-Mendip
| Mendip caves | ||
| Introduction | Cheddar catchment | Wookey catchment | Burrington area | Eastern Mendip | Western Mendip | ||
Eastern Mendip |
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| There are
few large caves on eastern Mendip. However, several well decorated
cave systems converge on St Dunstan's Well, near Stoke St Michael.
In Fairy Cave Quarry, quarrying intersected several caves including
two very well decorated passages, the Shatter and Hillwithy caves
that form part of the 4.5 km long Fairy Cave system. These are fed
by stream sinks along the northern flank of Beacon Hill including
Withybrook Slocker. Another feeder to St Dunstan's Well is Stoke
Lane Slocker, a stream cave 2.18 km long with some well decorated
chambers, one of which was found to contain archaeological material.
To the west, another series of stream sinks around Binegar probably drain to Gurney Slade Rising. On the south side of Beacon Hill, several stream sinks, including Windsor Hill Swallet, drain to St Andrews Risings in Wells. One of these, Thrupe Lane Swallet, has been explored to a depth of over 120 m, and contains the single largest vertical shaft on Mendip, the 60 m deep Atlas Pot. At Downhead, a series of stream sinks including Downhead Slocker,
Heale Slocker and Dairy House Slocker drain to Seven Springs and
possibly Holwell Risings, but the flow has been much affected by
the Torr Works quarry. A few small caves occur here. Quarrying
at Whatley has also affected the flow at the Mells River Sink which
intercepts the underground flow converging on the Hapsford Risings.
The Mells River Sink once acted as a spring in wet weather, but now only acts as
a stream sink. |
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