Cheddar - Pillars of Solomon's Temple

            The Postcard

A postally unused postcard that was published by William Gough. On the divided back of the card it states:

'Gough's Caves, Cheddar:
Electrically Illuminated.'

Cheddar Gorge

Cheddar Gorge, including the caves and other attractions, is a tourist destination. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, following its appearance on the 2005 television programme Seven Natural Wonders, Cheddar Gorge was named as the second greatest natural wonder in Britain, surpassed only by Dan yr Ogof caves. The gorge attracts about 500,000 visitors per year.

The maximum depth of the gorge is 137 m (449 ft), with a near-vertical cliff-face to the south, and steep grassy slopes to the north. 

The gorge was formed by meltwater floods during the cold periglacial periods which have occurred over the last 1.2 million years. During the ice ages permafrost blocked the caves with ice and frozen mud and made the limestone impermeable. When this melted during the summers, water was forced to flow on the surface, and carved out the gorge. 

During warmer periods the water flowed underground through the permeable limestone, creating the caves and leaving the gorge dry, so that today much of the gorge has no river until the underground Cheddar Yeo river emerges in the lower part from Gough's Cave. 

The river is used by Bristol Water, who maintain a series of dams and ponds which supply the nearby Cheddar Reservoir, via a 137-centimetre (54 in) diameter pipe that takes water just upstream of the Rotary Club Sensory Garden, a public park in the gorge opposite Jacob's Ladder.

The gorge is susceptible to flooding. In the Chew Stoke flood of 1968 the flow of water washed large boulders down the gorge, damaging the cafe and entrance to Gough's Cave and washing away cars. In the cave itself the flooding lasted for three days. 

In 2012 the road through the gorge was closed for several weeks following damage to the road surface during extensive flooding.

Longleat and the National Trust

The south side of the gorge is owned and administered by the Marquess of Bath's Longleat Estate. The cliffs on the north side of the gorge are owned by The National Trust. Every year both of the gorge's owners contribute funds towards the clearance of scrub bush and trees from the area.

Most of the commercial visitor activity in the gorge is on the Longleat-owned south side, including access to the two main commercial show caves and the visitor centre. 

Due to the fact that tourist numbers have dropped through the show caves from 400,000 a year in the 1980's to 150,000, in 2013 Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth who runs the Longleat estate on behalf of the family trust, proposed the installation of a 600 metre (2,000 ft) 18-gondola cable car estimated to cost £10M, taking visitors from the entrance area to the caves directly to the top of the southside cliffs. 

The National Trust have opposed the proposed development, stating that it will spoil the view and cheapen the experience, creating a "fairground ride" that will make the area feel more like an amusement park. In 2015 the financial feasibility was still being investigated.

Taken on: March 1, 2022

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