This post covers the second part of our holiday in Somerset, so if you’ve not yet read part one, I’d recommend reading that first. You can find it here. If you have read part one, you’ll know that it covered the first three days of the holiday and so we’ll start this post with day 4 and a visit to one of England’s smallest cities.
Wells is famous for both being England’s smallest city (which its actually not, as this position is taken by the City of London) and for being the filming location of Sandford in the film ‘Hot Fuzz’. We expected to pay the city a visit, have a quick potter around the Cathedral and be done just after lunch, however Wells turned out to be a highlight of the holiday and we spent the full day exploring the city. With Wells Cathedral being both the mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells and the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Wells has had a significant role in numerous local and national events and had held city status since medieval times.
As well as the Cathedral, the city is home to the Bishop’s Palace, and you can get a joint ticket to explore both historic buildings for £20. This includes a free guided tour of the Cathedral at certain times, and we were able to learn all about the interesting history of the Cathedral and city as a whole. A highlight of the Cathedral tour for me was visiting the Chapter House, interesting in itself that it is the only one in the country that is ‘upstairs’ from the Cathedral, whilst it was also astonishingly bright inside, dispelling the myth that churches are always dark and stuffy. You can also make your way out to the Cathedral Garden and sneak a peak through a window in the wall into the Bishop’s Palace Garden and see St. Andrew’s Well, the spring that gave ‘Wells’ its name.
After exploring the Cathedral and grabbing a drink in the tea rooms, it was time for lunch and we managed to find a shady spot in the beer garden of the Swan Hotel, which is across the road to the hotel itself. Aswell as providing some grateful relief from the glorious sunshine, the beer garden is located in a gap between the buildings on Sadler Street and provides great views over the Cathedral Green to the Cathedral itself. We had a very enjoyable lunch of fancy sandwiches and started the afternoon fully refuelled and ready to do more exploring, with our next stop being the Bishop’s Palace.
Located in a walled estate with a moat, the design of the Bishop’s Palace shows the role its played in the more turbulent times of England’s history, although it is very much now a peaceful place to wander and enjoy on a sunny day. There are guided tours of both the palace and gardens available, but we chose to do a self-guided explore so that we didn’t have to wait around. The palace had a really interesting display on the role of the Bishop of Bath and Wells in various royal coronations, including those of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III, and whilst art isn’t really my thing, there’s plenty on display if it does take your interest. Our day in Wells ended with us enjoying an ice cream next to the Bishop’s croquet lawn, before we headed back to the car via a couple of local shops.
Our final full day in Somerset was another scorcher and we ended up doing something that ended up being worth it but was ultimately a bit stupid. Heading for nearby Cheddar Gorge, we decided to have a walk to enjoy the scenery and views from the top of the gorge, however neither of us had properly investigated it. As such we ended up with a very warm and challenging climb via the 274 steps of Jacob’s Ladder and the slopes of the cliff top walk. And just because we weren’t exhausted enough, we decided to add the 48 steps of the Lookout Tower to our exercise as well!
Despite the challenges, when we ultimately reached the summit of the cliff top walk, it was definitely worth it as the views across Somerset were stunning! In the distance we could see the Quantock Hills and Glastonbury Tor, as well as the much closer views of the cavernous Gorge itself. There is a circular walk that takes you back down into the Gorge and then up the other side and along, however one climb was plenty for us. We also paid to access the cliff top via Jacob’s Ladder, however you can reach the top by public footpaths from the ‘rear’ of the hill, although I’m not sure where these are accessible from. After the climb, we made our way back down to the picnic benches and area of shade by the Lookout Tower to have our packed lunch, before stopping for an ice cream at Holly House Tea Rooms after our decent of Jacob’s Ladder.
For our final evening in Somerset, we headed to the Ring O Bells pub in Compton Martin where we were staying and had a very enjoyable meal at this Butcombe Brewery pub. The food was all excellent, and although our desert took a while to come out after we’d ordered it, the staff more than made up for this with giving it to us for free of charge without us having complained. Whilst very much appreciated, it wasn’t necessary but showed how much the staff cared about the service they provide. Ultimately it was a shame we’d left visiting the pub until the final night, as I’d certainly like to visit again in the future.
The final our day of our holiday meant a three hour drive back to Peterborough, but we still had the morning to enjoy some more of what Somerset had to offer. Compton Martin is in the Chew Valley area of Somerset, and nearby is Chew Valley Lake, a large reservoir with plenty of green space surrounding it including some nature trails. With the weather still sunny but thankfully a bit cooler, we had an enjoyable walk around the nature trails, seeing plenty of birds, before heading for a drink and some cake at the New Manor Farm Shop as our final holiday treat.
As I said at the start of Part 1, Somerset was a corner of England that neither of us had really explored. Whilst we had a fun filled few days exploring bits of the county, I still feel we barely scratched the surface and certainly look forward to returning in the future. If these posts have inspired you to visit, I can certainly recommend the cottage we stayed in, Woodview, as an excellent base. We were 20-30 minutes from Wells and Cheddar Gorge and around 45 minutes from Bristol. Alternatively if you don’t want self-catering, the Ring O Bells also does bed and breakfast accommodation.
Flights & Times 