Featured News

Wookey Hole Wildlife Blog - December 2015

I hear there is a mink in the valley- they are devils and will kill anything they get near. They are not native and have no natural predators, apart from man. Some misguided animal liberators released them from mink farms and had a lot of adverse publicity a few years ago – but American mink were already well established in most of the UK long before that, as escapes or deliberate releases from uneconomic mink farms. (it is not commonly known that there were at least 30 farms in UK where mink were bred for the fur trade in disgusting conditions - till wearing of fur became unfashionable.

I have the skull of one in my collection that came up the Axe a few years ago – only to meet it’s end by attempting to climb a drain pipe after swallows nests – but slid back down and drowned in the rain barrel !

All the conservation bodies in Somerset now have a policy of trapping the little brutes.

Picture – mink killing kingfisher from Halcyon River.BBC

So, apart from Mink, here is a wish for peace to all the Almighty's creatures and for the world in 2016

Happy Solstice/Christmas

Les C

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Church of St Mary Magdalene, Wookey Hole

David Scarth, Churchwarden for St Mary Magdalene Church has compiled this article about the church as part of his work documenting the Church's significance, for the Diocesan records. The photos are courtesy Nicky Amos.

Wookey Hole, St Mary Magdalene

Section 1: Brief history and description of the church building, contents, churchyard and setting.

St Mary Magdalene, Wookey Hole is a small Victorian Church built in 1874. It is built in what is probably an old quarry, occupying a visible, raised position in the centre of the village, next to the village pub and opposite the car park to Wookey Hole caves, a major Somerset tourist attraction.

It is in the Victorian Gothic Early English style, constructed of local ‘Pudding Stone’, Dolomitic Conglomerate with Doulting freestone dressings. The Church was listed Grade 2 in 2004.

Thales Site - Street Names Quickly, Please

The developer of the old Thales site on Wookey Hole Road has asked the parish council for any suggestions for road and street names on the new development. The deadline is 5th Jan 2016. Full details, are shown in the notice from Mendip District Council is shown below. You can view the maps here: ( SNN 3100 SITE PLAN.pdf , SNN 3100 LOCATION PLAN.pdf )

If you want to make a suggestion, please contact your Parish Councillor or use the contact details below :

Fun at the Annie Hall Screening

The Wookey Hole Cinema Club Showing of Annie Hall November 28th 2015 Our Cinema Club in Wookey recently was recently proud to participate in The British Film Institute Love Season by showing the classic Woody Allen movie Annie Hall.

Wookey Hole Wildlife Blog - Early Winter


Woodcock	and Snipe

There was a Woodcock in the Valley yesterday. They have incredible camouflaged, and on a woodland path they will sit tight till you almost tread on them. Woodcock used to breed up at the Priddy Mineries but it is many year since I last heard, usually in spring at dusk, the males grunting flight. I often see them in local Wookey Hole woods – but not normally till the cold of midwinter drives them down from the higher Mendip Woods this one is very early.