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.

The Abbot's Fish House in Meare, Somerset, England, was built in the 14th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is the only surviving monastic fishery building in England.Fishing was an important source of food for the monks of Glastonbury Abbey. Fishing was carried out in artificial ponds, which were mentioned at Meare in the Domesday Book and from the River Brue and Meare Pool. The present rectangular stone building was constructed by the abbot between 1322 and 1335 for the storage and processing of the fish and as a residence for the chief fisherman. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the building fell into disrepair and it was seriously damaged by fire in the 1880s. Some restoration has been undertaken during the 20th century, including the replacement of the roof in the 1920s.

Meare Pool (also known as Ferlingmere, Ferran Mere or Meare fish pool) was a lake in the Somerset Levels in South West England. Lake villages existed there in prehistoric times. During medieval times it was an important fishery, but following extensive drainage works it had disappeared from maps in the eighteenth century.

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.

Meare Lake Village is the site of an Iron Age settlement on the Somerset Levels at Meare, Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The River Sheppey has its source in a group of springs west of the village of Doulting, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, England. It flows through the wetlands to the north of the Polden Hills and ultimately joins the River Brue.

The Whitelake River is a small river on the Somerset Levels, England. The river rises between two low limestone ridges, part of the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The confluence of the two small streams that make the Whitelake River is on Worthy Farm (which is the site of the Glastonbury Festival) between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle. It flows west for approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) until it joins the River Brue at Westhay. The Witelake was once navigable between Pilton and the confluence with the Brue. In the 1st millennium BC the land close to the confluence of Whitelake River and the Brue was the site of the Meare Pool, which was located on low-lying levels just north of Meare. During 2010 Michael Eavis received a donation from British Waterways of timber from the old gates at Caen Hill Locks in Wiltshire. This was used to construct a new bridge over the Whitelake River which was dedicated to the memory of Arabella Churchill and named "Bella's Bridge".Water from the river was sampled both upstream and downstream of Worthy Farm before, during and after the 2019 Glastonbury Festival. Concentrations of the illegal drugs MDMA and cocaine from festival-goers urinating in the open fields were high enough to harm aquatic wildlife, including a rare population of the European eel, a protected species.

Ashcott railway station was a station on the Highbridge branch of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. Opened by the Somerset Central Railway in 1856 as Ashcott and Meare, the name changed to Ashcott in 1876. Consisting of a short wooden platform and station building, the station was next to a road level crossing. This was operated with a 10 lever ground frame.

Street Heath (grid reference ST464394) is a 12.5 hectare (31.0 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest 4 km west of Glastonbury in Somerset, notified in 1966. It next to the Glastonbury Canal and Ham Wall nature reserve. Street Heath has itself been designated as a Local Nature Reserve.Street Heath is a nature reserve, managed by Somerset Wildlife Trust, which has outstanding examples of communities that were once common on the Somerset Levels. It possesses a vegetation consisting of wet and dry heath, species-rich bog and carr woodland, with transitions between all these habitats. Rare ferns present include marsh fern (Thelypteris palustris) and royal fern (Osmunda regalis). Old peat workings and rhynes have a wetland community which includes bulrush (Typha latifolia), yellow flag iris (pseudacorus), cyperus-like sedge (Carex pseudocyperus) and lesser bur-reed (Sparganium minimum). Insects recorded include 33 species of butterflies, 200 moths and 12 grasshoppers and crickets, with several notable rarities. Birds breeding in the carr woodland include the local willow tit

Sharpham Moor Plot (grid reference ST465389) is a 0.5-hectare (1.3 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Sharpham in Somerset, UK, notified in 1967. Sharpham Moor Plot is an area, predominantly of secondary woodland, on Turbary Moor Series Peat within the Somerset Moors managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. It has considerable value for its research and historic interest. The research value of the plot lies in its being the site of one of the best documented examples of natural succession. Detailed plant records exist from as far back as 1915, and continue up to the present day.

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.

Galton's Canal was a 1-mile 3 furlong (2.2 km) canal with one lock, crossing Westhay Moor in Somerset, England, and connecting the River Brue to the North Drain. It was operational by 1822, and ceased to be used after the 1850s.