QUANTOCK HILLS

The 'Quantock Hills' are a range of hills west of Bridgwater in Somerset, England. The highest point on the Quantocks is Will's Neck, at 384 m (1261 ft). The hills are officially designated as the ''Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty''.
The hills run from the Vale of Taunton Deane in the south, for about 15 miles to the north-west, ending at East Quantoxhead and West Quantoxhead on the coast of the Bristol Channel. The hills 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.
In 1970 an area of 2506.9 hectares (6194.5 acres) was designated as a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.^[1]

Contents

Etymology

History

Cultural references

See also

References

External links

Etymology

The name first appears in Saxon Charters around 880 AD as ''Cantuctun'', and two centuries later in The Domesday Book as ''Cantoctona'' and ''Cantetone'': meaning ''settlement by rim or circle of hills'', from ''Cantuc'' for a rim or circle (Celtic), and ''-ton'' or ''-tun'' for a settlement (Old English).

History

There is evidence of activity in the Quantocks from prehistoric times, including finds of Mesolithic flints at North Petherton and Broomfield
^[2].
The Quantocks are covered with many Bronze Age round barrows
(marked on maps as ''tumulus'', plural ''tumuli''), such as Thorncombe Barrow
above Bicknoller. There are also several ancient stones, such as Triscombe Stone, and the Long Stone above Holford. Many of the tracks along ridges of the Quantocks probably originated as ancient ridgeways. There was a Bronze Age fort to the south at Norton Fitzwarren, close to the centre of bronze making in Taunton.
There are many Iron Age sites, including major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as several smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring and Plainsfield Camp.
There is very little evidence of any Roman influence on the Quantock region, just isolated finds, and hints of transient forts. There was a Roman port 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''.
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.
King Ina, who established a fort at Taunton in about 700 AD.
^[3].
In the later Saxon period, King Alfred led the resistance to Viking invasion from Athelney, south-east of the Quantocks. He 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 which is familiar on the Quantocks: a regulation 20m 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 (possibly the route of a Roman road, see above). 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.
^[4]
Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in Nether Stowey in the Quantocks from 1797–1799. In his memory a footpath, ''The Coleridge Way'' has been 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.^[5]

Cultural references

In 2000 the film Pandaemonium, based on the lives of poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was set in the hills.
The Quantocks were also the setting for the final episode of the third series of ''Peep Show''.
English novelist Ruth Elwin Harris wrote her "Quantock Quartet" in the 1980's-1990's; a set of novels centered on four sisters growing up around the Quantock Hills during the early twentieth century. They were later reprinted by Candlewick Press.
The 1980 Doctor Who episode Shada makes a sidelong reference to this region -- 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 opening of John LeCarre's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is set in the Quantocks.
William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived at Alfoxten House in Holford during the time of their friendship with Coleridge.
Virginia and Leonard Woolf spent a few days of their honeymoon at 'The Plough Inn' Holford, before continuing onto the continent in 1912. They returned a year or so later to try and help Virginia to recover from one of her recurring 'nervous' breakdowns. There is a wonderful description of the 'Inn' in Leonard Woolf's diary.

See also

★ Dowsborough

★ Ruborough

★ Trendle Ring

★ Plainsfield Camp

★ Herepath

★ Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England

★ List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset

References

1. The Quantocks
2.
''The Archaeology of Somerset'', M.Aston & I.Burrow (eds) (1982) ISBN 0-86183-028-8

3.
''The Victoria History of the County of Somerset'', Vol 1 (1906)

4.
''Dumnonia and the Valley of the Parret'', Rev. W.H.P. Greswell (1922)
5. In the Footsteps of the Romantic Poet

External links

★ Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Website

★ Community and visitor web site for The Quantock Hills Area

★ The Colridge Way on the Quantock Hills