Wookey Hole

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Wookey Hole
Somerset

Wookey Hole village
Location
Grid reference: ST530474
Location: 51°13’26"N, 2°40’28"W
Data
Population: 3,498
Post town: Wells
Postcode: BA5
Dialling code: 01749
Local Government
Council: Mendip
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Wells

Wookey Hole is a famous cave in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, and also a village at the mouth of the cave. The village is within the parish of St Cuthbert Out, near the City of Wells.

The village of Wookey Hole is dominated by the Wookey Hole Caves tourist site which has show caves and a controversial crazy golf course which was built on the site of the village bowling green.[1]

The village has shops, a pub, restaurants, hotels and a campsite.

Name

The name 'Wookey' is of uncertain origin. One theory is that it is the Old English wocig ("snare" or "noose").,[2] although it is also a possible alteration from the British language word ogo (cave, similar to the Modern Welsh ogof).[3][4]

About the village

Glencot House

Glencot House is a Grade II listed country house dating from 1887, by Ernest George and Harold Peto, for W S Hodgkinson. A report of the building appeared in The Building News, 13 May 1887; the architect's drawing was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and is now at Royal Institute of British Architects.[5]

The 18th-century Bubwith farmhouse is also a Grade II listed building,[6] as is the post office in the high street.[7]

The Monarch's Way and Mendip Way long-distance footpaths both pass through the village. Ebbor Gorge National Nature Reserve is just outside the village.

The Caves

Subterranean Lake at Wookey Hole
Cheddar Cheeses in Wookey Hole Caves
The River Axe emerging from Wookey Hole

The Wookey Hole Caves are a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills.

Wookey Hole cave was formed through erosion of the limestone hills by the River Axe. Before emerging at Wookey Hole the water enters underground streams and passes through other caves such as Swildon's Hole and St Cuthbert's Swallet. After resurging, the waters of the River Axe are used in a handmade paper mill, the oldest extant in Britain, which began operations circa 1610, although a corn grinding mill operated there as early as 1086.[8]

Nearby is the limestone Ebbor Gorge, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a more tranquil spot than the busy Wookey Hole, which is itself an SSSI for both biological and geological reasons.[9]

The cave is noted for the Witch of Wookey Hole – a roughly human shaped rock outcrop, reputedly turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury. It is also the site of the first cave dives in Britain.

The caves, at a constant temperature of 11.0 °C (51.8 °F), have been used by man for around 50,000 years. The low temperature means that the caves can be used for maturing Cheddar cheese.[10]

History

Wookey Hole was occupied by man in the Iron Age, while nearby Hyena Cave was occupied by Stone Age hunters. Badger Hole and Rhinoceros Hole are two dry caves on the slopes above the Wookey ravine near the Wookey Hole resurgence and contain in situ cave sediments laid down during the Ice Age.[9]

In 1544 products of Roman lead working in the area were discovered. The lead mines across the Mendips have produced contamination of the water emerging from the underground caverns at Wookey Hole. The lead in the water is believed to have affected the quality of the paper produced.[11]

Cave archaeology

Archaeological investigations were undertaken from 1859 to 1874 by William Boyd Dawkins, who moved to Somerset to study classics with the vicar of Wookey. On hearing of the discovery of bones by local workmen he led excavations in the area of the hyena den. His work led to the discovery of the first evidence for the use by Palaeolithic man in the Caves of the Mendip Hills.

Herbert E. Balch continued the work from 1904 to 1914,[12] where he led excavations of the entrance passage (1904–15), Witch's Kitchen (Chamber 1) and Hell's Ladder (1926–1927) and the Badger Hole (1938–1954), where Roman coins from the 3rd century were discovered along with Aurignacian flint implements.[13] The 1911 work found a 4 to 7 feet of stratification, mostly dating from the Iron Age and sealed into place by Romano-British artefacts. Finds included a silver coin of Marcia (124BC), pottery, weapons and tools, bronze ornaments, and Roman coins from Vespasian to Valentinian II.[14]

E J Mason from 1946 to 1949, and G R Morgan in 1972 continued the work.[15] Books by Dawkins and Balch are now prized items amongst those with an interest in cave archaeology.

