The office of High Sheriff of Somerset is an ancient shrievalty which has been in existence since the 11th century. Originally known as the "Sheriff of Somerset", the role was retitled on 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 .
11-555: GB Cave is a cave between Charterhouse and Shipham in the limestone of the Mendip Hills , in Somerset , England. The cave was first entered on 19 November 1939, after ten months of digging, by the University of Bristol Spelæological Society , and was named in recognition of the two members, F. J. Goddard and C. C. Barker, who had done most of the work involved in its discovery. The cave
22-635: Is covered by the Cheddar Complex Site of Special Scientific Interest . In 1931 the parish had a population of 68. The name is believed to come from the Carthusian order of Chartreuse in France , which was established in Witham (near Frome ) in 1181 and formed a cell at Charterhouse in 1283 with a grant to mine lead ore. There is evidence, in the form of burials in local caves, of human occupation since
33-691: Is located within the Cheddar Complex and the 17-acre GB Gruffy nature reserve and is close to Charterhouse Cave , the deepest cave in the region. Ladder Dig broke through in 1966 to gain access to the extremely well-decorated Bat Passage. The entrance to the cave is kept locked, and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company. GB Cave is remarkable for the Gorge, a river-passage up to 6 metres (20 ft) wide, 12 metres (39 ft) high and 90 metres (295 ft) long, which opens into
44-513: Is theoretically the Sovereign's judicial representative in the county, while the Lord Lieutenant is the Sovereign's personal representative. Their jurisdictions, the "shrieval counties", are no longer co-terminous with administrative areas, representing a mix between the ancient counties and more recent local authority areas. The post is unpaid, except for a small court attendance allowance, and
55-638: The Dissolution of the Monasteries , it was granted to Robert May who constructed a substantial house here and one of his descendants John May became High Sheriff of Somerset in 1602. There is further evidence of mine workings in the medieval and Victorian periods, some of which survives within the Blackmoor Nature Reserve owned by Somerset County Council . There is also evidence of a rectangular medieval enclosure. There are several caves in
66-564: The limestone around the village including Manor Farm Swallet and Upper Flood Swallet . The Church of St Hugh was built in 1908 by W.D. Caroe , on the initiative of the Rev. Menzies Lambrick , from the former welfare hall for the lead miners. It is a Grade II* listed building . A cross in the churchyard and the churchyard wall are also listed buildings. The roof-truss, screen, rood , and altar are all made of carved whitened oak . High Sheriff of Somerset The position of Sheriff
77-530: The Great Chamber. Charterhouse, Somerset Charterhouse , also known as Charterhouse-on-Mendip , is a hamlet and former civil parish , now in the parish of Priddy , in the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in the Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset , England. The area between Charterhouse and Cheddar Gorge including Velvet Bottom and Ubley Warren
88-775: The even larger Main Chamber (20 metres (66 ft) wide, 23 metres (75 ft) high, 122 metres (400 ft) long). Together these two form what was thought to be largest known space under the Mendip Hills, until the discovery of "The Frozen Deep" in Reservoir Hole in 2012. Further into the cave is the Great Chamber, another large space, and a number of other chambers in the cave that are well decorated. The trace elements magnesium , strontium and barium have been found by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) from three Holocene speleothems taken from
99-498: The late Neolithic /Early Bronze Age . The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse were first operated on a large scale by the Romans , from at least AD 49. At first the lead/silver industries were tightly controlled by the Roman military , but within a short time the extraction of these metals was contracted out to civilian companies, probably because the silver content of the local ore
110-512: Was not particularly high. There was also some kind of 'fortlet' here in the 1st century, and an amphitheatre . The Roman landscape has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument . The parish was part of the Winterstoke Hundred . Charter-House-on-Mendip was an extra-parochial ville, from 1858 Charterhouse was a civil parish in its own right, on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Blagdon and Cheddar. After
121-559: Was once a powerful one, the holders being responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing law and order in Somerset , a county in South West England . In modern times the sheriff has become a ceremonial officer of the Crown, attending or presiding over many public events. Until 1567 the Sheriff of Somerset was also Sheriff of Dorset . In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland the high sheriff
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