CHEDDAR, a village and a parish in Axbridge district, Somerset. The village stands at the mouth of a ravine called Cheddar Cliffs, on the south side of the Mendip hills, under Black Down, near the river Axe, 2 ½ miles ESE of Axbridge, and 6 ½ N by E of Shapwick r. station. It is an ancient but decayed place, irregularly built; and it has a post-office under Weston-super-Mare, two inns, and an old market-cross restored in 1834. A considerable market was long held in it; and there still are fairs on 4 May and 29 Oct. The parish includes also part of Draycott hamlet. Acres, 6,998. Real property, £12,634. Pop., 2,032. Houses, 457. The property is much subdivided. The manor was a seat of Alfred the Great; and belonged afterwards to the De Cheddars, who long represented the county in parliament. The manor-house stood near Axbridge; and is partly extant in a farm-house. Cheddar Cliffs are a narrow, winding, romantic ravine, nearly a mile long, faced with vertical cliffs, cut by fissures, festooned with shrubs, fashioned naturally into buttresses, towers, and pinnacles, and rising in one part to an altitude of 429 feet. A copious streamlet issues from the chasm; has power enough, after a few hundred yards, to drive paper and corn mills; and passes on to the Axe. A cavern, accidentally discovered at the enlarging of a corn mill in 1839, possesses a singularly rich display of stalagmites and stalactites, in great variety, of beautiful, grotesque, and fantastic forms. This cavern is small and narrow; but others exist of larger size, great gloomy vaults; and one of them can be explored for about 300 feet. Cheddar cheese has been famous from early times; and owes its excellence, in a main degree, to the rich pasture of the grass farms. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £203. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Wells. The church is perpendicular English, with a square tower 100 feet high; and contains a sculptured stone pulpit, a rich oaken screen, and two brasses of 1443. There are chapels for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists. A school has £48 from endowment; and other charities have £152.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
