Priddy Caves

Eastwater Cavern is a cave near Priddy in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It is also known as Eastwater Swallet. It was first excavated in April 1902 by a team led by Herbert E. Balch composed of paid labourers and volunteers from the Wells Natural History Society. Progress was initially slow, but by February 1903 Balch and Willcox had discovered substantial passage, following the streamway down to the bottom of the cave. Dolphin Pot was dug in 1940 by the Wessex Cave Club, with Primrose Pot following in 1950. West End series was the most recent significant discovery, in 1983.On 28 August 1910 severe flooding rendered the boulder ruckles unstable, and the bottom of the cave was not reached again for another three years. The cavern was the site of a fatal accident in 1960, when Alan Hartnell was hit by rock-fall. Several areas of the boulder chokes remain unstable.Dolphin ladder pitch also suffered a rock fall and was blocked by a sofa-sized boulder in 1959, but the route was re-opened in 1966.The water resurges at Wookey Hole Caves 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the south, and 180 metres (590 ft) below the cave entrance.

St Cuthbert's Swallet is the second longest, and most complex, cave on the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It forms a major part of the Priddy Caves system and water entering this swallet re-emerges at Wookey Hole. St Cuthbert's Swallet is part of, and lies underneath, the Priddy Pools Site of Special Scientific Interest.It is named because of its location in the St Cuthbert Out parish of Wells, and was originally called St Cuthbert's Pot.

Priddy Pools (grid reference ST545510) is a 52.7-hectare (130-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Priddy in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, notified in 1972. The pools provided the water supply for the Priddy Mineries which is now a Nature Reserve.

Priddy Nine Barrows Cemetery and Ashen Hill Barrow Cemetery are a collection of round barrows, dating from the Bronze Age, near Priddy in the English county of Somerset. They are designated as ancient monuments.The barrows sit on crests of land at either end of a field in an area of the Mendip Hills with several Neolithic remains. They are assumed to be related to the Priddy Circles which lie 750 metres (2,460 ft) to the north. Ashen Hill consists of six bowl barrows and two bell barrows aligned east to west while Priddy Nine Barrows divided into one group of seven round barrows and another pair slightly separated from the others. Excavations in 1815 uncovered cremation burials and grave goods. A geophysical magnetometry survey suggested that there may have been three further barrows.

Hunter's Hole (or Hunters' Hole) is a cave in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It is behind a pub, known as the Hunters Lodge Inn just outside Priddy where visitors can park. It is accessed via a permanent ladder, about 100m behind the pub in a small dip between some trees. The main cave was first entered after digging by Wessex and BEC cavers in 1954.The cave itself consists of a series of shafts down into the main chamber, named the "railway tunnel". Due to the cave mainly being the ascent and descent, it is used to practise single rope technique (SRT). It is part of the Priddy Caves Site of Special Scientific Interest and described as "an excellent example of a shaft complex draining a closed depression. The roof of the main shaft shows a variety of features such as soil and boulder bridges and scalloped and speleothem lined rifts, all draining the surface depression. This cave differs from the others at Priddy in apparently not having formed as a stream swallet."

Priddy Mineries (grid reference ST547515) is a nature reserve previously run by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. It is in the village of Priddy, on the Mendip Hills in Somerset. The reserve lies 3 miles north of Wells and 1.5 miles east of the village of Priddy. It is a site of 50 ha (123 acres) and is part of the Priddy Pools Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is mostly grassland / heather mosaic with an area of valley mire and some nutrient-poor pools. The site is one of the beauty spots of Mendip partly due to these pools with the changing colours of the vegetation and the pines and the heather slopes. It is adjacent to Stock Hill woodland, and one of the paths form part of the long distance national footpath, the Monarch's Way. There are wide range of plant and small animal species. More than 20 species of dragonflies have been recorded, most of them breeding on site. In particular this is the only site in the Mendips for the Downy Emerald. There are numerous species of water bug including Water stick-insect (Ranatra linearis) and also all British species of amphibian, except for the Natterjack Toad, in good breeding numbers. The site was worked for lead for many centuries, probably 2000 years until 1908, and the earlier workings were obliterated by those of the Victorians which left a legacy of pools, mounds and spoil heaps. The buddle pits and condensation flues are the remains of the Waldegrave lead works of that time. The site is of great interest to industrial archaeologists and also to cavers on account of the existence of Waldegrave swallet (opened 1934) and the possible rediscovery of Five Buddles Sink or Thomas Bushell’s Swallet (named after the man who first discovered it).A barrow or Tumulus can be found in the northern part of the Reserve.

