Charterhouse Camp

Charterhouse was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Its site is located just to the west of the village of Charterhouse-on-Mendip in the English county of Somerset. Its Latin name may have been Iscalis, but this is far from certain. Based on inscriptions on a pig of Roman lead BRIT. EX. ARG. VEB, meaning "British (lead) from the VEB... lead-silver works", the Roman name has been reconstructed as Vebriacum (with Iscalis more plausibly placed at Cheddar).It is associated with the Iron Age hill fort, Charterhouse Camp. The Roman landscape has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The Anglican Church of St Hugh in Charterhouse, within the English county of Somerset, dates from 1908. It is a Grade II* listed building. The church is dedicated to Hugh of Lincoln. It was built in 1908 by W. D. Caröe, on the initiative of the Rev. Menzies Lambrick, from the former welfare hall for the local lead miners.The roof-truss, screen, rood, and altar are all made of carved whitened oak, with fittings in the Arts and Crafts style. The walls are rough brick and it has a tiled roof. It includes stained glass by Horace Wilkinson showing the nativity scene.A cross in the churchyard and the churchyard wall are also listed buildings. It is part of the benefice of Blagdon with Compton Martin and Ubley within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Manor Farm Swallet is a cave in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England which was subject to numerous failed digging attempts between 1947 and 1973 as the surface shafts kept collapsing. In 1973 access to the cave was gained by an artificial shaft and walling it against collapse.

Charterhouse, also known as Charterhouse-on-Mendip, is a hamlet in the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in the English county of Somerset. The area between Charterhouse and Cheddar Gorge including Velvet Bottom and Ubley Warren is covered by the Cheddar Complex Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Chew Valley and other tributaries of the Avon to the north. The hills give their name to the local government district of Mendip, which administers most of the area. The higher, western part of the hills, covering 198 km2 (76 sq mi) has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which gives it a level of protection comparable to a national park.The hills are largely formed from Carboniferous Limestone, which is quarried at several sites. Ash–maple woodland, calcareous grassland and mesotrophic grassland which can be found across the Mendip Hills provide nationally important semi-natural habitats. With their temperate climate these support a range of flora and fauna including birds, butterflies and small mammals. The dry stone walls that divide the pasture into fields are of botanical importance as they support important populations of the nationally scarce wall whitlowgrass (Draba muralis). The origin of the name "Mendip" is unclear, but it is known that there has been human habitation since Palaeolithic and Mesolithic times with a range of artefacts being recovered from caves. Neolithic, Iron Age, and Bronze Age features such as barrows are numerous with over 200 scheduled ancient monuments recorded. There is evidence of mining in the Mendips dating back to the late Bronze Age, which increased after the Roman invasion, particularly for lead and silver around Charterhouse. The difficult conditions in the area were noted by William Wilberforce in 1789, which inspired Hannah More to begin her work improving the conditions of the Mendip miners and agricultural workers. In the 18th and early 19th centuries 7,300 ha (18,000 acres) of the common heathland on the hills were enclosed. In World War II a bombing decoy was constructed on top of Black Down at Beacon Batch. More recently, the mast of the Mendip transmitting station, micro-hydroelectric turbines and a wind turbine have been installed. There are several quarries on the Mendip Hills. Some of the stone is still carried by Mendip Rail; the other railways in the area closed in the 1960s. Although the Roman Fosse Way crossed the hills, the main roads generally avoid the higher areas and run along the bottom of the scarp slope on the north and south of the hills. The western end of the hills is crossed by the M5 motorway and A38. Further east, and running almost north to south, are the A37 and A39. A wide range of outdoor sports and leisure activities take place in the Mendips, many based on the particular geology of the area. The hills are recognised as a national centre for caving and cave diving, as well as being popular with climbers, hillwalkers and natural historians. Wookey Hole Caves and some of the caves in Cheddar Gorge are open as show caves; however, many of the caves of the Mendip Hills are only accessible to members of caving clubs. Long-distance footpaths include the Mendip Way and Limestone Link.

Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Somerset, within the unitary authority of North Somerset, in England. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. According to the 2011 census it has a population of 1,116. The village is about 12 miles (19 km) east of Weston-super-Mare on the A368 between Churchill and Compton Martin.