Later work led by Edgar Kingsley Tratman (1899–1978) OBE DSc MD FSA explored the human occupation of the Rhinoceros hole, and showed that the fourth chamber of the great cave was a Romano-British cemetery.

During excavations in 1954-7 at Hole Ground, just outside the entrance to the cave, the foundations of a 1st-century hut and Iron Age pottery were seen. These were covered by the foundations of Roman buildings, dating from the 1st to the late 4th century.[16]

Exploration

The cave as far as the Third Chamber and side galleries has always been known. Prior to the construction of a dam at the resurgence to feed water to the paper mill downstream, two more chambers (the Fourth and Fifth) were accessible. Further upstream the way on lay underwater.

Diving was first tried by the Cave Diving Group under the leadership of Graham Balcombe in 1935. With equipment on loan from Siebe Gorman, he and Penelope ("Mossy") Powell penetrated 170 feet into the cave, reaching "Chamber 7" using standard diving dress. The events marked the first successful cave dives in Britain.[17][18]

Diving at Wookey resumed in early June 1946 when Balcombe used his home-made respirator and waterproof suit to explore the region between Resurgence and First Chamber, as well as the underground course of the river between Chamber 3 and Chamber 1. During these dives, the Romano-British remains were found and archaeological work dominated the early dives in the cave. The large Ninth Chamber was first entered on 24 April 1948 by Balcombe and Don Coase. Using this as an advance dive base, the Tenth and then Eleventh Chambers were discovered. The way on, however, was too deep for divers breathing pure oxygen from a closed-circuit rebreather. The cave claimed its first life on 9 April 1949 when Gordon Marriott lost his life returning from Chamber 9. Another fatality was to occur in 1981 when Keith Potter was drowned on a routine dive further upstream.

Further progress required apparatus which could overcome the depth limitation of breathing pure oxygen. In 1955 using an aqualung and swimming with fins, Bob Davies reached the bottom of Chamber 11 at 49 ft depth in clear water and discovered the 12th and 13th Chambers. Unfortunately, he got separated from his guideline and the other two divers in Chamber 11, ending up spending three hours trapped in Chamber 13 and had much trouble getting back to safety.[19] Opinion hardened against the use of the short-duration aqualung in favour of longer-duration closed-circuit equipment. Likewise, the traditional approach of walking along the bottom was preferred over swimming.

Employing semi-closed circuit nitrogen-oxygen rebreathers, between 1957 and 1960 John Buxton and Oliver Wells (grandson of science fiction writer H G Wells) went on to reach the elbow of the sump upstream from Chamber 9 at a depth of 72 feet.[18] This was at a point known as "The Slot", the way on being too deep for the gas mixture they were breathing.

A six-year hiatus ensued while open circuit air diving became established, along with free-swimming and the use of neoprene wetsuits. The new generation of cave diver was now more mobile above- and under-water and able to dive deeper. Using this approach, Dave Savage was able to reach air surface in the 18th Chamber (Chambers did not have to have air spaces to be so named; they were the limits of each exploration) in May 1966. A brief lull in exploration occurred while the mess of guidelines laid from Chamber 9 was sorted out until John Parker progressed first to the large, dry, inlet passage of Chamber 20 and thence followed the River Axe upstream to Chamber 22 where the way on appeared to be lost.

Meanwhile, climbing operations in Chamber 9 found an abandoned outlet passage which terminated very close to the surface, as well as a dry overland route downstream through the higher levels of Chambers 8 to 6 as far as Chamber 5. These discoveries were used to enable the show cave to be extended into Chamber 9 and the cave divers to start directly from here, bypassing the dive from Chamber 3 onwards.

