Cultural Heritage

Discover how the earliest scientifically dated cemetery in Britain, 10,200 and 10,400 years old, was found at Aveline's Hole

The remains of mine workings can be seen across much of central and western Mendip, especially around Shipham, Charterhouse, Priddy and Stockhill Forest. Iron, lead, zinc and ochre have all been mined at various times and places across Mendip. The old mine workings are often characterised by areas of 'gruffy' ground, a local name for uneven hummocky landscape created during mining operations. On eastern Mendip, coal mining was more important.

Discover the long history of mining on the Mendip Hills stretching back over 2000 years to Iron Age times.

Discover how spoil heaps produced by the lead mining industry provide a particularly distinctive Mendip habitat.

A gallery of photographs spanning 150 years of quarrying in the Mendip Hills.

Quarry Faces community heritage project has told the story of quarrying in the Mendips, and created an archive of oral history recordings and over 1,000 historic images.

Individual histories of the main Mendip Quarries.

Information on geology related events and projects in the Mendip Hills.

Find out about the ways in which we use quarried stone and discover how stone in some form enters our lives probably a hundred times even before we leave the house each day.

Introduction to how the Mendip Hills have long been exploited for stone, and how a wide variety of rock types have been quarried for many purposes.