The Anglican Church Of St Andrew in Blagdon, within the English county of Somerset, was built in the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.The church has a 116 feet (35 m) high tower with pinnacles and a cusped lozenge pattern parapet, with a stair turret spirelet in the north-east corner. The tower dates from the 15th century and is one of the tallest in Somerset. The tower contains a bell dating from 1716 and made by Edward Bilbie of the Bilbie family. The remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1907–09 by Lord Winterstoke (of the Wills tobacco family)The interior includes a romanesque piscina set into the south wall of the chancel.The lychgate to the east of the church is a Grade II listed building in its own right. Above the door are four primitive Norman carvings which survived three rebuildings.Augustus Toplady was serving as curate of St Andrew's in the 1760s when he wrote the hymn Rock of Ages. It is believed that he was inspired to write the lyrics while sheltering under a rock in nearby Burrington Combe.In 2013 fundraising was undertaken to provide toilets and a new kitchen in the church. Improvements were also made to the damp proofing and insulation.The parish is part of the benefice of Blagdon with Charterhouse, Compton Martin and Ubley within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

The Longwood Swallet is a cave near Charterhouse, in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. The cave is part of the Cheddar Complex SSSI and is connected to August Hole. It is 1.65 km in length and reaches a depth of 175m.The cave was discovered in September 1944 by boys from Sidcot School.The picture shown is not the Longwood Swallet, it is Longwood Valley Sink. Longwood Swallet's entrance is a lidded concrete block construction. A (non-free) picture of Longwood Swallet entrance is available here The cave is locked and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company. There is a warning sign posted at the entrance to the cave about flooding. This has always been a problem, but is more pronounced due to the extraction of water from the spring at Charterhouse. When the pumps owned by Bristol Water stop this can cause a flood wave to travel down the stream and into the cave.

Rhino Rift is a cave near Charterhouse, in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. The cave is part of the Cheddar Complex SSSI. It is 253 m in length and reaches a depth of 147 m.The cave was discovered in 1971 after a successful dig by members of the Wessex Cave Club. Previous digging by the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society had unearthed remains of extinct animals, hence the cave's name.The cave is locked and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company.

Blagdon railway station is a closed terminus railway station situated in the village of Blagdon in North Somerset, England. The station opened on the 4 December 1901 when the Wrington Vale Light Railway opened the line from Congresbury.The station closed to passengers on 14 September 1931.Despite the station being closed for passengers it was host to a GWR camp coach from 1935 to 1939. Camp coach occupants were transported to the station on the daily goods train from Yatton.The station closed to goods on 1 November 1950. The site is now a private house.

Black Down is the highest hill in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, in south-western England. Black Down lies just a few miles eastward of the Bristol Channel at Weston-super-Mare, and provides a view over the Chew Valley. The summit is marked with an Ordnance Survey trig point, the base of which has been rebuilt by the Mendip Hills AONB authority. The shortest route of ascent goes from the Burrington Combe car park and is approximately 1 km long. Black Down is an open-access area mostly consisting of moors, with dense cover of associated vegetation such as heather and bracken. According to a local organization's newsletter, the name "Black Down" comes from the Saxon word 'Blac' or 'Bloec' meaning bleak, 'Dun' meaning down or fort.

Blagdon Lake lies in a valley at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, close to the village of Blagdon and approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Bristol, England. The lake was created by Bristol Water (Bristol Waterworks Company as it was known then), when it dammed the River Yeo, starting construction in 1898, to designs by Charles Hawksley, and completing this in 1905. The Wrington Vale Light Railway was constructed primarily to bring building materials for the lake. The reservoir was formed by the construction of a dam and provided water to the pumping station which originally contained four Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engines, built by Glenfield & Kennedy of Kilmarnock, which have now been replaced by electric pumps. Two of the steam engines have been preserved, with one in working order as part of the visitor centre which also includes educational facilities for children. The pumping station is now a Grade II* listed building. The 8,456,000,000-litre (1.860×109 imp gal; 2.234×109 US gal) lake still provides 9,547,000,000 litres (2.100×109 imp gal; 2.522×109 US gal) of drinking water each year, but also acts as a fishing lake. It provides a habitat for a range of flora and fauna and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The original suction tanks, which formed the water supply for the steam boilers powering the pumping engines, are now used for trout rearing.