Wookey Hole

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The entrance to Wookey Hole.

Wookey Hole is a tourist cave in Somerset, England, on the southern edge of the limestone Mendip hills named for the adjacent village of Wookey and 3 km from Wells. It was formed by the action of the River Axe. Before passing through Wookey Hole, the waters of the River Axe pass through another cave, Swildon's Hole. After resurging from Wookey Hole, the waters of the River Axe are used in a handmade paper mill, the oldest extant in Britain, which began operations ca. 1610, although a corn grinding mill operated there as early as 1086. [1]

Nearby can be found the limestone Ebbor Gorge, a more tranquil spot than the busy Wookey Hole.

Especially famous is the Witch of Wookey Hole - a roughly human shaped rock outcrop, reputedly turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury.

The caves, at a constant 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit), have been used by humans for around 50,000 years.

1 History
2 Archaeology
3 Exploration
4 Tourism
5 References
6 Further reading

[edit] History

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.^[1]

[edit] Archaeology

Archaeological investigations were undertaken by W. B. Dawkins, from 1859 to 1874, by Herbert. E. Balch from 1904 to 1914 [2], E. J. Mason from 1946 to 1949, and G. R. Morgan in 1972. [3] Books by Dawkins and Balch are now prized items amongst those with an interest in cave archaeology.

[edit] Exploration

The cave was explored by cave divers from the Cave Diving Group of Great Britain starting in the 1930s. In 1935, two Post Office engineers, F. G. Balcombe and J. A. Sheppard penetrated 52 metres into the cave, reaching "Chamber 7" using standard dive dress. The event was the first successful cave dive in Britain. [4]

Chamber 9 was reached in 1948. In April 1949, Gordon Marriott was killed while exploring the cave. The divers discovered archaeological materials in the course of these explorations.

These early explorations used oxygen, good only for dives of up to 30 feet (9 metres.) Experiments with early scuba gear (referred to as aqualungs at the time) were undertaken, nearly ending in tragedy. Bob Davies explored Chamber 13, in 1955 "on open circuit equipment with fins." Losing his dive line, Davies was trapped for 3 hours. Thereafter, as the nascent SCUBA technology improved, the cave divers focused their attention on closed-circuit rebreather systems.

John S. Buxton, Thompson, George, and Oliver Craig Wells (grandson of science fiction writer H. G. Wells) continued the exploration of Wookey Hole in the 1950s. In April of 1957, Nitrox rebreather systems were used by Buxton and Wells in exploring beyond the point in the cave designated as "Wookey 13." According to the Cave Diving Group web site, on this trip, "Suit inflation [was] used with dry suits, a significant development." In 1960, again using the rebreather technology, Buxton, Thompson and George reached Wookey Chamber 15: one of the explorers (Buxton) penetrated a feature called "The Slot": reaching "ongoing passage at 70ft (22m) depth." [5]

In 1960, a homemade wet suit was used. In January 1970 John Parker reached Chamber 20, and thereafter Chamber 22.

[edit] Tourism

The cave and mill were joined, by purchase, by Madame Tussauds in 1973 and operated together as a tourist attraction. The present owner and manager is Gerry Cottle. [6]

In the 1970s, extensive tunneling and construction work was carried out to enable members of the public to pass beyond chamber 4 into sections of the cave that had previously only been accessible to cave divers.

On August 1, 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 valued to be worth $75,000. [7]

[edit] References

^ Gough, J.W. (1967). The mines of Mendip. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/B0000CNKWB.

[edit] Further reading

Wookey Hole Caves / Paper Mill / Museum
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.