Eventually, on 23 February 1976, Colin Edmunds found a way on in the static sump at the far end of Chamber 22. Controversially, he was beaten to the discovery of the magnificent active streamway of Chamber 24 by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham a couple of days later. Edmunds returned with Martyn Farr on 27 February 1976 when the latter was able to dive from Chamber 24 into Chamber 25. To this day, Chamber 25 represents the furthest upstream air surface in Wookey Hole Cave. From here the River Axe rises up from a deep sump where progressive depth records for cave diving in the British Isles have been set: firstly by Farr (148 feet) in 1977, then Rob Parker (223 feet) in 1985, and finally by John Volanthen and Rick Stanton (249 feet) in 2004.[20] The pair returned again in 2005 to explore the sump to a depth of 295.3 ft (90.0 m), setting a new British Isles depth record for cave diving.[21] This record was broken in 2008 by Polish explorer Artur Kozłowski on a dive in Pollatoomary in Ireland.[22]

During 1996–1997 water samples were collected at various points throughout the caves and showed different chemical compositions. Results showed that the location of the "Unknown Junction", from where water flows to the Static Sump in Chamber 22 by a different route from the majority of the River Axe, is upstream of Sump 25.[23]

Witch of Wookey Hole

Skeleton in Wells and Mendip Museum labelled as the Witch of Wookey Hole

There are old legends of a "witch of Wookey Hole", which are still preserved in the name of a stalagmite in the first chamber of the caves. The story has several different versions with the same basic features:

A man from Glastonbury is betrothed to a girl from Wookey. A witch living in Wookey Hole Caves curses the romance so that it fails. The man, now a monk, seeks revenge on this witch who—having been jilted herself—frequently spoils budding relationships. The monk stalks the witch into the cave and she hides in a dark corner near one of the underground rivers. The monk blesses the water and splashes some of it at the dark parts of the cave. Catching the witch off guard, the monk splashes the water at the dark corner she is hiding in. The blessed water immediately petrifies the witch, and she remains in the cave to this day.[24][25]

A 1000-year-old skeleton of a woman was discovered in the caves by Herbert E Balch in 1912, and has also traditionally been linked to the legendary witch. The remains have been part of the collection of the Wells and Mendip Museum, which was founded by Balch, since they were excavated, though in 2004 the owner of the Caves said that he wanted them to be returned to Wookey Hole.[26]

In 2009 a new 'witch' was chosen by Wookey Hole Ltd amid much media interest. Carole Bohanan in the role of Carla Calamity was selected ahead of over 3,000 other applicants.[27]

Tourism

Paper mill

The current paper mill building, whose water wheel is powered by a small canal from the river, dates from around 1860 and is a Grade II-listed building.[28] The production of handmade paper ceased in February 2008 after owner Gerry Cottle concluded there was no longer a market for the product, and therefore sold most of the historic machinery. Visitors to the site are still able to watch a short video of the paper being made from cotton. Other attractions include the dinosaur yard, a small museum about the cave and cave diving, a theatre with circus shows, House of mirrors and Penny arcades. Bear Shop.

The caves were owned for over 500 years by the Hodgkinson family. The cave and mill were joined, after purchase, by Madame Tussauds in 1973 and operated together as a tourist attraction. Tussauds sold the collection of fairground art of Wookey Hole in 1997 to Gerry Cottle, who purchased the site for around £6million.[29]

On 1 August 2006, CNN reported that Barney, a Doberman Pinscher employed as a security dog at Wookey Hole, had destroyed parts of a valuable collection of teddy bears, including one which had belonged to Elvis Presley, which was estimated to be worth $75,000. The insurance company insuring the exhibition of stuffed animals had insisted on having guard dog protection. :"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the six-year-old Doberman Pinscher named Barney. A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.[30]

In February 2009 Cottle turned the Victorian bowling green next to the caves into a crazy golf course without first obtaining planning permission.[31]

Popular culture

Early Penny arcade machine at Wookey Hole

The cave was used for the filming of episodes of the BBC TV series Doctor Who: the serial Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) starring Tom Baker. The caves were used again for Doctor Who in The End of Time (2009), including a scene with the Doctor sharing thoughts and visions with the Ood.

The cave was also used in the filming of the British series "Blake's 7" (1978) and "Robin of Sherwood" (1983).