Sandpit Hole and Bishop's Lot (grid reference ST531498) is a 1.8 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Ebbor Gorge in Somerset, notified in 1987. This site consists of two of the largest isolated depressions, known as dolines, occurring in the Mendip limestone area, and both appear to have been formed by the limestones being dissolved by subterranean waters and the overlying rocks then collapsing into them.

Swildon's Hole is an extensive cave in Priddy, Somerset. At 9,144 metres (30,000 ft) in length, it is the longest cave on the Mendip Hills. It has been found to be connected to Priddy Green Sink and forms part of the Priddy Caves Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The upper series of the cave compresses many features into a relatively short space. The cave goes far beyond this, however, and the lower reaches of the cave continue to provide challenges for even the most experienced of cave divers. The name may be a corruption of Swithun, an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester, as the land in the area was owned by St Swithin's Priory in Winchester.

Stock Hill (grid reference ST5551) is a Forestry Commission plantation on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England. It lies to the south of the B3135 which runs from Cheddar Gorge to Green Ore and is the largest woodland on the Mendip plateau. A number of wide rides run through the forest. In addition parts of the woodland are clear-felled, and in these areas a number of plant species associated with heathlands and acidic soils are present. It is notable as a site for scarce birds, and as a result is popular with birdwatchers. It is one of the main breeding sites in northern Somerset for nightjars. In addition, long-eared owl nests here annually. An "easy-going trail" has been constructed to enable access for people with mobility issues. The trail starts opposite the entrance to the car park and is made up of level compacted gravel. It is dedicated to Ian McArdle of the Cheddar Valley Access Group. He was a disabled man who loved Stockhill Forest and the Priddy Mineries opposite and inspired the trails creation.Some of the trails form part of the national long distance footpath, the Monarch's Way. Adjacent to the woodland on its western side (across a minor road) is Priddy Mineries, a nature reserve of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Priddy is a village in Somerset, England in the Mendip Hills, close to East Harptree and 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Wells. It is in the local government district of Mendip. The village lies in a small hollow near the summit of the Mendip range of hills, at an elevation of nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea-level, and has evidence of occupation since neolithic times. There are remains of lead mining activities and caves in the limestone beneath the village. It is the venue for the annual Priddy Folk Festival. The Sheep Fair, was last held in 2013.

Priddy Circles are a linear arrangement of four circular earthwork enclosures near the village of Priddy on the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. The circles have been listed as Scheduled Ancient Monuments, and described as 'probable Neolithic ritual or ceremonial monuments similar to a henge'.The southernmost Priddy Circle falls on adjoining land to a house and stables that are owned by retired businessman Roger Penny. In 2012 Penny was fined £10,000 after the earthwork was damaged by work he had permitted.

Wookey Hole Caves () are a series of limestone caverns, a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The River Axe flows through the cave. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. Wookey Hole cave is a "solutional cave", one that is formed by a process of weathering in which the natural acid in groundwater dissolves the rocks. Some water originates as rain that flows into streams on impervious rocks on the plateau before sinking at the limestone boundary into cave systems such as Swildon's Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthbert's Swallet; the rest is rain that percolates directly through the limestone. The temperature in the caves is a constant 11 °C (52 °F). The caves have been used by humans for around 45,000 years, demonstrated by the discovery of tools from the Palaeolithic period, along with fossilised animal remains. Evidence of Stone and Iron Age occupation continued into Roman Britain. A corn-grinding mill operated on the resurgent waters of the River Axe as early as the Domesday survey of 1086. The waters of the river are used in a handmade paper mill, the oldest extant in Britain, which began operations circa 1610. The low, constant temperature of the caves means that they can be used for maturing Cheddar cheese. The caves were the site of the first cave dives in Britain, undertaken by Jack Sheppard and Graham Balcombe in the 1930s. Since then, divers have explored the extensive network of chambers developing breathing apparatus and novel techniques in the process. The full extent of the cave system is still unknown with approximately 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), including 25 chambers, having been explored. Part of the cave system opened as a show cave in 1927 following exploratory work by Herbert E. Balch. As a tourist attraction it has been owned by Madame Tussauds and, most recently, the circus owner Gerry Cottle. The cave is notable for the Witch of Wookey Hole, a roughly human-shaped stalagmite that legend says is a witch turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury. It has also been used as a location for film and television productions, including the Doctor Who serial Revenge of the Cybermen.