The Quantock Hills west of Bridgwater in Somerset, England, consist of heathland, oak woodlands, ancient parklands and agricultural land. They were England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, designated in 1956, and now termed a National Landscape.

Natural England have designated the Quantock Hills as a national character area. They are entirely surrounded by another: the Vale of Taunton and Quantock Fringes.

The hills run from the Vale of Taunton Deane in the south, for about to the north-west, ending at Kilve and West Quantoxhead on the coast of the Bristol Channel. They form the western border of Sedgemoor and the Somerset Levels. From the top of the hills on a clear day, it is possible to see Glastonbury Tor and the Mendips to the east, Wales as far as the Gower Peninsula to the north, the Brendon Hills and Exmoor to the west, and the Blackdown Hills to the south. The highest point on the Quantocks is Wills Neck, at . Soil types and weather combine to support the hills' plants and animals. In 1970, an area of was designated as a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Archaeological landscape features include Bronze Age round barrows, extensive ancient field systems and Iron Age hill forts. Roman silver coins have been discovered in West Bagborough. The hills are popular with walkers, mountain bikers, horse riders and tourists who explore paths such as the Coleridge Way.

Etymology

The name first appears in Saxon charters in around AD 880 as Cantuctun and two centuries later in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cantoctona and Cantetone. The name means settlement by a rim or circle of hills; Cantuc is Celtic for a rim or circle, and -ton or -tun is Old English for a settlement. The highest point of the hills is called Will's Neck meaning ridge of the Welshman, probably referring to a time when the hills marked the boundary between the expanding Saxon kingdom of Wessex and the lands of the Britons or 'Welsh' to the West. A battle was fought locally at that time. The Hangman Grits are described in three divisions: the lowest are the Little Quantock Beds, which are located near Crowcombe, and made up of siltstones and slates. Between Triscombe and West Quantoxhead is a layer of the Triscombe Beds which is around thick and is made up of green sandstone and mudstones. The uppermost division is the Hodders Combe Beds of sandstone and conglomerate and is approximately thick.

Further south there are newer Middle and Late Devonian rocks, known as Ilfracombe beds and Morte Slates. These rocks were laid down in a shallow sea and often contain irregular masses or veins of gypsum, which was mined on the foreshore at Watchet.

At Blue Anchor the coloured alabaster found in the cliffs gave rise to the name of the colour "Watchet Blue". Now used as a garage, the kiln is thought to have operated until the 1870s, when the large-scale production of bricks in Bridgwater rendered small brickyards uneconomic.

Cockercombe tuff is a greenish-grey, hard pyroclastic rock formed by the compression of volcanic ash and is found almost exclusively in the south-eastern end of the Quantock Hills.

Climate

right|thumb|300px|Aerial view of the Quantock Hills

Along with the rest of South West England, the Quantock Hills has a temperate climate that is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The mean temperature is approximately and shows a seasonal and a diurnal variation, but because of the modifying effect of the sea the range is less than in most other parts of the United Kingdom. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between and . July and August are the warmest months, with mean daily maxima around . December is normally the most cloudy month and June the sunniest. High pressure over the Azores often brings clear skies to south-west England, particularly in summer.

Cloud often forms inland especially near hills, and acts to reduce sunshine. The average annual sunshine totals around 1,600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. In summer, convection caused by solar surface heating sometimes forms shower clouds, and a large proportion of rain falls from showers and thunderstorms at this time of year. Average rainfall is around . About 8 to 15 days of snowfall is typical. From November to March, mean wind speeds are highest; winds are lightest from June to August. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.

Ecology

In 1970 an area of in the Quantocks was designated as a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). and many Bronze Age round barrows (marked on maps as tumulus, plural tumuli), such as Thorncombe Barrow above Bicknoller. Several ancient stones can be seen, such as the Triscombe Stone and the Long Stone above Holford. Many of the tracks along ridges of the Quantocks probably originated as ancient ridgeways. The Dowsborough fort has an oval shape, with a single rampart and ditch (univallate) following the contours of the hill top, enclosing an area of . The main entrance is to the east, towards Nether Stowey, with a simpler opening to the north west, aligned with a ridgeway leading down to Holford. A col to the south connects the hill to the main Stowey ridge, where a linear earthwork known as Dead Woman's Ditch cuts across the spur.

