We’re lucky to enjoy an incredible location high in the Mendip Hills. An Area of Outstanding Beauty (also known as a National Landscape), it includes wooded valleys, high limestone peaks, plunging gorges and lush grasslands. The panoramic views from the farm are not only stunning; they also reveal how this remarkable landscape was formed.
The Mendips are made from carboniferous limestone, which was formed under an ocean about 400 million years ago, somewhere near the equator. Over time, countless tiny tropical sea creatures died and fell to the ocean floor, where they were gradually compacted and converted into limestone.
As plate tectonics moved the earth’s surface, the area that was to become the Mendip Hills started to shift northwards. It reared up out of the sea and became a desert for a time, then gradually, as the Earth’s surface continued to shift, some of the limestone broke up and mixed with mud and sand to create a conglomerate (dolomitic conglomerate, to be precise).
This is why, as you explore the Mendips, you will see not only dark blue areas of limestone – known as ‘black rock’ – but also areas that are muddy red in colour: this is the conglomerate.
Over vast periods of time, the limestone and the conglomerate shifted down under the sea again, got compressed by the weight of the water into sedimentary-type rock, and then rose back up out of the ocean, becoming intensely compressed that a ridge emerged in the middle. That was the birth of the hill range known as the Mendips.
The ridge contains quartzitic sandstone, carboniferous limestone, and dolomitic conglomerate. If you visit Cheddar Gorge (which you can walk to from the farm), you can see how the slabs of limestone were forced up at an angle of about 30 degrees to make the centre ridge of the Mendip Hills. These were originally a large mountain range, but were worn down over millions of years.
Water played a huge role in shaping the landscape. The Cheddar Gorge itself was carved out of the limestone by the meltwaters from three separate ice age events, which formed three observable layers in the gorge. At the retreat of the last ice age, around 12 to 10,000 years ago, elephants, hyenas, lions, hippopotamuses, and rhinoceroses lived along the edge of the Mendips.
The caves in the Mendip Hills are also a result of these ice ages; they were formed by the hundreds of millions of litres of water that flowed across the landscape and penetrated the hills, forming underground rivers that carved out the caves you see today – some of which eventually gave way to form swallet holes.
‘Swallet’ is the local name for a sinkhole; they are formed when the roof of a cave collapses, creating a hole measuring anything from a metre to a couple of hundred metres across, depending on the size of the cave that was underneath. You can spot lots of them on our land.
The area is also peppered with caves, which people have made good use of throughout the ages. As you may know, the traditional way of making Cheddar cheese is to age it in caves – something that some producers still do in the area.
We have one very important cave on our land, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to the remains that were found there. A dark and mysterious story lies behind these remains, and it has nothing to do with cheese. If you want to know more, you’ll have to come on our farm tour – more details at the end of this blog post.
Humans have inhabited the area since Palaeolithic times, and the hills have been mined since the Iron Age, with lead being the main target. In 42AD, when the Romans invaded, it did not take them long to get in on the act.
Claudius led the invasion, with Vespasian leading the Second Legion across southern Britain destroying hill forts. He went on to become emperor, and lead ingots (called ‘pigs’) inscribed with Vespasian’s name have been found on our land at Charterhouse.
Under the Romans, Mendip Hills lead travelled far and wide, making its way across the Empire. Some of the lead piping in the Roman baths at Bath came from Charterhouse, but so did some of the lead found in Roman baths in Pompeii. The Romans were not just using it for the conveyance of water; other (highly questionable) uses included make-up and food sweeteners!
Want to know more?
Our farm tours, which run on peak times such as bank holidays and school holidays, bring you up close to the history of the land we farm. James will take you by tractor and trailer to see swallets, Roman remains, our mysterious cave, and much more, journeying from the area’s prehistory right up to the present day. To get a taste of some of the other historical sights you’ll see, stay tuned for parts two and three of this blog series, coming soon!