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Wookey Hole)
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Wookey Hole Caves)

References

  1. ↑ "Pirate ship sails into Wookey Hole Caves crazy golf row". Bristol Evening Post (This is Bristol). 2009-02-13. http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Pirate-ship-sails-Wookey-Hole-Caves-crazy-golf-row/article-698007-detail/article.html. Retrieved 2009-10-20. 
  2. ↑ Robinson, Stephen (1992). Somerset Place Names. Wimborne, Dorset: The Dovecote Press Ltd. ISBN 1-874336-03-2. 
  3. ↑ Anderson, Flavia (1955). "Review - The Ancient Secret. In Search of the Holy Grail.". French Studies IX (3): 252–253. doi:10.1093/fs/IX.3.252. http://fs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/IX/3/252. 
  4. ↑ Holmes, Thomas Scott. The History of the Parish and Manor of Wookey. http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofparishm00holmrich. 
  5. ↑ National Heritage List 1345154: Glencot and terraces at rear
  6. ↑ National Heritage List 1177979: Bubwith Farmhouse and forecourt wall
  7. ↑ National Heritage List 1345155: Post Office
  8. ↑ "Wookey Hole Paper Mill". http://www.wookey.co.uk/papermill.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-23. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Wookey Hole". SSSI citation. English Nature. http://www.english-nature.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1001272.pdf. Retrieved 20 November 2008. 
  10. ↑ "Inside the cave". Ford Farm. http://www.fordfarm.com/default.aspx?p=inside_the_cave. Retrieved 2007-02-23. 
  11. ↑ Gough, J.W. (1967). The mines of Mendip. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/B0000CNKWB. 
  12. ↑ "A Potted History of H. E. Balch 1869 -1958". Bristol Exploration Club. http://www.bec-cave.org.uk/content/view/533/32/1/9/. Retrieved 2007-02-23. 
  13. ↑ "Badger Hole cave, Wookey Hole". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=24354. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  14. ↑ "Wookey Hole Cave, Wookey Hole". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=24355. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  15. ↑ "Hyena Cave, Wookey Hole". Hominid bearing caves in the south west. http://capra.group.shef.ac.uk/1/swest.html#Hyaena%20Den. Retrieved 2007-02-23. 
  16. ↑ "Prehistoric and Roman occupation, Hole Ground, Wookey Hole". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=24440. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  17. ↑ "UK Caves Database". http://www.ukcaves.co.uk/. Retrieved 2007-02-23. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Buxton, John S.. "The Cave Diving Group". CDG. http://www.cavedivinggroup.org.uk/Essays/History/JBArticle.html. Retrieved 2008-09-28. 
  19. ↑ "CDG History 1950–1959". Cave Diving Group. http://www.cavedivinggroup.org.uk/Essays/History/1950.html. Retrieved 12 July 2012. 
  20. ↑ "Divers head for new depth record". BBC. 2004-09-30. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/3703800.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-10. 
  21. ↑ WOOKEY HOLE 75 years of cave diving & exploration. Wells: Cave Diving Group. 2010. ISBN 978-0-901031-07-5. 
  22. ↑ Gallagher, Emer (16 July 2008). "Explorer plunges to new depths in Mayo". Mayo News. http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&id=4721. Retrieved 21 September 2011. 
  23. ↑ Chapman, T.A.; Gee, A.V. Knights, C. Stell & R.D. Stenner. "Water studies in Wookey Hole Cave, Somerset, UK". Cave and Karst Science 26 (3): 107–113. http://bcra.org.uk/pub/candks.oldformat/v26_3.html. 
  24. ↑ Leete-Hodge, Lornie (1985). Curiosities of Somerset. Bodmin: Bossiney Books. p. 25. ISBN 0-906456-98-3. 
  25. ↑ "The Wookey Hole Witch". This is Bristol. http://beehive.thisisbristol.com/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=7602&PageID=40527. Retrieved 2008-03-01. 
  26. ↑ "Row breaks out over cave bones". BBC News. 5 June 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/3779505.stm. 
  27. ↑ New Witch for Wookey Hole, Witchology.com, 29 July 2009, . Retrieved 16 Sept 2009.
  28. ↑ National Heritage List 1058601: Wookey Hole Paper Mill
  29. ↑ "Wokey Hole Caves". UK activity report. UK Business Park. 2002-10-16. http://www.ukbusinesspark.co.uk/wos76796.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-26. 
  30. ↑ "Elvis' teddy bear leaves building the hard way: Guard dog rips head off Presley's $75,000 toy in stuffed-animal rampage". Associated Press. 3 August 2006. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14154738/. Retrieved 2007-08-28. 
  31. ↑ "Pirate ship sails into Wookey Hole Caves crazy golf row". Bristol Evening Post (This is Bristol). 2009-02-13. http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Pirate-ship-sails-Wookey-Hole-Caves-crazy-golf-row/article-698007-detail/article.html. Retrieved 2009-10-20. 