Little evidence exists of Roman influence on the Quantock region beyond isolated finds and hints of transient forts. A Roman port was at Combwich, and it is possible that a Roman road ran from there to the Quantocks, because the names Nether Stowey and Over Stowey come from the Old English stan wey, meaning stone way.

Dark Ages and Anglo-Saxon

The area remained under Romano-British Celtic control until 681–685 AD, when Centwine of Wessex pushed west from the River Parrett, conquered the Welsh King Cadwaladr, and occupied the rest of Somerset north to the Bristol Channel.

Saxon rule was later consolidated under King Ine, who established a fort at Taunton in about 700 AD.

The first documentary evidence of the village of Crowcombe is by Æthelwulf of Wessex in 854, where it was spelt 'Cerawicombe'. At that time the manor belonged to Glastonbury Abbey. In the later Saxon period, King Alfred led the resistance to Viking invasion from Athelney, south-east of the Quantocks. Alfred established a series of forts and lookout posts linked by a military road, or herepath, so his army could cover Viking movements at sea. The herepath has a characteristic form that is familiar on the Quantocks: a regulation wide track between avenues of trees growing from hedge laying embankments. The herepath ran from the ford on the River Parrett at Combwich, past Cannington hill fort to Over Stowey, where it climbed the Quantocks along the line of the current Stowey road, to Crowcombe Park Gate. Then it went south along the ridge, to Triscombe Stone. One branch may have led past Lydeard Hill and Buncombe Hill, back to Alfred's base at Athelney. The main branch descended the hills at Triscombe, then along the avenue to Red Post Cross, and west to the Brendon Hills and Exmoor. There is some evidence that an area of the hills known as Quantock Common may have been a Saxon Royal Forest.

Medieval

After the Norman conquest of England in 1066 William de Moyon was given land at Dunster, Broomfield and West Quantoxhead, his son becoming William de Mohun of Dunster, 1st Earl of Somerset, while William Malet received Enmore. The mount is above the wide ditch which itself is deep. The motte has a flat top with two large and two small mounds, which may be sites of towers, at the edge. The Blue Lias rubble walling is the only visible structural remains of the castle, which stand on a conical earthwork with a ditch approximately in circumference. The castle was destroyed in the 15th century, which may have been as a penalty for the local Lord Audley's involvement in the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 led by Perkin Warbeck against the taxes of Henry VII. Some of the stone was used in the building of Stowey Court in the village.

At the end of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, (also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion), many participants were executed in the Quantocks. The rebellion was an attempt to overthrow the King of England, James II, who became king when his elder brother, Charles II, died on 6 February 1685. James II was unpopular because he was Roman Catholic, and many people were opposed to a "papist" king. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, claimed to be rightful heir to the throne and attempted to displace James II. and many of his supporters were executed, including some by hanging at Nether Stowey and Cothelstone, The mine was established before 1725 and followed earlier exploration at Perry Hill, East Quantoxhead. It was financed by the Marquis of Buckingham until 1801 when it was closed, until various attempts were made to reopen it during the 19th century.

alt=Stone building with square tower. In the foreground are stone crosses, gravestones and trees.|thumb|[[Crowcombe Church]]

In 1724 the 14th-century spire of the Church of the Holy Ghost in Crowcombe was damaged by a lightning strike. The top section of the spire was removed and is now planted in the churchyard, and stone from the spire was used in the flooring of the church. Inside the church, carved bench-ends dating from 1534 depict such pagan subjects as the Green Man and the legend of the men of Crowcombe fighting a two-headed dragon.

Norton Fitzwarren was the site of a boat lift on the now unused section of the Grand Western Canal from 1839 to 1867. A 300-person prisoner of war camp built here during World War II housed Italian prisoners from the Western Desert Campaign and German prisoners from the Battle of Normandy.

