The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Chew Valley and other tributaries of the Avon to the north. The hills give their name to the local government district of Mendip, which administers most of the area. The higher, western part of the hills, covering 198 km2 (76 sq mi) has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which gives it a level of protection comparable to a national park.
Little Solsbury Hill is a small flat-topped hill and the site of an Iron Age hill fort, above the village of Batheaston in Somerset, England. The hill rises to 625 feet (191 m) above the River Avon, which is just over 1 mile (2 km) to the south, and gives views of the city of Bath and the surrounding area. It is within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Dundry Hill is immediately south of Bristol, England: it includes farmland, a small number of houses and a church. It stretches east–west for some two miles. Most of the hill is within the district of North Somerset. At the hill's eastern end the southern slopes are within Bath and North East Somerset, and the northern slopes are within the city and county of Bristol, including the highest point in that county.
Bruton is a market town, electoral ward, and civil parish in Somerset, England, on the River Brue and the A359 between Frome and Yeovil. It is 7 miles south-east of Shepton Mallet, just south of Snakelake Hill and Coombe Hill, 10 miles north-west of Gillingham and 12 miles south-west of Frome in South Somerset district. The town and ward have a population of 2,907. The parish includes the hamlets of Wyke Champflower and Redlynch. Bruton has a museum of items from the Jurassic era onwards.
In the geologic timescale the Bathonian is an age and stage of the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 168.3 Ma to around 166.1 Ma. The Bathonian Age succeeds the Bajocian Age and precedes the Callovian Age.
Somerset is a rural county in the southwest of England, covering 4,171 square kilometres (1,610 sq mi). It is bounded on the north-west by the Bristol Channel, on the north by Bristol and Gloucestershire, on the north-east by Wiltshire, on the south-east by Dorset, and on the south west and west by Devon. It has broad central plains with several ranges of low hills. The landscape divides into four main geological sections from the Silurian through the Devonian and Carboniferous to the Permian which influence the landscape, together with water-related features.
The Chew Valley is an affluent area in North Somerset, England, named after the River Chew, which rises at Chewton Mendip, and joins the River Avon at Keynsham. Technically, the area of the valley is bounded by the water catchment area of the Chew and its tributaries; however, the name Chew Valley is often used less formally to cover other nearby areas, for example, Blagdon Lake and its environs, which by a stricter definition are part of the Yeo Valley. The valley is an area of rich arable and dairy farmland, interspersed with a number of villages.
Barns Batch Spinney is a 0.06-hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Dundry, North Somerset, notified in 1987.
Combe Down and Bathampton Down Quarries make up a 6.22 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Bath and North East Somerset, England, important for its bat population. The disused quarries date from the 17th and 18th centuries and were the source of Bath stone for the city of Bath and elsewhere in the UK. A five-year project to stabilise the quarry workings was largely completed by November 2009.
The Cheddar Complex is a 441.3-hectare (1,090-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Cheddar around the Cheddar Gorge and north east to Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England, notified in 1952.
Cook's Wood Quarry also known as Holcombe Quarry is a 0.8-hectare (2.0-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Stoke St Michael on the Mendip Hills in Somerset, notified in 1988.
Godminster Lane Quarry and Railway Cutting is a 0.8 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Pitcombe in Somerset, notified in 1971.
Seavington St. Mary is a 0.3 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Seavington St Mary in Somerset, notified in 1971.
Stoke St Michael is a village and civil parish on the Mendip Hills 4 miles (6.4 km) north east of Shepton Mallet, and 8 miles (12.9 km) west of Frome, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England.
Pitcombe is a village and civil parish 1 mile (2 km) south-west of Bruton and 5 miles (8 km) from Wincanton in Somerset, England. It has a population of 532. The parish includes the hamlets of Cole and Godminster.
Doulting Stone Quarry is a limestone quarry at Doulting, on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England.
The Inferior Oolite is a sequence of Jurassic age sedimentary rocks in Europe. It was deposited during the Middle Jurassic. The Inferior Oolite Group as more recently defined is a Jurassic lithostratigraphic group in southern and eastern England. It has been variously known in the past as the Under Oolite, the Inferior Oolite, the Inferior Oolite Series and the Redbourne Group.
Cleeve Common is a 455-hectare (1,120-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, England, notified in 1974. It is looked after by a small charity called Cleeve Common Trust, formally Cleeve Common Board of Conservators.
Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake is a 56.8-hectare (140-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1974.
Finedon Top Lodge Quarry, also known as Finedon Gullet is a 0.9-hectare (2.2-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site revealing a sequence of middle Jurassic limestones, sandstones and ironstones, and is the type section for a sequence of sedimentary rocks known as the 'Wellingborough Member'. It was created by quarrying for the underlying ironstone for use at Wellingborough and Corby Steelworks; the ore was transported by the 1,000 mm gauge Wellingborough Tramway.
