Attborough Swallet | |
---|---|
Location | Red Quar, Chewton Mendip |
OS grid | ST56105181 |
Depth | 44 metres |
Length | 244 metres |
Geology | Dolomitic Conglomerate and Marl |
Registry | Mendip Cave Registry [1] |
Attborough Swallet (also known as Red Quar Swallet) is a cave in Chewton Mendip in Somerset, England.
It is unusual for a cave on the Mendip Hills in that it is formed from Dolomitic Conglomerate and Marl rather than ordinary limestone. The main part of the cave was first entered in 1992, [2] although Red Quar Swallet had been dug in the 1930s and the entrance shaft is now a concrete pipe. [3]
It takes its name from the Attborough field in which the entrance is situated. Red Quar Swallet comes from the small scale quarrying of red Triassic conglomerate. [4]
The underground stream feeding water into the sump flows into Wigmore Swallet. [5]
Wookey Hole Caves 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. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. Wookey Hole cave is a "solutional cave", one that is formed by a process of weathering in which the natural acid in groundwater dissolves the rocks. Some water originates as rain that flows into streams on impervious rocks on the plateau before sinking at the limestone boundary into cave systems such as Swildon's Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthbert's Swallet; the rest is rain that percolates directly through the limestone. The temperature in the caves is a constant 11 °C (52 °F).
The River Axe is a river in South West England. 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. The river mouth is in Weston Bay on the Bristol Channel.
Chewton Mendip is a village and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. It is situated 4 miles (6 km) north of Wells, 16 miles (26 km) south of Bath and Bristol on the A39 very close to the A37. The village is in a valley on the Mendip Hills and is the source of the River Chew. The parish includes the hamlets of Bathway and Green Ore.
Burrington Combe is a Carboniferous Limestone gorge near the village of Burrington, on the north side of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in North Somerset, England.
Thrupe Lane Swallet is a 0.5 hectares geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset, notified in 1992. It is also a Geological Conservation Review site.
The caves of the Mendip Hills are formed by the particular geology of the Mendip Hills: large areas of limestone worn away by water makes it a national centre for caving. The hills conceal the largest underground river system in Britain.
Cox's Cave is in Cheddar Gorge on the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It is open to the public as a show cave.
Eastwater Cavern is a cave near Priddy in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It is also known as Eastwater Swallet. It was first excavated in April 1902 by a team led by Herbert E. Balch composed of paid labourers and volunteers from the Wells Natural History Society. Progress was initially slow, but by February 1903 Balch and Willcox had discovered substantial passage, following the streamway down to the bottom of the cave. Dolphin Pot was dug in 1940 by the Wessex Cave Club, with Primrose Pot following in 1950. West End series was the most recent significant discovery, in 1983.
GB Cave is a cave between Charterhouse and Shipham in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England.
St Cuthbert's Swallet is the second longest, and most complex, cave on the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It forms a major part of the Priddy Caves system and water entering this swallet re-emerges at Wookey Hole. St Cuthbert's Swallet is part of, and lies underneath, the Priddy Pools Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Shatter Cave is a cave in Fairy Cave Quarry, near Stoke St Michael in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It falls within the St. Dunstan's Well Catchment Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Fairy Cave Quarry is between Stoke St Michael and Oakhill in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England.
The Longwood Swallet is a cave near Charterhouse, in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. The cave is part of the Cheddar Complex SSSI and is connected to August Hole.
Stoke Lane Slocker is a cave near Stoke St Michael, in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip Hills, in the English county of Somerset.
Upper Flood Swallet which was originally known as Blackmoor Flood Swallet, is an exceptionally well-decorated cave near Charterhouse, in the carboniferous limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. The cave is part of the Cheddar Complex SSSI.
Sidcot Swallet is a cave near Burrington Combe, in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England.
Rod's Pot is a limestone cave above Burrington Combe in the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England.
Hunter's Hole is a cave in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It is behind a pub, known as the Hunters Lodge Inn just outside Priddy where visitors can park. It is accessed via a permanent ladder, about 100m behind the pub in a small dip between some trees.
Tyning's Barrow Swallet is a cave between Charterhouse and Shipham in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. The cave is close to GB Cave and also to Charterhouse Cave, the deepest cave in the region.
Manor Farm Swallet is a cave in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England which was subject to numerous failed digging attempts between 1947 and 1973 as the surface shafts kept collapsing. In 1973 access to the cave was gained by an artificial shaft and walling it against collapse.