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The Mendip Hills
- A Selection of Short Films -
The Mendip Society
The Mendip Society is a group of several hundred like-minded people who come together in the interests of conserving and enhancing the Mendip Hills, enjoying their unique character and beauty.
The society recently produced six videos, presented by Les Davies MBE, to increase awareness of and promote the Mendip Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
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The Mendip Society has kindly allowed the museum to present these short films here as part of our virtual exhibitions programme.
Episode 1 shows the extent of the Mendip Hills AONB and highlights a few of Mendip's famous features:
Episode 2 traces the history of the Mendip Hills, from 416 million years ago until today:
Episode 3 takes us on a tour of the 10,000 year old Cheddar Gorge:
The 'Mendip Preservation Society' was formed in 1965 with the aim "to keep itself informed of anything affecting the rural amenities of the Mendip area and act in any way possible to conserve these amenities". A subscription fee was fixed at 2/6d and by January 1966 there were over 200 members.
In 1970 the name was changed to the Mendip Society. The Society was the first to propose that the Mendip Hills should become an AONB, together with the Somerset Trust for Nature Conservation. In 1972, their campaign was met with partial success when much of the central and western part of the area was designated.
Today, the society continues to campaign for the existing AONB to be extended to cover the remainder of Mendip which is of equal landscape value.
The Mendip Society