Date: January 1998
Participants: Graham Beevor, Malcolm Duff, Howard Hillier-Daines, Drew Rush, Malcolm Rush, John Schmitt, Brian Shaw and Geoff Wright.
For the third year in a row we had the same 8 hikers – the first time that has ever happened.
We decided to visit the Mendips and in particular the area around Cheddar Gorge. An area previously visited during the Whitsun weekend in 1971, although Graham was actually the only member of the group to make the return trip.
John had arranged for us to stay in a B&B in Wells, a large house with 6 bedrooms – 2 more than we needed. Geoff drove down on his own and arrived first, thereby managing to grab the large 1st floor room at the front of the house, for him and Malcolm D.
Saturday
We took two cars into Cheddar and left them in a public car park. The aim for the day was head north to Dolebury Warren and then back via Beacon Batch before walking down the Gorge.
So, we walked through part of the town and took the steep footpath that led north-east, almost parallel to the Gorge up to Piney Sleight Farm.
Shortly after passing the farmhouse and small group of buildings we turned left on the path to Ashridge Farm, where we met a minor road. From here it was north to Tynings Farm.
Another change in direction, this time north-west, saw us follow the path into the southern end of the woods (Rowberrow Warren), which we followed round the western edge all the way into Rowberrow.
Our timing was as usual perfect – not only was it lunchtime but we were actually stood outside a pub. We ate our sandwiches outside and then entered the Swan Inn for liquid refreshment.
A pleasant time was spent sampling the local ale before it was decided to move on. We left the pub and prepared ourselves for the very steep climb ahead.
At the top of Dolebury Warren was the site of an Iron Age hill fort. So to reach the top it was a case of climbing what were the double ramparts on the southern side of the hill.
In addition to the prehistoric fortifications, the hill fort also contains a medieval rabbit warren. There was at one time a warrener who managed the rabbits as grazing livestock that were a reliable source of meat.
However this no longer occurs and since myxomatosis killed many rabbits, scrub has invaded the site, shading out grassland plants. Adders, badgers and foxes can also be found here, but we did not see any.
After enjoying the extensive views over north and north-east Somerset we went east along the path that hugged the northern edge of Rowberrow Warren. It was a lovely day that made for a pleasant walk and provided plenty of good views on the way.
As we reached the north-east corner of the wood we came across Read’s Cavern, a cave that Graham and Malcolm D decided to spend a little time exploring.
Having cleared the woods we followed the footpaths south-east to the trig point at the top of Beacon Batch, at 325m the highest point of the Mendips.
It was downhill from then on as we went south past Long Wood to the top of the Gorge, past Black Rock, down the Gorge into Cheddar and back to the cars.
It had been an excellent day’s walking – about 18km (11 miles) in all.
After returning to the B&B we washed and changed. It was then a stroll into town where we had great difficulty in finding somewhere to eat - finally finding a sort of bar that served food. After a fairly quick and poor meal we realised that we were in a young person’s bar (no draught beer, only bottles, and limited lighting). So we got out and found a more suitable but fairly crowded pub where we could drink real beer and play cards for the rest of the evening.
Sunday
There was an amusing start to the day as we were having breakfast downstairs in a room that was half below ground level. John had been to check the lottery numbers and had returned saying that our syndicate had won £10. As the landlady had also joined in our little flutter we used the beer kitty to pay out her share, before leaving for Wookey Hole. It was not until we went to cash-in the ticket did we realise that John had been looking at the Irish lottery numbers and we had in fact not won anything.
After packing up we drove to Wookey Hole, not far from Wells, and parked the cars behind the museum.
Wookey Hole’s main attraction is the caves that are said to have a 50,000-year history as a home to both humans and animals.
However, we were not there to explore the caves but to enjoy a short but stiff morning hike north of the town.
We walked back to the main road that led out of town in the direction
of Easton and after a short distance came across an interesting old sign. Goodness knows when the last Charabanc (a kind of open-topped bus common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century) was seen in this area.
Upon reaching the footpath on our right we turned and followed it up the hill, through the wood until we reached the top of Ebbor Gorge. It was another nice day, which made for good views. There was no hurry so we took our time walking east along the ridge before turning south on the footpath that led down the hill into Lower Milton.
From there it was a short walk by road and path back to Wookey Hole, where we found a pub to have lunch before the drive home.
It had been a great two days.