Cheddar railway station

The Cheddar Palace was established in the 9th century, in Cheddar, Somerset, England. It was a royal hunting lodge in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods and hosted the Witenagemot in the 10th century. Nearby are the ruins of the 14th-century St Columbanus Chapel. Roman artifacts and a burial have also been discovered. The site of the palace is now marked by concrete slabs within the grounds of The Kings of Wessex Academy.

The Kings of Wessex Academy, formerly known as The Kings of Wessex School, is a coeducational secondary school located in Cheddar, Somerset, England. As of 2015, it had 1,176 students aged 13 to 18, of all genders and all ability levels including 333 in the sixth form. In November 2016, the academy became part of the Wessex Learning Trust which incorporated eight academies from the surrounding area. Kings is a Church of England school. In the school's most recent Ofsted inspection, the school was rated as "good". In 2001, the academy was awarded the specialist status of Technology College, enabling it to develop their IT facilities and improve courses in Science, Mathematics and Design Technology. In 2011 the school became an academy.The school has achieved accreditation from Investors in People. It has also received a Sportsmark award, as well as two Artsmark awards in the 2001–2002 and 2004–2005 academic years.The school also runs a leisure centre, Kings Fitness & Leisure, which has a swimming pool and sports facilities that are used by its students and the pupils of other schools in the surrounding area, as well as being open to members of the public. The school grounds contain the ruins of an ancient Saxon palace and chapel.

Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset. It is situated on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Wells, 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Weston-super-Mare and 18 miles (29 km) south-west of Bristol. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Nyland and Bradley Cross. The parish had a population of 5,755 in 2011 and an acreage of 8,592 acres (3,477 ha) as of 1961.Cheddar Gorge, on the northern edge of the village, is the largest gorge in the United Kingdom and includes several show caves, including Gough's Cave. The gorge has been a centre of human settlement since Neolithic times including a Saxon palace. It has a temperate climate and provides a unique geological and biological environment that has been recognised by the designation of several Sites of Special Scientific Interest. It is also the site of several limestone quarries. The village gave its name to Cheddar cheese and has been a centre for strawberry growing. The crop was formerly transported on the Cheddar Valley rail line, which closed in the late 1960s but is now a cycle path. The village is now a major tourist destination with several cultural and community facilities, including the Cheddar Show Caves Museum.The village supports a variety of community groups including religious, sporting and cultural organisations. Several of these are based on the site of The Kings of Wessex Academy, which is the largest educational establishment.

Cheddar Market Cross in the village of Cheddar within the English county of Somerset, England dates from the 15th century. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and Grade II* listed building.The stone cross, used to mark the village's market square, has a central octagonal pier surrounded by a hexagonal shelter. It has been restored and rebuilt several times, including twice since 2000 when it has been damaged in traffic accidents.

The Church of St Andrew in Cheddar, Somerset, England dates from the 14th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.The church was restored in 1873 by William Butterfield. It contains some 15th-century stained glass and an altar table of 1631. The chest tomb in the chancel is believed to be to Sir Thomas Cheddar and is dated 1442.The tower, which rises to 100 feet (30 m), and dates from around 1423, contains eight change-ringing bells, the tenor of which dates from 1759 and was cast by Thomas Bilbie of the Bilbie family. The oldest bell dates from circa 1580.St Andrew's is the Church of England parish church for Cheddar. The Rector is The Reverend Stuart Burns, who was licensed as priest-in-charge in February 2016.

Cheddar Association Football Club is a football club based in Cheddar, near Wells in Somerset, England. They are currently members of the Western League Division One and play at Bowdens Park.

Fairlands Middle School is a coeducational middle school with roughly 522 pupils aged between 9 and 13 in 2012, located in Cheddar, Somerset, England. The school, which was established in 1976, is a middle-deemed-secondary school, meaning that it takes pupils of secondary school age while providing both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 education. Fairlands is part of the Cheddar Valley Community Learning Partnership, a three-tier education system which comprises nine first schools, two middle schools and one secondary school. Pupils enter Fairlands from first schools in Cheddar and the nearby villages of Draycott, Shipham and Axbridge. In year 9 pupils move to The Kings of Wessex Academy, also in Cheddar.

Cox's Cave is in Cheddar Gorge on the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It is open to the public as a show cave. The cave is named after mill owner George Cox who discovered it in 1837, while quarrying limestone for a new building. Cox immediately opened it as a show cave the following year and ran it as a private enterprise until the landowner, Thomas Thynne, 5th Marquess of Bath, took it over at the beginning of the 20th century. It was connected by a tunnel to the adjacent artificial Pavey's Cave in 1987.The cave consists of seven small grottoes, joined by low archways. One section of the cave is known as the Home of the Rainbow, where traces of minerals have been brought in from the surface, and have given the stalagmites a wide range of colour, from nearly black, green, and orange to pure white. The famous French speleologist Édouard-Alfred Martel visited this cave and declared that "out of 600 caves, Cox's was admired the most".

The Cheddar Complex is a 441.3-hectare (1,090-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Cheddar around the Cheddar Gorge and north east to Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England, notified in 1952. The very large area includes 4 SSSIs formerly known as: Cheddar Gorge SSSI; August Hole/Longwood Swallet SSSI; GB Cavern Charterhouse SSSI; and Charterhouse on-Mendip SSSI. It is part owned by the National Trust, commercial landowners including the Marquess of Bath's Longleat Estate; and part managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Batts Combe quarry, grid reference ST460550 is a limestone quarry on the edge of Cheddar village on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England. It has been operating since the early 20th century and is currently owned and operated by Singleton Birch Ltd. The output in 2005 was around 4,000 tonnes of limestone per day, one third of which was supplied to an on-site lime kiln, the remainder being sold as coated or dusted aggregates. The limestone at this site is close to 99% carbonate of calcium and magnesium (dolomite). In former years it was a major supplier of limestone for railway track ballast purposes. A lime-burning kiln at the site was closed for a while in 2006 after testing showed quicklime dust was escaping into the atmosphere. The kiln, which produced 200,000 tonnes of quicklime a year for use in the steel industry, required £300,000 of investment to resolve the problems. The closure followed an earlier warning from the Environment Agency when the company was notified that it should tighten up procedures at the site. Quicklime dust is a health hazard, which in large quantities can cause skin irritation and damage to the eyes and throat. In March 2009 however the lime kiln closed, supposedly indefinitely, following a drop in demand from the site's sole customer, Corus.; the quarry has since been taken over by Melton Ross, Lincolnshire-based Singleton Birch. There is some evidence of a Bronze Age field system at the site. Boxes were placed in Hanson woodland adjoining the company's Batts Combe quarry to encourage dormice to breed, and monitored with the help of pupils from Wells Cathedral School.

Cheddar Ales is an independent, artisanal brewery located in the village of Cheddar in Somerset, England, which produces a range of regular and seasonal beers. Its owner and head brewer, Jem Ham, previously worked 15 years at another local brewery before going out on his own.

Cheddar Reservoir is an artificial reservoir in Somerset, England, operated by Bristol Water. Dating from the 1930s it has a capacity of 1350 million gallons (6,140,000 cubic metres). The reservoir is supplied with water taken from the Cheddar Yeo river in Cheddar Gorge. The inlet grate for the 54 inches (1.4 m) water pipe that is used to transport the water can be seen immediately upstream from the sensory garden in Cheddar Gorge. It lies to the west of the village of Cheddar and south east of the town of Axbridge. Because of this it is sometimes known as Axbridge Reservoir. It is roughly circular in shape, and surrounded by large earth banks which are grazed by sheep.