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34-718: The Liberty Trail is a 28-mile (45.1 km) trail between Ham Hill in Somerset and Lyme Regis in Dorset , England. The route of the Liberty Trail route is based on information recorded by six rebels from various villages in Somerset and Dorset. Villagers from the two counties made their way to join the Protestant Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. The rebels wore green sprigs tucked into their hats to declare their support for

68-515: Is available from Yeovil Tourist Information Centre and South Somerset Tourist Information. Download coordinates as: Ordnance Survey Explorer map series:- 129 - Yeovil & Sherborne (Sherbourne), :- 116 - Lyme Regis & Bridport, provide the geographical details for this trail. Ham Hill, Somerset Ham Hill is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Scheduled Ancient Monument , Iron Age hill fort , Roman site, Local Nature Reserve and country park , to

102-504: Is one of the largest in Europe. Many local buildings are made from the local yellow Hamstone . At Wayford is Clapton Court Gardens, one of Somerset's more historic gardens that are open to the public. Forde Abbey is situated on a curved section of the River Axe , its original purpose was as a Cistercian Monastery . It has a garden of some elegance which has won many awards. At this location

136-405: Is pollution of roads from trucks leaving the quarries. To control and restrain the pollution of public roads, wheel washing systems are becoming more common. Many quarries naturally fill with water after abandonment and become lakes . Others are made into landfills . Water-filled quarries can be very deep, often 50 ft (15 m) or more, and surprisingly cold, so swimming in quarry lakes

170-468: Is popular for picnicking, walking and mountain biking in the grassy hollows of the old quarry workings. The geology supports a wide range of fauna including mammals, birds, invertebrates , reptiles and amphibians living on lichens , fungi , ferns and flowering plants. The hill is part of a ridge of sandy limestone rock which is elevated above the lower lying clay vales and nearby Somerset Levels . The sedimentary rocks were laid down in

204-508: Is the end of the Leland trail , a 28 miles (45.1 km) footpath which runs from King Alfred's Tower to Ham Hill Country Park. There is a limited amount of climbing available at Ham Hill with roughly 20 routes. These are top roped routes due to the nature of the rock, the difficulty of "topping out" and because the rock is of geological interest. There are also several bouldering problems. There are two compass trails for orienteering: one in

238-484: Is the longest running hamstone quarry in existence. The southern, Norton Quarry extracts its stone from some 20–30 metres below the surface and is quarried by Harvey Stone. This quarry was reopened around 15 years ago, having been the last quarry abandoned in the 1930s due to there being, according to the masons working the hill "no good quality stone left". Both quarries are owned by the Duchy of Cornwall . The northern end of

272-603: The Duke of Monmouth . Weapons that they carried included farm scythes and other suitable agricultural tools. Ham Hill is 397 feet (121 m) at its highest point, and Lyme Regis is at sea level. Below are six possible walking stages that may be used to traverse the Liberty Trail: At Ham Hill there are links with other Trails including the Monarch's Way , Leland Trail and River Parrett Trail . Ham Hill Iron Age Hill Fort

306-748: The Durotriges tribe, from the 1st century BC. The 3 miles (5 km) ramparts enclose an area of 210 acres (85 ha). Most of the perimeter is a double bank and ditch (" multivallate "). There is a major entrance to the south-east, on the line of the modern road and another to the north-east, following a track from the Church of St Mary the Virgin at East Stoke in Stoke-sub-Hamdon . Archaeological finds include bronzework, chariot parts, iron currency bars, gold and silver coins, cremations and burials . The hill

340-537: The Fosse Way military road was constructed within 1 mile (2 km) of Ham Hill, on its way to Axminster and the garrison at Exeter . The area was very prosperous in the Roman period and several major villas have been found nearby, including one on the eastern part of the hill in the field known as "Warren", with extensive mosaic . Other villas have been found at Stoke-sub-Hamdon , Odcombe , Lufton and West Coker . Just to

374-529: The Jurassic Coast , a place where many fossils may be found. The Cobb at Lyme Regis was the location for The French Lieutenant's Woman (film) in 1981. The South West Coast Path also leads into this part of the town. Sections of the Liberty Trail also form part of other trails in the area, such as the Macmillan Way West , River Parrett Trail , Wessex Ridgeway . Further detail of the Liberty Trail