Books

  • Balch, H E (1948). Mendip - Its Swallet Caves and Rock Shelters. Bristol: Wright. 
  • Balch, H E (1913). "Further excavations at the late-Celtic and Romano-British cave-dwelling at Wookey Hole, Somerset". Archaeologia 64: 337–346. 
  • Balch, H.E. (1928) Excavations at Wookey Hole and other Mendip caves 1926-7. Antiquaries Journal 8: 193-210.
  • Balch, H.E. & Troup, R.D.R. (1911) A late Celtic and Romano-British cave-dwelling at Wookey-Hole, near Wells, Somerset. Archaeologia 62: 565-592.
  • Bell, Alan (1928) Wookey Hole: The cave & its history. A description and history of the three great caverns, their ancient occupation and the legend of the witch of Wookey.
  • Branigan, K. & Dearne, M.J. (1990) The Romano-British finds from Wookey Hole: a re-appraisal. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society 134: 57-80.
  • Branigan, K. & Dearne, M.J. (1991) A Gazetteer of Romano-British Cave Sites and their Finds. Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield.
  • Dawkins, W.B. (1862) On a hyaena den at Wookey Hole, near Wells. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 18: 115-126.
  • Dawkins, W.B. (1863) On a hyaena den at Wookey Hole, near Wells. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 19: 260-274.
  • Dawkins, W.B. (1874) Cave Hunting. London, MacMillan.
  • Farr, Martyn (1991). The Darkness Beckons. London: Diadem Books. ISBN 0-939748-32-0. 
  • Hanwell, J.D, Price, D.M. & Witcombe, R.G. (eds.) WOOKEY HOLE 75 years of cave diving & exploration. Wells: Cave Diving Group. 2010. ISBN 978-0-901031-07-5. 
  • Hawkes, C.F.C. (1950) Wookey Hole. Archaeological Journal 107: 92-93.
  • Hawkes, C.J., Rogers, J.M. & Tratman, E.K. (1978) Romano-British cemetery in the fourth chamber of Wookey Hole Cave, Somerset. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 15: 23-52.
  • Jacobi, R.M. & Hawkes, C.J. (1993) Archaeological notes: work at the Hyaena Den, Wookey Hole. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 19: 369-371.
  • Mason, E.J. (1950) Note on recent exploration in Wookey Hole. Archaeological Journal 107: 93-94.
  • Mason, E.J. (1951) Report of human remains and materials recovered from the River Axe in the Great Cave of Wookey Hole during diving operations from October 1947 to Jan. 1949. Transactions of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society 96: 238-243.
  • McBurney, C.B.M. (1961) Two soundings in the Badger Hole near Wookey Hole in 1958 and their bearing on the Palaeolithic finds of the late H.E. Balch. Mendip Nature Research Committee Report 50/51: 19-27.
  • McComb, P. (1989) Upper Palaeolithic Artefacts from Britain and Belgium. An Inventory and Technological Description. British Archaeological Reports International Series 481.
  • Sanford, W.A. (1870) On the rodentia of the Somerset caves. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 26: 124-131.
  • Shaw, T.R. (1996) Why some caves become famous - Wookey Hole, England. Cave and Karst Science 23: 17-23.
  • Stack, M.V. & Coles, S.G. (1983) Concentrations of lead, cadmium, copper and zinc in teeth from a cave used for Romano-British burials: effect of lead contamination. . Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 16: 193-200.
  • Tratman, E.K. et al. (1971) The Hyaena Den (Wookey Hole), Mendip Hills, Somerset. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 12: 245-279.
  • Tratman, E.K. (1975) The cave archaeology and palaeontology of Mendip. In Smith, D.I. & Drew, D.P. (eds) Limestones and Caves of the Mendip Hills. David and Charles, Newton Abbott, pp. 352–403.
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