Stratton-on-the-Fosse

Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey. Originally a school for English Catholic boys, it was established in 1617 by English and Welsh monks living in exile at Douai, France. The monastic community returned to England in 1795, with both the community and its school initially housed in the Shropshire home of Sir Edward Smythe, a former pupil. By 1814, the abbey and school had been re-established at their present site, in Somerset. Downside School became fully co-educational in all year groups in 2005.

Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both the abbey and the school are at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, South West England. In 2020, the monastic community announced that it would move away from the present monastery and seek a new place to live. On 27 October 2021, the monastic community further announced that as part of their transition they would move in Spring of 2022 to the temporary accommodation of "Southgate House, in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, Devon, where we will live as the Community of St Gregory the Great". As of 2020, the monastic community of Downside Abbey was home to fifteen monks.The Abbey Church of St Gregory the Great, begun in 1873 and unfinished, is a Grade I listed building. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described its Gothic style as "the most splendid demonstration of the renaissance of Roman Catholicism in England".

Chilcompton railway station was a station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway at Chilcompton in the county of Somerset in England and opened on 20 July 1874. Originally the station consisted of a single platform on the Down side with a station building and possibly also a siding. In 1876 a loop and second platform were opened on the Up side, controlled from a 16-lever signal-box on the Down platform, which also controlled access to the goods yard. The line to Binegar was doubled in 1885. In 1886 the line to Midsomer Norton and Radstock was doubled and a replacement 13 lever signal box provided just beyond the Binegar end of the Up platform. The station closed to goods in 1964 and the signal-box closed in 1965; passenger services were withdrawn when the SDJR closed on 7 March 1966.

Chilcompton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated in the Mendip Hills two miles south of Midsomer Norton and 3.0 miles south-west of Westfield. It is situated on the B3139 road between Radstock and Wells, close to the A37 (between Shepton Mallet and Bristol).

Christ Church is a former Church of England church in Downside, Somerset, England. Designed by John Pinch the younger, it was built in 1837–38 and closed in 1983. The church, now a private residence, is a Grade II listed building.

The Church of St. Andrew close to Downside Abbey in Holcombe, Somerset, England has late Saxon-early Norman origins and was rebuilt in the 16th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was vested in the Trust on 1 August 1987.The old church on the site was consecrated by Archbishop Wrotard of York in 928.The church has a two-stage tower and two-bay nave.The interior includes late Georgian box pews and a Jacobean pulpit. In the graveyard is a memorial to the family of Robert Falcon Scott whose father managed the brewery in the village. There is also a yew tree that is thought to be about 1500 years old.The original medieval village was buried at the time of the plague and St Andrews is surrounded by the mounds that bear testimony to this burial. It is suggested that the rhyme 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' began there as a result. An alternative explanation relates to the drowning of five children from the village in an icy pond in 1899.The parish is part of the benefice of Coleford with Holcombe within the Midsomer Norton deanery.

The Anglican Church of St John the Baptist in Chilcompton, within the English county of Somerset, was built in the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.The earliest church on the site was recorded in 1188 when it was given to Wells Cathedral.The perpendicular embattled two stage tower dates from around 1460 and contains six bells. The nave and aisles were completed in 1839 by Jesse Gane and the chancel and flanking chapels in 1897, as part of a Victorian restoration, by Frederick Bligh Bond. An enclosed modern structure links it to the adjoining parish hall. In 2015 the church was added to the Heritage at Risk Register because of water and frost damage to the stonework. A grant for the repair of the roof has been made available.The ecclesiastical parish is now united with that of Saint Vigor at Stratton-on-the-Fosse forming part of the benefice of Chilcompton with Downside and Stratton on the Fosse within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Harridge Wood is an area of woodland in Somerset, England. From about 1300 AD part of the wood was the scene of coal mining, which continued until around 1800. The traces of mining have been well preserved, and are now a scheduled site. The woodland is now part of the Harridge Woods Nature Reserve. Large areas were planted for timber in the mid-20th century, and this continues to be harvested. The nature reserve is steadily reintroducing the original flora.

Edford Woods and Meadows (grid reference ST665485) is a 54.3 hectare (134.1 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, between Nettlebridge, Holcombe and Stoke St Michael, Somerset, notified in 1957. This site is important for the occurrence of a wide range of types of semi-natural ancient woodland and for unimproved meadows and pastures of a type which is now uncommon in Britain.The forests in Edford Wood are dominated by Ash and Alder trees, with Pedunculate Oak and Sessile Oak growing there as well. Hazel and other plants form a lush and varied undergrowth, with different species living in the moist soil of the valley floor rather than in the drier soil further up the hill sides. The rare herb monk's hood grows in abundance in the region.

Blacker's Hill is an Iron Age hill fort at Chilcompton, 4.5 kilometres (3 mi) south west of Radstock, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.The hill fort is roughly rectangular and is a promentary type. It covers 6 hectares (15 acres) and originally had two ramparts and two ditches, but on the west and south sides it was defended by the steep drop. In some places the ramparts survive to a considerable height but on the north east side the inner rampart and ditch have been destroyed. There are three gaps but only that on the east seems to be original.In 1999 a geophysical survey was carried out suggesting that Blackers Hill originated as a univallate structure and was then later modified, forming a developed hill fort.

W/L Cave is part of the Fairy Cave Quarry group of caves between Stoke St Michael and Oakhill in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It is named after the initials of its discoverers, Bob Whitaker and Jerry Lavis, was first entered in the summer of 1967. It was the first significant cave to be discovered after the destruction of Balch Cave in the same (Fairy Cave) quarry. Although short it was extremely well decorated with calcite formations and ended in a large chamber with a magnificent side grotto dubbed Pink Pool Chamber. It is almost certainly part of the Balch Cave system and is the link between Balch Cave and the other systems in Fairy Cave Quarry namely Shatter Cave and Withyhill Cave. The link was proved by a digging project conducted by Pete Rose and Nick Chipchase of the Cerberus Spelaeological Society, the HQ of which club used to lie adjacent to the quarry in cottages owned by the quarry company. Pink Pool Chamber is linked to the first chamber in Shatter Cave by a narrow passage opened by blasting by the above named cavers.

Balch Cave (grid reference ST65734753) is a cave in Fairy Cave Quarry, near Stoke St Michael in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. The cave is part of the complex of passages feeding to St. Dunstan's Well Catchment Site of Special Scientific Interest and an abandoned Bristol Water abstraction point. It is named in honour of Herbert E. Balch who was famous for his exploration of the Caves of the Mendip Hills.The cave was broken into by quarry blasting in November 1961. Much of the cave has since been quarried away and by the end of the 1960s, major sections were destroyed.An exploration in December 1961 found a series of decorated rifts, mainly of sparkling flowstone, with a grotto fillet with pure white stalactites and pillars and a set of "organ pipes" about 10 feet (3 m) wide and 15 feet (5 m) high.A further visit in January 1962 explored the fourth chamber which is richly ornamented with white and cream flowstone, several narrow curtains, and miscellaneous white stalactites, and the fifth and sixth chambers with multiple Stalagmite formations.In the subsequent years continued blasting from the quarry breached the central chambers of the cave destroying some 425 feet (130 m) of passages, with rockfalls destroying many of the remaining formations, and rendering other sections of the cave inaccessible. Stabilisation work at the end of the quarry's life resulted in the destruction of a further 300 feet (91 m) of passage, including the original entrance series and Great Chamber.The Fairy Caves Management Committee administers the access to this cave on behalf of the quarry owners. The cave is closed from 1 October to 30 April to protect the hibernating bats.