurs in buildings around In the 20th century, the older Mendip Hills industries have Ston Easton and Chilcompton. disappeared, quarrying has expanded greatly, particularly in the post-war period, and there has been steady agricultural The Mendip Hills are noted for their fine church towers, change with localised hedgerow removal and loss of karst many built during the prosperous 15th and 16th centuries. landscape features. However, there has also developed a The tall towers of churches such as at Chewton, Mells, strong appreciation of the Mendip Hills landscape, apparent Winscombe and Leigh on Mendip are visible from great in the writings of Atthill, Coysh, Knight, and other local distances and form distinctive elements in many views. The authors, and increasing management of the land for 19th century church of Downside Abbey, a major landmark landscape and nature-conservation objectives. in east Mendip, is in the style and tradition of these towers.
Settlements comprise scattered farmsteads in an open, tree-less setting. JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JOHN TYLER/COUNTRYSIDE
126 Large parks around country houses are a feature of east ancient. Marshy land is common in the valley bottoms and Mendip, including those at Ammerdown, Mells and Ston the area includes some neutral unimproved meadows and Easton. Smaller parks occur around manor houses and even damp woodlands of high nature-conservation interest. As the larger rectories, for example at Nunney, The Priory well as the parks, there are many places where parkland and Harptree Court. The 19th century Cranmore Tower is trees lie within pasture fields or close to roads. a conspicuous landmark as is the column in Ammerdown Park and the radio mast at Pen Hill above Wells is visible The Changing Countryside from many miles away. ● Quarrying in East Mendip is a major industry, with large and active superquarries seeking to expand still further. Associated effects include heavy quarry traffic, long views of quarries and buildings, intrusive screening bunds and possible changes to aquifers and surface watercourses.
● The large numbers of tourists visiting the main attractions (such as Cheddar Gorge, Wookey Hole and Wells Cathedral) are generally well catered for, although some sites are suffering from increasing congestion, erosion of paths and features and pressures for new facilities.
● Unimproved limestone grassland continues to decline under agricultural improvement, or is prone to neglect, undergrazing and scrub-encroachment. JIM HALLETT/COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY JIM HALLETT/COUNTRYSIDE ● Heathland areas are at risk from fire, leading to invasion The northern slopes rise steeply from the farmland around Blagdon Lake. by bracken and erosion. ● Former lead-mining features (e.g. 'gruffy ground'), karst Land Cover features and archaeological sites are being degraded or lost through agricultural improvement, ploughing Most of the area is agricultural land. The plateau comprises and landfill. mainly pasture in medium-size fields divided primarily by dry stone walls, with few hedges and trees, and only small, ● Many woodlands, particularly secondary woodlands of scattered shelterbelts. Unimproved limestone grassland is landscape value rather than nature-conservation found on steep southern slopes, where it is of high nature- significance, are unmanaged and neglected. conservation interest in several places, but many of the less ● Dry stone walls are in long term decline: they collapse steep areas have been improved for agriculture. Heathland with age and require regular maintenance, which is is found on the driest and most impoverished acidic soils. labour-intensive and expensive. There are a few large plantations of conifers on the plateau. ● Hedges and hedgerow trees are often neglected and are The edges of the plateau and the escarpment slopes support becoming overgrown and dilapidated. broad-leaved woodland, as well as limestone grasslands. Fields on these slopes are generally smaller and irregular, ● Outdoor pig-rearing has increased on the plateau in especially near the base, and the often overgrown hedges recent years and can be conspicuous, especially the have frequent hedgerow trees and a wide range of shrub presence of arc-huts and the churning-up of soil. Soil species. Limestone grassland and scrub is most extensive on erosion and loss of vegetation is an associated problem. the steepest slopes. At the foot of the south-western slopes ● Parts of the Strawberry Belt are being abandoned as a there is an area of high quality agricultural land – the result of eelworm infestation and this brings an unkempt Strawberry Belt – used for intensive horticulture but now quality to the area. in decline.
The eastern part of the area comprises mainly improved Shaping the Future pasture for cattle and dairying. The fields are divided by hedgerows which vary greatly in height and in the ● There is continuing scope for long-term management of frequency of their trees. Many woodlands occur particularly these unimproved grasslands, including the removal of in the valleys but also on less steep ground. Most are scrub and the use of appropriate grazing regimes.
127 ● The archaeological of the plateau and the industrial Selected References archaeology of east Mendip are vulnerable to damage and neglect. Their future needs to be addressed through Havinden, M (1980), The Somerset Landscape, Hodder & management agreements and advice to owners and Stoughton, London. tenants. Chris Blandford Associates (1996), Landscape Assessment of the ● There is active work in maintaining dry stone walls and Mendip Hills. this needs to be continued. Countryside Commission (1999), Landscape Assessment of the ● The management of the visually important woodlands Mendip Hills AONB. needs to be considered. Although there is some interest Countryside Commission (1994), The New Map of England: in new woodland planting, the right balance between A Celebration of the South Western Landscape, Countryside woodland and open land is essential to the landscape Commission, Cheltenham CCP 444. character of the area. Careful consideration is needed before new planting is carried out. Somerset County Council (nd), Somerset Countryside Strategy : Landscape, Somerset County Council/Countryside ● Karst landscape features like swallets, sink holes and Commission, Cheltenham. depressions are of importance not only in their own right but also in maintaining the quality of the footslope Glossary springs and the aquifer. Guidance and policy needs to address this and also to prevent damage to the extensive bund: embankment, causeway, quay lead mining features like gruffy ground. gruffy: grooved – refers to the appearance of historically ● In some of the eastern parts of the area, hedgerow mined land removal and tree loss have produced an open landscape. lynchet: unploughed strip as boundary between two fields Consideration needs to be given to new tree planting and hedgerow reinstatement.
● The post-war quarries are on a very large scale and offer opportunities for major new landscapes when they are restored. Bunding or mass woodland planting has been the accepted way of mitigating the impacts of quarrying. However, consideration should also be given to measures over a wider area, including hedgerow renewal and enlargement and copse and shelterbelt planting.
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