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408-461: The 17th century. In the 1800s there were 24 small quarries operating on the hill employing some 200 men. This continued into the Victorian era with over 200 small family run quarries and masonry businesses. Many of these small quarries had ceased working by 1910. Today hamstone is only quarried in two areas at the top of Ham Hill. The North quarry, near the modern stone circle and war memorial,

442-512: The Dorset Jubilee Trail crosses over the path of the Liberty Trail. Two other Iron Age Hill Forts may be seen at this stage, the first one is Lambert's Castle and further on is Coney's Castle . During clear weather conditions Chesil Beach and Portland Bill are visible, both are famous features of this part of the South coast of England. Lyme Regis is located to the west of Chesil Beach on

476-588: The South West of Britain. PhD Thesis (PhD). Bournemouth University. Appendix 5 Ham Hill Quarry The word quarry can also include the underground quarrying for stone, such as Bath stone . Types of rock extracted from quarries include: Stone quarry is an outdated term for mining construction rocks (limestone, marble, granite, sandstone, etc.). There are open types (called quarries, or open-pit mines) and closed types ( mines and caves). For thousands of years, only hand tools had been used in quarries. In

510-520: The course of the Fosse Way near the base of the hill. Just below the Monument is a bench dedicated to the memory of local student Alan Kneebone, who was murdered in 2001 while at Wakefield College . The hill and the country park around it provide a venue for a variety of leisure and recreational uses, including walking, horse riding, mountain biking and orienteering . It is very popular with dog walkers. It

544-457: The east of the main plateau is the isolated St. Michael's Hill, the "pointed hill" that gives its name to the village of Montacute and which was turned into a motte-and-bailey castle by the Normans . South of the main hill are strip lynchets , or low terraces created by ancient ploughing and cultivation and the deserted medieval village of Witcombe (or Whitcombe), which was finally abandoned in

578-521: The eighteenth century, the use of drilling and blasting operations was mastered. The term remains used to describe a method of cutting into a certain shape, such as for glass and tile, as a "quarry cut". The method of removal of stones from their natural bed by using different operations is called quarrying. Methods of quarrying include: Following steps are used in the blasting process; Many quarry stones such as marble , granite , limestone , and sandstone are cut into larger slabs and removed from

612-462: The fire has not returned. Other changes are due to farming habits. In previous years the plateau fields were almost exclusively used for grazing or growing spring wheat and left fallow during the winter. In some years the fields were lightly ploughed and mangolds grown for winter fodder. Following a change in ownership during the 1980s, this changed to winter-sown grain with deep ploughing with sludge injection. The change caused an immediate change to

646-463: The flora include lichens, fungi, ferns and flowering plants. The name may come from the Old English ham and hyll giving a meaning of "the settlement hill", however its original name was Hamdon, meaning "the hill among the water meadows". There is evidence of occupation from the mesolithic and neolithic periods. Ham Hill is the site of a very large Bronze Age and Iron Age hill fort of

680-454: The grazing of sheep impossible. This has resulted in a noticeable change in vegetation in the last forty years. In many areas, what were areas of short-cropped grassland interspersed with short stemmed plants such as wild thyme and clovers have been replaced by rank bracken, gorse , bramble and wild parsley. The absence of the sheep has also enabled woodland to overrun and obscure the previously grassed Iron Age earthworks, most noticeably on

714-405: The landscape into a warren of stony ridges and grassy hollows. Quarrying has unearthed many important historical artefacts, but also destroyed much of the archaeological context. 11.1 ha of the hill is designated as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), notified in 1971, due to its particular importance to geologists because of the assemblages of fossils which it contains,

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748-408: The northern flank of the hill. A disastrous fire on the south-west flank of the hill (overlooking Little Norton) in the drought summer of 1976 was believed to have been caused by a discarded cigarette. The vegetation on the entire side of the hill was destroyed. When regrowth appeared, bracken was the dominant vegetation. In some places this has now given way to woodland, but the fine grassland of before

782-486: The part of the early Jurassic known as the Toarcian Stage. They are given their colour by the weathering of the iron content of the stone and contain fossils such as the ammonite Dumortieria moorei. The hamstone is a distinctive honey-coloured building stone which has been used in many local villages and for buildings such as Montacute House and Sherborne Abbey . Extensive old quarry workings have changed

