place

Meare

Civil parishes in SomersetSomerset LevelsVillages in Mendip District
Meare Fish House
Meare Fish House

Meare is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) north west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Westhay.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Meare (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.17 ° E -2.7789 °
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Address

Meare Village Primary School

Muddy Lane
BA6 9SP , Meare
England, United Kingdom
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Phone number

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Meare Fish House
Meare Fish House
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Manor Farmhouse, Meare
Manor Farmhouse, Meare

The Manor Farmhouse in Meare, Somerset, England, was built in the 14th century as the summer residence of the Abbots from Glastonbury Abbey and is now a farmhouse. Along with its outbuildings the farmhouse has been designated as a Grade I listed building.A building on the site in the late 13th century had a hall and south chamber, however little remains from the fabric of this building and the current structure was erected in the 14th. A chapel and cellar were included for the monks by Adam of Sodbury who was the abbot from 1323 to 1334. Richard Beere added further rooms in the early 16th century. The surrounding land provided an orchard and herb garden. There were four fish ponds. The nearby Abbot's Fish House was built around the same time as the house. The fish ponds surrounding the Fish House were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 when they were tended by ten fishermen. The fishponds, which were connected with drains and gullies were up to 30 metres (98 ft) long and 5 metres (16 ft) wide. These were connected to the Meare Pool and the River Brue. At one point 5,000 eels were caught each year. Pike, Bream and "white fish" were also caught.The two-storey building has a porch over the moulded doorway. The main hall was east of the entrance doorway and porch. The wing to the rear contains a large room on the upper floor, which contains a large stone fireplace with a stone hood. A stone figure in robes and mitre appears above the porch which is believed to represent Abbot Richard Whiting, who presided over Glastonbury at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII of England, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed on Glastonbury Tor in 1539. He is considered a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, which beatified him on 13 May 1895.

Ham Wall
Ham Wall

Ham Wall is an English wetland National Nature Reserve (NNR) 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since the last Ice Age, decomposing plants in the marshes of the Brue valley in Somerset have accumulated as deep layers of peat that were commercially exploited on a large scale in the twentieth century. Consumer demand eventually declined, and in 1994 the landowners, Fisons, gave their old workings to what is now Natural England, who passed the management of the 260 hectares (640 acres) Ham Wall section to the RSPB. The Ham Wall reserve was constructed originally to provide reed bed habitat for the Eurasian bittern, which at the time was at a very low population level in the UK. The site is divided into several sections with independently controllable water levels, and machinery and cattle are used to maintain the quality of the reed beds. There are important breeding populations of wetland birds including the rare little bittern and great white egret, and the area hosts several other uncommon animals and plants. The RSPB works with other organisations as part of the Avalon Marshes Partnership to coordinate conservation issues across the Somerset Levels. The reserve is open year-round, and has nature trails, hides and viewing points. It lies within the Somerset Levels NNR and the Somerset Levels and Moors' Ramsar and Special Area of Conservation site. Potential future threats may result from increasing unpredictability in the UK climate, leading to heavy summer rains and extensive flooding. Sea level rise will make the drainage of the Levels more difficult, and current water pumping facilities may become inadequate.

Westhay Moor
Westhay Moor

Westhay Moor (sometimes, historically, referred to as West Hay Moor) is a 513.7-hectare (1,269-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) north-east of Westhay village and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Wedmore in Somerset, England, notified in 1971. Westhay Moor is also notified as part of the Somerset Levels and Moors Special Protection Area under the EU Birds Directive and as a Ramsar site, and a National Nature Reserve.The low-lying swampy area of Westhay Moor has had peat laid down over older rocks for the last 10,000 years. The Neolithic people lived on the areas of slightly higher ground but exploited the reed beds for materials and built wooden trackways to cross the raised bog. Peat extraction on the Somerset Levels has occurred since the area was first drained by the Romans. Measures to improve the drainage were carried out in the Middle Ages largely by Glastonbury Abbey. In the 17th and 18th centuries further drainage work was undertaken including digging a series of rhynes, or ditches and larger drainage canals. Peat extraction peaked in the 1960s but has since declined. The geology of the moor and prolonged peat extraction has provided a unique environment which provides a habitat for a range of flora and fauna. Much of the nature reserve managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust is based around abandoned peatworkings which have now become flooded. It is particularly noted for the millions of starlings which roost at the site in winter.