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St Cuthbert's Swallet is the second longest, and most complex, cave on the Mendip Hills, in
St Cuthbert's Swallet is a classic example of a deep phreatic cave system developed at a depth of not less than beneath the water table. It contains inclined bedding plane mazes at many levels, fault-guided rifts and some significant chambers. Nine successive phases of
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, established_date = Ancient
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, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. It forms a major part of the Priddy Caves system and water entering this swallet re-emerges at Wookey Hole. – which also contains a detailed description of the cave.
St Cuthbert's Swallet is part of, and lies underneath, the Priddy Pools Site of Special Scientific Interest.
It is named because of its location in the St Cuthbert Out
St Cuthbert Out, sometimes Wells St Cuthbert Out, is a civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. It entirely surrounds (but does not include) the city and parish of Wells. According to the 2011 census it had a population of 3,749 ...
parish of Wells
Wells most commonly refers to:
* Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England
* Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground
* Wells (name)
Wells may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Wells, British Columbia
England
* Wel ...
, and was originally called St Cuthbert's Pot.
History
Interest in the possible existence of a cave at this location existed before 1927, and increased when St Cuthbert's Pool suddenly drained away in that year. Attempts to discover an entrance took place between 1944 and 1953, when entry was finally gained. Exploration continued to push the known limits of the cave throughout the 1950s and 1960s.Sump
A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cav ...
1 was passed in 1969. Sump 2 has not yet been passed.
Access
Due to a still enforceable court injunction dating from 1863, which required that the stream now known to run through the cave to Wookey Hole was not polluted, the cave is locked and access is controlled by the Bristol Exploration Club on behalf of the landowners. No novices are allowed to enter.Description
St Cuthbert's Swallet is a classic example of a deep phreatic cave system developed at a depth of not less than beneath the water table. It contains inclined bedding plane mazes at many levels, fault-guided rifts and some significant chambers. Nine successive phases of sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
deposition, stalagmite
A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling")
is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...
deposition and stream erosion have been recognised at the site, providing an exceptional record of environmental change through the warm and cold phases of the Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
.
St. Cuthbert's Swallet is attractive to cavers, for its complexity and size, reaching over and a depth of , and having numerous large decorated chambers, forming phreatic mazes on seven distinct levels. Among its displays are large and impressive calcite
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scra ...
groups such as the 'Curtains', 'Cascade', Gour Hall with its gour Gour may refer to:
* Hari Singh Gour (1870-1949), Indian lawyer, educator, and writer
* Joseph-Omer Gour (1893-1959), Canadian politician
* Rimstone, a cave formation
* Gauḍa (city), a medieval Indian city
* Gour, a place in Malda district, Wes ...
, 'The Beehive', Canyon Series and the 'Balcony' formations in September Chamber, perhaps some of the best in Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. There are also mini-formations including floating calcite crystals, over twenty nests of " cave pearls", and delicate fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except ...
-like crystals less than long.
The cave has also been identified as an important site for the study of cave insects. ''Oligaphorura'' (formerly ''Archaphorura'') ''schoetti'' (a type of springtail) is a troglophile, up to in length and common in many caves. Most specimens are female but a male specimen was collected from St. Cuthbert's Swallet in 1969.
See also
* Caves of the Mendip HillsReferences
External links
* {{coord, 51.251777, N, 2.654179, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(ST543505), display=title, format=dms Caves of the Mendip Hills Limestone caves