Cliffs at Cheddar Gorge

Cliffs at Cheddar Gorge by Xboxrocker84 – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Facts about Cheddar Gorge


 

Cheddar is a small town in Somerset, England. The resident population is around 5,750.  It is set at the foot of the towering limestone Mendip Hills and can be approached through a gorge, the largest in the UK. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and has evidence of settlements from 14,000 years ago.

Cheddar Gorge, including the caves and other attractions, has become a tourist destination. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, following its appearance on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders in 2005, Cheddar Gorge was named as the second greatest natural wonder in Britain, surpassed only by Dan yr Ogof caves. The gorge attracts about 500,000 visitors per year.

Here are the top 10 facts about Cheddar Gorge.

1. Cheddar Gorge is is England’s largest gorge

At almost 400 feet deep and three miles long, this is England’s largest gorge, and a place of spectacular natural beauty. The gorge would have begun forming about one million years ago during the last Ice Age.

This was when water from melting glaciers formed a river, which over time started to carve into the limestone rock creating the steep cliffs visible today. The Cheddar Yeo River gradually made its way underground, creating the famous Cheddar Caves.

2. Cheddar Gorge was was the home of ‘Cheddar Man’

Image of Cheddar Gorge

Image of Cheddar Gorge by LincsPaul – Wikimedia Commons

One of these underground caves within the gorge is Gough’s Cave. Since its excavation, in 1890, Gough’s Cave has gained an international reputation for its historical and geological significance. 

The cave was the home of ‘Cheddar Man’; Britain’s oldest, complete skeleton found in 1903. It is also the site of the largest underground river system in Britain. When he was found, there were claims that the five-foot-tall ancestor was the long-sought earliest Englishman, dating back 40,000 to 80,000 years. 

3. The Cheddar Gorge is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest called Cheddar Complex

The Cheddar Complex is a 441.3 hectare (1090.5 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Cheddar around the Cheddar Gorge and north east to Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England, notified in 1952. 

A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. 

4. Flooding as a result of the end of the Ice Age created the Cheddar Gorge

River through Cheddar Gorge, Somerset

River through Cheddar Gorge, Somerset by Philippa Crabbe – Wikimedia Commons

The gorge was formed by meltwater floods during the cold periglacial periods which have occurred over the last 1.2 million years. During the ice ages, permafrost blocked the caves with ice and frozen mud and made the limestone impermeable.

When this melted during the summers, water was forced to flow on the surface, and carved out the gorge. During warmer periods, the water flowed underground through the permeable limestone, creating the caves and leaving the gorge dry, so that today much of the gorge has no river until the underground Cheddar Yeo river emerges in the lower part from Gough’s Cave. 

5. The Cheddar Gorge is owned by two separate entities

The south side of the gorge is owned and administered by the Marquess of Bath’s Longleat Estate. The cliffs on the north side of the gorge are owned by The National Trust.

Every year, both of the gorge’s owners contribute funds towards the clearance of scrub, bush and trees from the area. 

6. Live species can be found in the Cheddar Gorge 

A goat grazing on the slopes of Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, England.

A goat grazing on the slopes of Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, England by Partonez – Wikimedia Commons

Notable species at the gorge include dormice, yellow-necked mice, slowworms and adders and the rare large blue butterfly and small pearl-bordered fritillary. A wide variety of wild birds may be seen in Cheddar Gorge including peregrine falcon, buzzard, kestrel, raven and grasshopper warbler.

The flora include chalk grassland-loving species such as marjoram and wild thyme. The Cheddar pink, Dianthus gratianopolitanus, also known as firewitch,only grows in the wild in the gorge. It was once common in the gorge but declined after being picked by collectors. It is also home to a unique species of whitebeam.

7. Some caves in the Cheddar Gorge  were used for maturing cheese in prehistoric times

The two main caves open to the public are on the southside of the Gorge, owned by Longleat Estate. The extensive Gough’s Cave and the smaller Cox’s Cave are both named after their respective discoverers.

Both are known for their geology, and it has been suggested that the caves were used for maturing cheese in prehistoric times.

8. Several of the caves in the Cheddar Gorge have been scheduled as ancient monuments 

Cheddar Gorge

Cheddar Gorge by Prosthetic Head – Wikimedia commons

The Gorge’s many caves are home to colonies of Greater and Lesser horseshoe bats. In 1999, the Channel 4 television programme Time Team investigated Cooper’s Hole in an attempt to find evidence of Paleolithic human activity.

Several of the caves have been scheduled as ancient monuments as nationally important archaeological sites including: Gough’s Old Cave,Great Oone’s Hole, Saye’s Hole,[Soldier’s Hole and Sun Hole.

9. There are about 590 graded rock climbing routes in the Cheddar Gorge

Cliff Road, which runs through the Gorge, offers a popular climb for bicyclists and has a maximum gradient of 16%. The ascent featured in stage 6 of the 2011 Tour of Britain. There are about 590 graded rock climbing routes on the South side of the gorge,which are generally open to climbers between 1 October and 15 March each year.

The North side of the gorge has about 380 climbing routes and the land is predominantly owned by the National Trust and mapped as Open Access land which give a right of access for climbers all year.

10. The Cheddar Man Museum of Prehistory is inspired by  Cheddar Gorge

The Cheddar Man Museum of Prehistory inspired by the discovery of ancient hominids such as Cheddar Man contains information about the caves and their palaeontological development. Exhibits include original flint tools and human remains excavated from the caves. The Visitors’ Center and Restaurant is an important Modernist design by Geoffrey Jellicoe, dating from 1934.

Jellicoe was commissioned by the fifth Marquess of Bath, and created a two-block structure with a roof-top pool. He drew inspiration from International Modernist buildings, including the De La Warr Pavilion. The integrity of the building has been greatly compromised. In the 1960s, the glass roof to the restaurant, and the pool set above it, were removed to increase seating capacity, and it has since been re-clad in poor quality materials. Michael Spens, in his comprehensive study, The Complete Landscape Designs and Gardens of Geoffrey Jellicoe, writes that it is “now barely recognizable as a pioneer construction of the modern period”

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