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 Character Area 141 Mendip Hills Mouth of the Severn Area 141 boundary Adjacent Area 118 Motorway A Road B Road WESTON- SUPER-MARE Railway and station Churchill 6 Locking A368 County boundary Banwell Burrington Hutton A371 Blagdon NORTH SOMERSET UA Ubley A370 A368 Unitary authority 441' Bleadon Winscombe Shipham Bleadon Hill 1066' M5 Sedgemoor District West BATH AND NORTH EAST SOMERSET UA District boundary Loxton Compton A38 Charterhouse Harptree East Bishop Axbridge Harptree 118 Cheddar Cheddar Mendip District Chewton Reservoir Mendip Chilcompton 4 ST 142 Draycott Priddy Green SOMERSETA371 5 Ore Binegar A367 Holcombe 107 117 Westbury-sub- Gurney A39 Coleford Mendip Slade FROME Chantry Wookey West Whatley A3098 Hole Horrington Oakhill Leigh East Stoke upon Mendip A362 Horrington St Michael Downhead Nunney WELLS A37 Croscombe A361 5 SHEPTON 1000-1200' MALLET Doulting 133 143 Cranmore 800-1000' A359 600-800' 140 400-600' 200-400' 6 7 0-200' height above sea- level in feet 0 10km 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