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Wookey Hole Caves (/ ˈ w ʊ k i /) are a series of limestone caverns, a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The River Axe flows through the cave. [3] It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. [4]
The village of Wookey Hole is dominated by the Wookey Hole Caves tourist site which has show caves and a controversial crazy golf course which was built on the site of the village bowling green. [4] The village has shops, a pub, restaurants, hotels and a campsite. The Grade II listed Church of St Mary Magdalene dates to 1873-74. [5]
The caves which are easily accessible to the public are at Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole, but the vast majority of the caves require specialist equipment and knowledge. Many of the caves are gated and operate leader systems in an attempt to reduce the damage caused when the caves are visited. [13]
Wookey Hole Caves – the name Wookey is derived from the Celtic for 'cave', "Ogo" or "Ogof" which gave the early names for this cave of "Ochie" "Ochy". Hole is Anglo-Saxon for cave, which is itself of Latin/Norman derivation. Therefore, the name Wookey Hole Cave basically means cave cave cave.
Balch became interested in stratigraphy and cave archaeology after attending a talk by William Boyd Dawkins. Balch led much of the exploration through the caves near Wookey Hole village, discovering and mapping many caves. He also made discoveries of artefacts used by the people who lived in the caves during the Iron Age. Balch was a founder ...
The river is formed by water entering swallets in the limestone and rises from the ground at Wookey Hole Caves in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, and runs through a V-shaped valley. The geology of the area is limestone and the water reaches Wookey Hole in a series of underground channels that have eroded through the soluble limestone.
In the mid-1880s, Herbert E. Balch began exploring Wookey Hole Caves and in the 1890s Balch was introduced to the caves of the Mendip Hills. Frenchman Édouard-Alfred Martel reached the underground lake of Marble Arch in Northern Ireland in 1895. In Yorkshire, he made the second descent, after Birkbeck in 1842, into the pothole of Gaping Gill ...
Penelope Powell (14 October 1904 - 1 October 1965) was a pioneering cave diver. She was Diver No. 2 for the first successful cave dive using breathing equipment in Britain [1] at Wookey Hole Caves in the Mendip Hills, Somerset on 18 August 1935. [2] [3] Powell was posthumously entered into the Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) in 2023. [4]