Longwood Swallet
Encyclopedia
Longwood Swallet is a cave near Charterhouse
, in the carboniferous limestone of the Mendip Hills
, in Somerset
, England
. The cave is part of the Cheddar Complex
SSSI and connected to August Hole.
It is 1.65 km in length and reaches a depth of 175m.
The cave was discovered in September 1944 by boys from Sidcot School
.
The picture shown is not Longwood Swallet, it is Longwood Valley Sink.
Longwood Swallet's entrance is a lidded concrete block construction. A (non-free) picture of Longwood Swallet entrance is available here
The cave is locked and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company. There is a warning sign posted at the entrance to the cave about flooding. This has always been a problem, but is more pronounced due to the extraction of water from the spring at Charterhouse. When the pumps owned by Bristol Water
stop this can cause a flood wave to travel down the stream and into the cave.
Charterhouse, Somerset
Charterhouse, also known as Charterhouse-on-Mendip, is a hamlet in the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the English county of Somerset...
, in the carboniferous limestone of the Mendip Hills
Mendip Hills
The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon Valley to the north...
, in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The cave is part of the Cheddar Complex
Cheddar Complex
The Cheddar Complex is a 441.3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Cheddar around the Cheddar Gorge and north east to Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, notified in 1952....
SSSI and connected to August Hole.
It is 1.65 km in length and reaches a depth of 175m.
The cave was discovered in September 1944 by boys from Sidcot School
Sidcot School
Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England....
.
The picture shown is not Longwood Swallet, it is Longwood Valley Sink.
Longwood Swallet's entrance is a lidded concrete block construction. A (non-free) picture of Longwood Swallet entrance is available here
The cave is locked and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company. There is a warning sign posted at the entrance to the cave about flooding. This has always been a problem, but is more pronounced due to the extraction of water from the spring at Charterhouse. When the pumps owned by Bristol Water
Bristol Water
Bristol Water supplies 300 million litres of drinking water to over 1 million customers in a area centred on Bristol, England. It is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991...
stop this can cause a flood wave to travel down the stream and into the cave.