Wookey Hole

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a Church of England church in Wookey Hole, Somerset, England, dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene. The church, which was designed by Benjamin Ferrey and his son, was built in 1873-74 and has been a Grade II listed building since 2004.

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.

St Cuthberts Mill is a British paper manufacturing company in Wells, Somerset, that specialises in mould made artists papers. The range includes traditional painting and printmaking papers, and inkjet papers.

Wookey railway station was a station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Somerset, England. The site is a 0.04 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Wells and Wookey Hole

Ebbor Gorge is a limestone gorge in Somerset, England, designated and notified in 1952 as a 63.5-hectare (157-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Mendip Hills. It was donated to the National Trust in 1967 and is now managed by Natural England as a national nature reserve. The gorge was cut mostly into the Clifton Down Limestone, part of the Lower Carboniferous Pembroke Group, by water. The site was occupied by humans in the Neolithic Era and their tools and flint arrow heads have been discovered, along with pottery from the Bronze Age. There are also fossils of small mammals from the Late Devensian. The nature reserve provides a habitat for a variety of flora and fauna, including flowers, butterflies and bats.

Underwood Quarry is a former quarry near Wells, Somerset on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills that produced Carboniferous Limestone. The rock was described as having very little faulting and a consistent nature, and as being ideal for road making and maintenance.

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.

Wookey is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Wells, on the River Axe in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Henton and the nearby hamlets of Yarley and Bleadney where the River Axe travels the length of the village. There used to be a port at Bleadney on the river in the 8th century which allowed goods to be brought to within 3 miles (5 km) of Wells. Wookey is often confused with its sister village Wookey Hole (2 miles to the north), site of the Wookey Hole Caves.

The Blue School is a coeducational, secondary school located in Wells, Somerset, England. It had 1,570 students aged 11 to 18 of both sexes and all ability levels of which 284 were in the sixth form in 2013. It is currently a Church of England voluntary controlled school. The school motto is "Recta Certa" which means 'straight and true'. It became an Academy in August 2011. An Ofsted inspection in 2007 judged the school to be 'outstanding', while the next Ofsted inspection in 2010 rated the school as 'good', with outstanding elements. A further Ofsted inspection was conducted throughout October 2013 again giving a rating of Good. The school is a Specialist Science College and in 2006 the Princess Royal opened a new science centre.

St Paul's Church is a Church of England church in Easton, Somerset, England. The church, which was designed by Richard Carver and built in 1843, has been a Grade II listed building since 1987.

Milton Lodge is a house and garden overlooking the city of Wells in the English county of Somerset. The terraced garden, which was laid out in the early 20th century, is listed as Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.

Wells (Tucker Street) railway station was the second terminus station on the Bristol and Exeter Railway's Cheddar Valley line in Somerset after the extension from the first terminus at Cheddar was opened. It was the third station on the third railway to reach the city of Wells and proved to be the longest surviving. The station was opened with the extension of the broad gauge line from Cheddar on 5 April 1870. It was converted to standard gauge in the mid-1870s and then became Wells' main station when the Cheddar Valley line was linked up to the East Somerset Railway to provide through services from Yatton to Witham in 1878. To achieve this through-running, the Great Western Railway, which had by this time taken over both the Bristol and Exeter and the East Somerset lines, had to run trains over rails owned by the separate Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway and through the S&DJR terminus station at Priory Road to the East Somerset station which was across the street. The East Somerset station at this stage closed, but GWR trains ran through Priory Road without stopping for a further 56 years, until in 1934 they started to call at the S&D station. Priory Road closed in 1951 with the closure of the S&D branch line from Glastonbury and Street, leaving Tucker Street as the only station in Wells. In fact, as the "main" station on the most direct line from other centres of population, Tucker Street station was known simply as "Wells" for the first 50 years of its life, being renamed only on 12 July 1920. It resumed the Wells name on 29 October 1951 when Priory Road shut. But Tucker Street station lasted only a dozen years longer. The Yatton to Witham line closed to passengers on 9 September 1963, though goods traffic mostly carrying stone passed through from Cheddar until 1969. The station was demolished soon after closure but the goods shed remains as commercial premises and a row of five houses built for the staff are still standing.