Walking routes

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in Nether Stowey in the Quantocks from 1797 to 1799. In his memory a footpath, The Coleridge Way, was set up by the Exmoor park authorities. The route begins in Nether Stowey and crosses the Quantocks, the Brendon Hills and Exmoor before finishing in Porlock.

The Quantock Greenway is a footpath that opened in 2001. The route of the path follows a figure of eight centred on Triscombe. The northern loop, taking in Crowcombe and Holford, is long, and the southern loop to Broomfield extends for . The path travels through many types of landscape, including deciduous and coniferous woodland, private parkland, grazed pasture and cropped fields.

The Macmillan Way West follows the Quantocks ridge for several miles.

Governance

The Quantock Hills were designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1956, the first such designation in England under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.

Since responsibility for the Quantock AONB is shared between the County Council and three District Councils The Quantock Hills Joint Advisory Committee was set up in 1973. The JAC represents County, District and Parish councils along with representatives from Natural England, Friends of Quantock, the Forestry Commission, The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Somerset Local Access Forum,

the Quantock Commoners Association, the Federation of Small Businesses, the National Trust, and the National Farmers Union. The JAC commissions the AONB service both to draw up management plans for the Quantocks and to carry them out.

Ownership

There is no single owner of the open land on the Quantocks or of the forestry plantations. Major landowners include the Forestry Commission, The National Trust, the Fairfield Estate, the Luttrell Estate, the Tetton Estate, Somerset County Council and Friends of Quantock.

Cultural references

alt=A view of hills and a patchwork of fields seen through a fence and tree.|thumb|Wooded hillside in the Quantocks

Film

  • The film Pandaemonium (2000), based on the lives of Wordsworth and Coleridge, much of it filmed on the hills.

Literature

  • The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived here for three years from 1797, while he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (written in 1797–98 and published in 1798), part of Christabel (the first part was reputedly written in 1797, and the second in 1800), Frost at Midnight, and Kubla Khan (completed in 1797 and published in 1816).
  • Poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived at Alfoxton House in Holford between July 1797 and June 1798, during the time of their friendship with Coleridge.
  • In 1913, the poet Edward Thomas wrote a prose account of a bicycle journey to the Quantocks, published in 1914 as "In Pursuit of Spring".
  • The poet Henry Newbolt lived in Aisholt in the 1920s. Walter de la Mare stayed with him and wrote in his visitors book:

<blockquote>Happy art thou to lie in that still room<br>

Under the thick-thatched eaves in Aisholt Combe,<br>

Where sings the nightingale, where blooms the broom</blockquote>

  • Virginia and Leonard Woolf spent a few days of their honeymoon at The Plough Inn, Holford, before continuing to the continent in 1912. They returned about a year later to try to help Virginia recover from one of her recurring nervous breakdowns.
  • Charles Williams visited Aisholt and wrote a poem there.
  • The opening of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) is set in the Quantocks.
  • Anne Ridler visited Aisholt many times and wrote a poem titled 'Aisholt Revisited'.
  • In the 1980s and 1990s, English novelist Ruth Elwin Harris wrote her Quantock Quartet, a set of novels centred on four sisters growing up around the Quantock Hills during the early 20th century.
  • A 1951 poem by J. C. Hall describes a visit to Alfoxton.

Art

thumb|The Old Bowling Green ([[Halsway Manor, Somerset) (1865). Watercolour, British Museum, London.]]

  • A number of artists spent time on the Quantocks in the 1860s, many of them lodging at Halsway Manor. They are sometimes referred to as the Idyllists. They include John William North, George John Pinwell and Frederick Walker.

Music

  • The video to the Bryan Adams hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" was filmed in the landscape of Holford and Kilve.
  • Bibio's album Hand Cranked (2006) features a track titled "Quantock".
  • "Checking out the Quantocks", is a line from Half Man Half Biscuit's song "Joy Division Oven Gloves", from their album Achtung Bono.

