Phil HendyCaving

Viscount Weymouth also encountered difficulties when he applied for an alcohol licence for the restaurant. Objections were raised by local licenced victuallers and by various churches. The initial application was refused, but was granted by magistrates a year later, in 1937, provided that alcohol was on sale all year round.

The present entrance, at road level, was constructed in 1958, requiring the removal of the steps and siting two ticket kiosks at the new gate.

Later additions to the buildings and alterations have largely obscured Page and Jellicoe’s building, although one of the original kiosks remains. New attractions, increasing administration, and the need for a larger museum led the drive for expansion. Eventually the museum was moved across the road into the cottage which had been Gough’s family home and later a tea garden.

Gough’s Cave proved to be a popular and lucrative tourist attraction, with an admission fee of a shilling (5p) in 1935. Almost 30,000 visitors came to the cave each year and even more patronised the snack bar. When Longleat took over the lease of Cox’s Cave this was included in the attractions and in 1967 Jacob’s Ladder, the Lookout Tower and Pavey’s Cave were purchased.

Pavey’s Cave was a roofed-in quarry with mined passages close to Cox’s Cave, primarily used for exhibitions. It later became the Waterfall Cave, with a pumped cascade, and then Fantasy Grotto. It was linked to Cox’s Cave in 1987, when the Crystal Quest, based on the Lord of the Rings, was opened. Latterly, the two caves became Dream Hunters, a stunning audio-visual depiction of life in the Stone Age.

The income from Cheddar largely helped finance the Longleat Safari Park, which was opened in 1966 at the same time as Longleat House was opened to the public. On becoming the sixth marquess, the new viscount, Alexander, later to become the Bohemian seventh marquess, also took a keen interest in the Cheddar attractions.

The caves are now closed, due to Covid, but it is hoped that they will one day again be opened for the enjoyment and education of the public.

View from across the Gorge

Gough’s entrance c. 1930

Destruction on our doorstep

Ifwe don’t take care of the environment, it There was a six-month window of opportunity to prevent the won’t take care of us. This is the key lesson damage when quarry traffic was noted to be very high and from of the pandemic. This virus was (probably) all over the UK, yet BANES and the EA were both conned by not manufactured in a lab but it was certainly foley and refused to properly investigate until it was too late. man-made in the sense that the planet is foley covered up his misdeeds with soil, lies and forged desperately trying to support 7.8 billion paperwork and despite repeated warnings from SSAG activists, By DrPHIL HAMMOND humans with mouths and egos to feed. If we cut down forests to displace animals closer to us and then treat them inhumanely in including lorry documentation, videos and photos of toxic waste, the EA weren’t inclined or able to stop him until at least 200,000 tonnes of waste, half of it hazardous, had been dumped and the the way we capture, rear, transport and slaughter them, it’s hardly quarry was “levelled up”. surprising that their viruses cross over to us. Covid is one result of Given that foley was only permitted to deposit 65,000 tonnes of climate change, animal cruelty and environmental destruction. inert waste, he managed to avoid £8.4-£16.8 million in landfill tax,

Amidst all the pandemic pre-occupation, you may have missed which makes his recent fine at Bristol Crown Court a pittance. the fact that, according to the Environment Agency (EA), The companies who dumped their waste there have also evaded “possibly the worst case of toxic waste dumping anywhere in the charges for disposal of hazardous waste that range from £40-£600 UK in the last 30 years” has happened on our doorstep and may in a tonne – one reason why illegal dumping is so common. The EA time threaten our water supply. So why was it allowed to happen? needs to prosecute them too.

Cast your mind back to April 2012 and you may remember In October 2016 the EA finally put a stop notice on all activity being asked to raise objections, sign a petition or even protest at the now full quarry and started putting bore holes in to monitor outside BANES’ offices against the proposed dumping of up to the leachate, with alert monitors in the streams below the quarry. 645,000 tonnes of asbestos and other hazardous waste in shallow Analysis showed that about half the samples were hazardous Stowey quarry which sits on top of a windy escarpment over and either carcinogenic or harmful to the environment. We may watercourses that feed into the region’s drinking water reservoir, get lucky, and it may only cost us millions to clean up and monitor Chew Valley Lake. the waste. But if it reaches the reservoir eventually, it could cost

There was a dual risk of asbestos fibres carried in the wind up to £9 billion. causing a very unpleasant cancer, mesothelioma, up to 40 years Bath and North East Council were just as easily hoodwinked. later and toxic waste mixed in with the asbestos that could feed They were slow to respond to concerns and were prepared to take into the water course. The risks were worsened by the fact that the the site owner’s word that nothing untoward was taking place owners of the quarry had no expertise in the safe handling of there. On a conveniently planned visit, they discovered the entire asbestos and toxic waste and, as it turns out, no regard for the law quarry site was covered over with soil and illegal waste hidden or the consequences of their actions. from view, despite ample photographs of it from previous months.

They had however bought the quarry for £1.6 million, thanks to The EA faced such savage cuts and is so under-resourced, it is a loan from Barclays, and calculated they could make up to £20 simply “not fit for purpose”. BANES too is hardly brimming with million by taking asbestos from all over the UK (and perhaps resources. The only people closely monitoring a very high risk Europe). BANES council initially approved the application but a situation were determined local residents and when they reported small group of committed locals – the Stowey-Sutton Action their findings no-one stepped in to stop it. Group (SSAG) – and our lawyer managed to get it overturned on This wilful environmental blindness is happening everywhere the grounds that it hadn’t been properly advertised. from sewerage in our water courses to live animal markets in

The dispute between owners and activists went all the way to a China. Only when disaster happens, do we act. foley is facing public inquiry. BANES and the EA withdrew their objections on two-years and three months in prison, likely to be cut short, and a day one, leaving the SSAG to fight alone. We won and the £72,000 fine. He will have made much more from the illegal inspector criticised both BANES and the EA and made it clear that dumping. foley’s law is clear – if a bank gives you the money to any escape from the site of toxic materials could have catastrophic buy a large hole in the ground, you can fill it with whatever you results. The EA, he observed, tends to act “after the event” when please, irrespective of any planning or environment laws which damage has been done because planning law requires it to assume won’t catch up with you until the hole is filled, the damage is done “regimes will operate effectively”. and the money is in the bank. Speaking of which, why didn’t the

The quarry owners were left with “a permit to import and laughably named Sustainability Team at Barclay’s Bank ensure process 65,000 tonnes of inert rubble, soil, construction/demolition their money wasn’t used for environmental destruction? waste” at the site. This was much less lucrative and SSAG pointed On a brighter note, there are plenty of people out there who out that the owners would likely dump all manner of waste in really care about the environment and give their time and energy there to try to get their money back and that the EA and BANES for free to protect it. The SSAG is testimony to this and without would lack the resources and the willpower to stop them. them, foley would have likely got off scot-free and be destroying

And so it came to pass. Mark foley took charge of the quarry someone else’s environment. So thank you to Sally Monkhouse, and opened the gates to all manner of waste. SSAG members Heather Clewett, Robert Drewett, David Dickerson, Sarah monitored suspicious quarry activity, when a round the clock Streatfield-James, David Elliot, Emma Robinson, Vanessa Watson, increase in dumping started. At times, the smell was so bad it Lucy Pover, Bernadette Braidley, Kay Boreland, Gareth Thomas surely reached the nostrils of local MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who and Rowland Janes. As for me, I’ll be voting green in the local lives a few miles away. elections…