Wookey Hole

...5 year old both circled Wookey Hole. As it was over 10 years since I'd last visited, I agreed and we made the trip last week, accompanied by my 14 year old daughter's friend.

Wookey Hole Caves and Paper Mill are situated in a small village in Somerset, also named Wookey Hole. The village is near Wells (England's smallest city). It is about an hour's drive from Bristol, and there is easy access from junction 22 of the M5, with the ...
...park.

Wookey Hole is open every day of the year (except Christmas Day), from 10 a.m. until 5 pm in summer (4 pm in winter).

Prices: £9.90 adult
£7.50 child (4 - 14)
£29.50 family (2 adults/2 children)
Under 4s free.
Disabled: see section below.

A souvenir guide book is available for £2.50. It's a full colour glossy 32 page almost A4 size book. We bought one, mainly because ... more

Entertaining the kids during the school holidays is always a challenge. At the start of the 6 weeks I gave my lot a guide to local activities and attractions and asked them each to pick out a couple that they might like to try. The 14 year old and 5 year old both circled Wookey Hole. As it was over 10 years since I'd last visited, I agreed and we made the trip last week, accompanied by my 14 year old daughter's friend.

Wookey Hole Caves and Paper Mill are situated in a small village in Somerset, also named Wookey Hole. The village is near Wells (England's smallest city). It is about an hour's drive from Bristol, and there is easy access from junction 22 of the M5, with the usual brown signs to provide directions.

There is a large free car park with attendants, and a neighbouring coach park.

Wookey Hole is open every day of the year (except Christmas Day), from 10 a.m. until 5 pm in summer (4 pm in winter).

Prices: £9.90 adult
£7.50 child (4 - 14)
£29.50 family (2 adults/2 children)
Under 4s free.
Disabled: see section below.

A souvenir guide book is available for £2.50. It's a full colour glossy 32 page almost A4 size book. We bought one, mainly because flash photography is not allowed within the caves (as it scares the bats) and it would give my little lad something by which to remember his day.

We arrived at approximately 11 am, and after a quick loo stop in the car park toilets (I think it's worth noting that the loo facilities were all clean and had plentiful supplies of loo roll, soap and hot water) we joined the queue. Being August, it was a fairly long queue, but with 3 ticket kiosks we only had to wait about 10 minutes. From there, it's a short walk uphill for 100 yards or so to the cave entrance. Another wait, as all visitors are accompanied by a tour guide, with tours starting every 10 minutes or so.

The caves
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These are the main attraction and are genuinely very impressive. The cave system is vast; so far divers have explored 25 chambers, but more lies beyond this.

The first 3 chambers were well explored by humans for thousands of years, and have been inhabited by various people over the years. The only current inhabitants are horseshoe and pipistrelle bats, eels, frogs and shrimps. However, it wasn't until 1935 that cave divers were able to explore beyond this point. One of the first discoveries was a large amount of human skeletons, but gradually divers have been able to reveal further and further chambers and tunnels. In 1974 an artificial tunnel was blasted out of the surrounding rock to enable visitors (other than cave divers) the opportunity to visit as far as chamber 9 and walkways and stairs were built to allow easy access.

There are various legends associated with the caves, the most famous relating to the Witch of Wookey Hole, who supposedly lived in the cave. She was caught cooking a child one day and was turned to stone, together with her dog, by a monk who sprinkled holy water on them. Large stalagmites exist in the shape of the witch and her dog, and the first chambers, the "Witch's Kitchen" and "Witch's Parlour" are named after her.

The tour guide clearly enjoyed regaling his audience with myths and legends, particularly those of a grisly or gruesome nature. He was able to provide a tour which held the interest of most of those in our tour group, ranging from toddlers to the elderly.

My reaction? The caves are fantastic, in all senses of the word. There is a real other-worldly atmosphere down there, not to mention the humbling feeling you get when you think about the millions of years that it has taken to create some of the huge, weirdly-shaped stalactites and stalagmites. At several points you can see the water of the river Axe which runs through (and created) the caves, and can look down into its depths. One of the chambers has a beach area; on another stretch of water there is a boat moored (used by cave divers). It's an enormously secret place; the irony is that in order to visit you have to share the space with dozens of noisy tourists. It would be incredible to be there when it's deserted and quiet, but the only way to do this is via the imagination.

The cave tour lasts for approximately an hour.

On leaving the caves, visitors follow a designated route through the remainder of the attractions. Visitors may spend as much time as they wish at the rest of the site, but the caves may only be visited once.