Television

  • The Doctor Who serial Shada (1980) makes a sidelong reference to this region&nbsp;– the Fourth Doctor (played by Tom Baker) claims that walking through the Time Vortex "is a little trick I learned from a space-time mystic in the Quantocks".
  • The Quantocks are the setting for the final episodes of the third and eighth series (2005 and 2012) of Peep Show, which are titled "Quantocking" and "Quantocking II"

Cultural attractions and places of interest

A series of concerts called Music on the Quantocks takes place each year in Quantock villages. Headlining acts have included Sir James Galway, guitarist John Williams and choral groups The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli Consort. The concerts are run by volunteers.

One of the most popular Coleridge Cottage is a cottage situated in Nether Stowey. It was constructed in the 17th century as a building containing a parlour, kitchen and service room on the ground floor and three corresponding bed chambers above. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building. Having served for many years as Moore's Coleridge Cottage Inn, the building was acquired for the nation in 1908, and the following year it was handed over to the National Trust. On 23 May 1998, following a £25,000 appeal by the Friends of Coleridge and the National Trust, two further rooms on the first floor were opened.

alt=Quantock Lodge, front of the main building |thumb|right|The main building of [[Quantock Lodge]]

At Aley is Quantock Lodge, a green-grey 19th-century mansion built from cockercombe tuff. It was the family home of Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton, until the 1960s when it was converted into a school. In 2000, it became a centre for recreation and banqueting and summer camps for youths.

Broomfield is home to Fyne Court. Once the home of pioneer 19th century electrician, Andrew Crosse. Since 1972 it has been owned by the National Trust. The Quantock Hills National Landscape Service have their headquarters at Fyne Court.

alt=Gray stone building with ornate square tower and slate roof. In the foreground are gravestones|thumb|left|[[Kingston St Mary's church]]

The Church of St Mary in Kingston St Mary dates from the 13th century, but the tower is from the early 16th century and was re-roofed in 1952, with further restoration from 1976 to 1978. It is a three-stage crenellated tower, with crocketed pinnacles, bracketed pinnacles set at angles, decorative pierced merlons, and set-back buttresses crowned with pinnacles. The decorative "hunky-punks" are perched high on the corners. These may be so named because the carvings are hunkering (squatting) and are "punch" (short and thick). They serve no function, unlike gargoyles that carry off water. The churchyard includes tombs of the Warre family who owned nearby Hestercombe House, and has been designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The house was used as the headquarters of the British 8th Corps during the Second World War, and has been owned by Somerset County Council since 1951. It is used as an administrative centre and a base for the Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.

The originally Norman Church of St Giles in Thurloxton dates from the 14th century but is predominantly from the 15th century with 19th century restoration, including the addition of the north aisle in 1868. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building. From October 1763 to January 1764 the vicar was the diarist James Woodforde.

Halsway Manor in Halsway, is now used as England's National Centre for Traditional Music, Dance and Song. It is the only residential folk centre in the UK. The eastern end of the building dates from the 15th century and the western end was a 19th-century addition. The manor, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book, was at one time used by Cardinal Beaufort as a hunting lodge and thereafter as a family home until the mid-1960s when it became the folk music centre. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building.

Halswell House in Goathurst has Tudor origins but was purchased by the Tynte family and rebuilt in 1689. including the Temple of Harmony, which stands in Mill Wood and has now been fully restored.

Principal summits

The following table lists the summits with more than 30 metres of prominence (Tumps) that lie within the National Landscape.

{| class="wikitable"

!Summit

!Elevation

!Prominence

!Grid reference

|-

|Wills Neck

|384.6 m (1262 ft)

|268.2 m

|ST164351

|-

|Lydeard Hill

|364 m (1194 ft)

|31 m

|ST179341

|-

|Black Hill

|358 m (1175 ft)

|40 m

|ST148381

|-

|Dowsborough

|333.1 m (1093 ft)

|48.9 m

|ST161391

|-

|Cothelstone Hill

|332 m (1089 ft)

|80 m

|ST189326

|-

|Broomfield Hill

|292 m (958 ft)

|69 m

|ST214332

|}

See also

  • List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset

References

  • Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty official website