Cheddar in southwest England

Thursday, 26 September 2013 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General
Reading Time:  4 minutes

Aerial view of Cheddar Gorge © Adrian Pingstone

Aerial view of Cheddar Gorge © Adrian Pingstone

Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset. It is situated on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Wells. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Nyland and Bradley Cross. The village, which has its own parish council, has a population of 5,093 and the parish has an acreage of 8,592 acres (3,477.1 ha)

Cheddar Gorge, on the northern edge of the village, is the largest gorge in the United Kingdom and includes several show caves including Gough’s Cave. The gorge has been a centre of human settlement since Neolithic times, including a Saxon palace. It has a temperate climate and provides a unique geological and biological environment that has been recognised by the designation of several Sites of Special Scientific Interest. It is also the site of several limestone quarries. The village gave its name to Cheddar cheese and has been a centre for strawberry growing, with the crop being transported on the Cheddar Valley line, which closed in the late 1960s but is now a cycle path. It is now a major tourist destination with several cultural and community facilities, including the Cheddar Show Caves Museum.

View over Cheddar © Troxx/cc-by-2.5 Toy and Model Museum on Cliff Road © geograph.org.uk - mick finn/cc-by-sa-2.0 St. Andrews Parish Church © Dbown100/cc-by-3.0 Kings Theatre at The Kings of Wessex Academy © Simple Bob/cc-by-sa-3.0 Cheddar Reservoir at dusk © PiffPuffPickle/cc-by-sa-3.0 Aerial view of Cheddar Gorge © Adrian Pingstone
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Toy and Model Museum on Cliff Road © geograph.org.uk - mick finn/cc-by-sa-2.0
Cheddar Ales is a small brewery based in the village, producing beer for local public houses. Tourism is a significant source of employment. Around 15 percent of employment in Sedgemoor is provided by tourism, but within Cheddar it is estimated to employ as many as 1,000 people. The village also has a youth hostel, and a number of camping and caravan sites.

The village of Cheddar had been important during the Roman and Saxon eras. There was a royal palace at Cheddar during the Saxon period, which was used on three occasions in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. The ruins of the palace were excavated in the 1960s. They are located on the grounds of The Kings of Wessex Academy, together with a 14th century chapel dedicated to St. Columbanus. Roman remains have also been uncovered at the site. Cheddar was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ceder.

Read more on CheddarVillage.co.uk, Cheddar Gorge, VisitSomerset.co.uk – Cheddar, Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company and Wikipedia Cheddar. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.








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