Wookey Hole

The caves were formed about 400 million years ago by the rainwater boring through the limestone. The underground streams and lakes, which swirled around to form caverns, finally emerge as the river Axe. Until 1948 divers had only been able to reach and explore Chamber 9. A tunnel was opened in 1975 to permit the public to visit previously inaccessible chambers, and modern divers have explored as far as Chamber 25. The caves contain the deepest sump in Britain at 67m.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".

This is in essence the same building today; it is now painted white and green, with bigger windows and no veranda, surrounded by the car park. The river Axe tumbles from the caves to feed a paper mill, built in 1848 using local stone. It was built by the same family who built the church, the school, Wookey Hole Club and many houses for their employees. The previous mill had been built by 1656. The paper produced here is still made by hand. The village flourishes on the tourist trade.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".

This is the oldest part of the cathedral - the stiff-leaf carvings on the capitals of the north-west side are simpler in design than those east of this point. The bishop’s seat or ‘cathedra’ is on the left.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".

WE BEGIN the tour of the city by the Dean’s Eye gate-house, the dropping-off point both for mod- ern tour coaches and ancient stagecoaches. Until about 1970, one-way traffic passed under this gate-house into Sadler Street, the main road from London and Bath to Exeter. The Dean’s Eye is also known as Browne’s gate, after a cobbler who lived alongside it in 1553. The east side of the street was developed after 1340, but some deeds for the west side date back as far as 1301. On the west side is the white Georgian façade of one of the earliest coaching inns: the Hart’s Head, known as the White Hart from 1700. It was built on dean and chapter land, and has been an inn since 1497. The site of the Hart’s Head first appears in the 1343 Commoner’s Accounts; it was bequeathed five years earlier in return for prayers for ‘the repose of the soul of Ralph de Lullington’.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".

The frontage of the Swan Hotel hides its 15th- and 16th-century origins. The window to the left of the swan on its plinth was once a doorway permitting passengers to walk into the hotel from the top of a stagecoach. The little garden was created in 1869. The Swan Hotel, first recorded in 1422 and rebuilt in the 16th century, hosted a feast in honour of Queen Anne of Denmark in 1613. The hotel has some theatrical costumes permanently on show on the ground floor; these were worn by the 19th-century actor Sir Henry (Brodribb) Irving. He was the first actor to receive a knighthood (1895).
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".