Exford, Somerset

The Anglican Church of St Mary Magdelene in Exford, Somerset, England was built in the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Road Castle is an Iron Age bank and ditch in the West Somerset district of Somerset, England. The hill fort is situated approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) west from the village of Winsford. The ditch is almost square in plan with rounded corners and covers an area of approximately 0.7 acres (0.28 ha).

The Anglican Church of St Andrew in Withypool, Somerset, England was built in late medieval period. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Withypool (formerly Widepolle, Widipol, Withypoole) is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Withypool and Hawkridge, in the Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, near the centre of Exmoor National Park and close to the border with Devon. The word Withy means "willow". The parish of Withypool and Hawkridge, covers 3,097 hectares (7,653 acres), includes the village of Hawkridge and has a population around 201.Withypool is in the Barle Valley on the River Barle. The village lies on the route of the Two Moors Way and the Celtic Way Exmoor Option. To the southwest of the village lie Withypool Common and Withypool Hill.

The Withypool Bridge is an arch bridge that carries a small road over the River Barle at Withypool in Somerset, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.The red sandstone bridge was built in the 19th century. It replaced an earlier bridge 100 metres (330 ft) upstream of the current site and is therefore shown on some maps as "New Bridge".The bridge was restored in 1866 and again in 1983.

Almsworthy Common is a small area of unenclosed land in Exmoor, south-western England. It contains a number of archaeological sites. It is about 2 miles north of Exford roughly 0.5 km2 in area, and the Macmillan Way West passes through it, as does the parish boundary between Exford and Porlock. It reaches a height of 453 metres.Stone settings are arrangements of upright stones either scattered randomly or in a roughly geometric pattern. They are the most common form of stone monument found on Exmoor, with 57 conclusively recorded examples in this area. A large number are known to have existed but have been destroyed.560 m south west of Chetsford Bridge is a stone alignment. The archaeologist Aubrey Burl stated that an "eye of faith" was needed to identify "either a ring or a set of rows." The Ordnance Survey list it as a "Stone Circle" on their map. In his 1970 study of the archaeology of Exmoor, Leslie Grinsell thought that it was "probably" a stone circle.The common is also the site of one of the best preserved hut circles on Exmoor.

Nutscale Reservoir is a reservoir located in Exmoor in north west Somerset, England. It supplies the town of Minehead and nearby Porlock and Porlock Weir. The reservoir is part of the River Horner catchment area, and is dammed. Nutscale Reservoir is fed by Nutscale Water and water is piped to the Porlock Treatment Works, supplying around 3,000 cubic metres (110,000 cu ft) per day, and to six other farms and camp sites. The reservoir was built in 1942, to hold 36,000,000 imperial gallons (160,000,000 L; 43,000,000 US gal). This was intended to relieve summer droughts in Minehead. It typically provides good quality water, although high levels of geosmin were recorded in 2008. To manage the effects of this on tap water systems were developed to remove this reservoir from the drinking water supply when necessary and flush the pipe carrying the water.The fishing rights to the reservoir are owned by the National Trust, as part of its Holnicote Estate, and leased out privately.

Alderman's Barrow is a bowl barrow on Exmoor. It was created as a burial chamber in the Bronze Age and subsequently became a marker for the boundary of the parishes of Exford, Exmoor, Luccombe and Porlock. It was known as Osmunesburgh in the 13th century, Owlaman's Burrow in the 17th century and was named Alderman's Barrow in 1782. It was protected as a scheduled monument in 1934.

Withypool Stone Circle, also known as Withypool Hill Stone Circle, is a stone circle located on the Exmoor moorland, near the village of Withypool in the southwestern English county of Somerset. The ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders. Many monuments were built in Exmoor during the Bronze Age, but only two stone circles survive in this area: the other is Porlock Stone Circle. The Withypool ring is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill, on an area of heathland. It is about 36.4 metres (119 feet 5 inches) in diameter. Around thirty small gritstones remain, although there may originally have been around 100; there are conspicuous gaps on the northern and western sides of the monument. The site was rediscovered in 1898 and surveyed by the archaeologist Harold St George Gray in 1905.

Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath. Exmoor is more precisely defined as the area of the former ancient royal hunting forest, also called Exmoor, which was officially surveyed 1815–1818 as 18,810 acres (7,610 ha) in extent. The moor has given its name to a National Park, which includes the Brendon Hills, the East Lyn Valley, the Vale of Porlock and 55 km (34 mi) of the Bristol Channel coast. The total area of the Exmoor National Park is 692.8 km2 (267.5 sq mi), of which 71% is in Somerset and 29% in Devon. The upland area is underlain by sedimentary rocks dating from the Devonian and early Carboniferous periods with Triassic and Jurassic age rocks on lower slopes. Where these reach the coast, cliffs are formed which are cut with ravines and waterfalls. It was recognised as a heritage coast in 1991. The highest point on Exmoor is Dunkery Beacon; at 519 metres (1,703 ft) it is also the highest point in Somerset. The terrain supports lowland heath communities, ancient woodland and blanket mire which provide habitats for scarce flora and fauna. There have also been reports of the Beast of Exmoor, a cryptozoological cat roaming Exmoor. Several areas have been designated as Nature Conservation Review and Geological Conservation Review sites. There is evidence of human occupation from the Mesolithic. This developed for agriculture and extraction of mineral ores into the Bronze and Iron Ages. The remains of standing stones, cairns and bridges can still be identified. The royal forest was granted a charter in the 13th century, however foresters who managed the area were identified in the Domesday Book. In the Middle Ages sheep farming was common with a system of agistment licensing the grazing of livestock as the Inclosure Acts divided up the land. The area is now used for a range of recreational purposes.

Stoke Pero Church in Stoke Pero, Somerset, England was built in the 13th century. It is a Grade II* listed building. Standing 1,013 feet (309 meters) above sea level, it is the highest church on Exmoor.

South Exmoor (grid reference SS880340) is a 3132.7 hectare (7742.3 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Devon and Somerset, England, notified in 1992. The site consists of several fragments of land on the south side of Exmoor. In Devon the site includes Barcombe Down and North Molton Ridge, southeast of South Radworthy, Molland Common, north of Molland, and West Ansty and East Ansty Commons. In Somerset the site includes Brightworthy Barrows and part of Withypool Common, Winsford Hill and Haddon Hill, all within the Exmoor National Park. The site contains extensive areas of heathland including lowland communities which are only found in South West England and South Wales. The River Barle and its tributaries flow through parts of the site and submerged plants such as alternate watermilfoil (Myriophyllum alterniflorum) are abundant. There are small areas of semi-natural woodland within the site, including some which are ancient. The most abundant tree species is sessile oak (Quercus petraea), the shrub layer is very sparse and the ground flora includes bracken, bilberry and a variety of mosses. The heaths have strong breeding populations of whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) and European stonechat (Saxicola rubicola). northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) are common near stone boundary walls and other stony places. Grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia) breed in scrub and tall heath. Trees on the moorland edges provide nesting sites for common redpoll (Acanthis flammea), common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and common raven (Corvus corax).