The next areas to be passed through are

Fairy Garden and Valley of the Dinosaurs
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The first of these is a bit of a non-event, consisting of a small fenced off area, nicely planted and landscaped, and with small "ruined" (recently constructed) buildings. Over this expanse are several Victoriana-style statues of fairies of various sizes. And that's it. There is then a newly built bridge shaped like a dinosaur (and which smells like New Zealand, according to my daughter's friend) which leads, unsurprisingly, to Valley of the Dinosaurs. This area is a strange concept; 22 life sized dinosaurs lurking in the undergrowth, with very simplistic labelling. I wasn't sure who it was supposed to appeal to; dinosaur fans would be unlikely to be impressed. My son stood and looked at a collection of these for a while and then asked "But what do they DO?"

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By this stage, rumbling stomachs were demanding lunch. I'd made a picnic, which I'd left in the car to save lugging it around the caves. I was already aware that visitors may leave and return as many times as they wish throughout the day (apart from the caves). What I hadn't realised was there's no exit until the end. There's no way of returning to the car park without going the entire way through all the other attractions. So I left the gang with the dinosaurs and trudged off to fetch the food. This took about 20 minutes, as I was trying to overtake large crowds of people all moving at ambling speed, and then of course on the return journey, entering through the exit I was swimming against the tide. So by the time I arrived back, I'd really been through the mill. Twice.
With lunch eaten, to the strange accompaniment of "dinosaur sounds" through a nearby speaker, it was time to move on.

Paper Mill
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There has been a mill on this site for hundreds of years; a corn mill was recorded in the Domesday Book. It was later converted into a fulling mill, making cloth. By 1610 it was a papermill, making paper from cotton rags rather than wood pulp. Wookey Hole is the only surviving handmade paper mill in the U.K.
Guides are on hand to explain the various processes involved, and visitors can try out their paper-making skills, dipping a frame into the "stuff" (I'm not just being non-technical, that's what it's actually called) to create a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, the wet paper is scraped back into the vat to be re-used, so no one gets to take home their efforts. (You can, however, buy a range of Wookey Hole paper products at the gift shop; writing paper, notebooks, maps etc.) The mill managed to hold the attention of my 5 year old, but most younger children would be soon bored.

The "Pier"
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Several rooms have been converted in to a Victorian seaside pier area, with a range of slot machines that all cost 1d to play. You can convert your money into pre-decimal coinage at the rate of 10d to £1, or 25d (yes, I know that makes 2s/1d, but they only have pennies!) for £2. There is a vast range of machines, ranging from one-armed bandits, to "Tell your fortune" and "Test your grip" machines, also some automatons, and some original "What the butler saw" machines; very saucy in their day, I'm sure, but pretty tame by modern standards. Kids, of course, love this area, and it's fairly easy to avoid overspending, as all money has to be converted before use.

Mirror maze
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Surprisingly, it was the 14 and 15 year old who enjoyed this part the most; deliberately losing each other, then trying to find each other. The little one lost me briefly, and then grabbed onto several reflections of me before finding the real version. It's not a long or complicated maze, but little ones need to be closely monitored as it's possible to run straight into a mirror.

Theatre
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During the main season there are two different shows; each takes place 3 times each day, and lasts for approximately 30 minutes. We had the choice of a wizard show or a pirate puppet show (you can choose to see both if you wish). We opted for the puppet show, which is considered more suitable for younger audiences (infant age). There is a children's area towards the front where confident children sit on mats and join in loudly with lots of audience participation. It's not exactly the R.S.C. but it's raucous and boisterous, and the children at the front seemed to be very enthusiastic. My boy, being a little more reserved, sat with me on the grown-ups' chairs, but watched very avidly throughout.

Other areas
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There is a gift shop, which we zoomed through without stopping (always wise, with kids around). On the way out there is an old-fashioned Hall of Mirrors, which provided the usual giggles as we morphed into stilt-walkers and blobs.
There is also an indoor play area for smallish kids (there is a height restriction), which my son didn't want to try. It appeared to be the usual climbing/ soft play activities - it's the sort of thing that's easier to do with a friend or sibling. There were also some further play areas; the Pirate Zap Zone and Pirate Aqua Blaster. We didn't investigate these, so I can't pass any comments.

Refreshments
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Once inside, there is a café area serving tea/coffee, cold drinks, cakes etc. There is also an ice cream kiosk.
In the car park area, there is a café serving smoothies and snacks, and a larger restaurant serving a wider range of meals.

Disabled access
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There is no wheelchair/ pushchair access to the caves, and those with limited mobility are advised not to enter, because of uneven surfaces, steps etc. Visitors with disabilities can however, watch a "virtual reality tour" of the caves and valley while they wait for the rest of their family/ friends to join them. All other areas are accessible by wheelchair. Disabled visitors pay only half price, and a carer may visit free (without caves access).

Skimmers' Section
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It's a pretty good day out, particularly with kids in tow. No disabled access to caves. Take your lunch in with you.

There is a website at www.wookey.co.uk

Thanks for reading,

k8
 

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