816-465: The plateau is crowned by a war memorial to the dead of the nearby village of Stoke-sub-Hamdon killed during the two World Wars and subsequent conflicts. It was designed in 1920 and unveiled in 1923 with four steps which lead to a square plinth and a tapering four-sided obelisk with a flat top. The memorial is clearly visible from the surrounding countryside, including the A303 trunk road which now follows

850-512: The quarry. The surfaces are polished and finished with varying degrees of sheen or luster . Polished slabs are often cut into tiles or countertops and installed in many kinds of residential and commercial properties. Natural stone quarried from the earth is often considered a luxury and tends to be a highly durable surface, thus highly desirable. Quarries in level areas with shallow groundwater or which are located close to surface water often have engineering problems with drainage . Generally

884-446: The remains of the Roman mosaic at Batemore; the site was ploughed over (it had never been marked on the ground) and small pieces of tile were brought to the surface. The plateau fields are now under the control of the park authorities, who are attempting to restore them by allowing natural grassland regrowth, with controlled sheep grazing. Randall, C. E., 2010. Livestock and landscape: exploring animal exploitation in later prehistory in

918-638: The sedimentary features which it displays and the way it relates to other rocks of equivalent age in the close vicinity. Ham Hill is managed as a Local Nature Reserve , under Section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 , because of the rare calcareous grassland which supports a wide variety of plant and animal species and its wild flower meadows and wide open grassland areas such as Witcombe Valley. Fauna include mammals , birds , invertebrates , reptiles and amphibians while

952-547: The start of the Liberty Trail which covers 28 miles (45 km) to Lyme Regis in Dorset . Ham Hill is operated as a 390 acres (160 ha) country park by South Somerset District Council and is visited by over 250,000 people each year. Prior to the designation of Ham Hill as a country park, three local farms used ancient free range grazing rights on the main grass area of the hill. Country Park status brought more visitors and most importantly, more dogs. The dogs made

986-519: The stone circle area and one in Witcombe Valley. They are marked by sets of letters printed on small squares from A to J, which are attached to fence posts, signposts, gates and boulders. Ham Hill is close to the Monarch's Way a 615-mile (990 km) long-distance footpath which approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651, after being defeated at the Battle of Worcester . and

1020-530: The water higher during removal; this can become the limiting factor in quarry depth. Some water-filled quarries are worked from beneath the water, by dredging. Many people and municipalities consider quarries to be eyesores and require various abatement methods to address problems with noise, dust, and appearance. One of the more effective and famous examples of successful quarry restoration is Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. A further problem

1054-533: The water is removed by pumping while the quarry is operational, but for high inflows more complex approaches may be required. For example, the Coquina quarry is excavated to more than 60 feet (18 m) below sea level. To reduce surface leakage, a moat lined with clay was constructed around the entire quarry. Groundwater entering the pit is pumped up into the moat. As a quarry becomes deeper, water inflows generally increase and it also becomes more expensive to lift

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1088-424: The west of Yeovil in Somerset , England. The hill has given its name to the distinctive quarried hamstone and also to two nearby villages: Stoke-sub-Hamdon and Norton Sub Hamdon , whose names mean "under-Ham-hill" (where "Ham" is Old English for a small settlement). The Mendip Hills , Blackdown Hills , Quantock Hills and Dorset Downs are all visible from Ham Hill, especially from its war memorial . It

1122-404: The wildlife. The winter flocks of finches were lost, the yellowhammers disappeared, the skylarks nearly so. The deep ploughing proved counter productive as millions of poppy seeds were brought to the surface making the grain difficult to harvest - something that had been warned of years earlier by a previous farmer, but disregarded. It was around this time that deep ploughing probably damaged

1156-547: Was captured around AD 45 by the Roman Second Legion (Augusta) , led by the future emperor Vespasian , who had already captured Maiden Castle and other hill forts to the south. Many Roman military artefacts have been found and it is quite likely that the Second Legion made a temporary camp on the hill, as at Hod Hill . After the initial campaigns, a more permanent Roman camp was established at nearby Ilchester and

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