Cheddar

Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the district of Sedgemoor in English county of Somerset. It is situated on the edge of the Mendip Hills 14.5 km (9 miles) north west of Wells.

It is a frequent misconception that Cheddar is a town, presumably based on its present-day size and importance. Officially, however, Cheddar is a village. The adjacent settlement of Axbridge, although only about a third the size of Cheddar, is a town. This apparently illogical situation is explained by the relative importance of the two places in historic times. While Axbridge grew in importance as a centre for cloth manufacture in the Tudor period and gained a charter from King John, Cheddar remained a more dispersed dairy-farming village until the advent of tourism and the arrival of the railway in the Victorian era.

This situation is unlikely to change in the near future, with the residents of both Axbridge and Cheddar proud of their settlements' respective status and the inevitable friendly local rivalry between the two.

Cheddar is twinned with Felsberg in Germany and Vernouillet in France.

The village is famous for having given its name to Cheddar cheese which is one of the most popular kinds of cheese. Although the cheese is now made worldwide, only one producer remains in the village itself.

Cheddar's other main produce is the strawberry, which gave name to the now disused Strawberry Line railway that ran from Yatton to Wells. In the 1960s, when the rest of the line was closed and all passenger services ceased, the section of the line between Cheddar and Yatton remained open for goods traffic, to provide a fast link with the main markets for the strawberries in Birmingham and London. The former station has become housing and a trading estate, and is the starting point for a cycle path along the old track to Axbridge, passing the Cheddar Reservoir, an SSSI for its large population of wintering waterfowl, and the home of a sailing club.

There is evidence of occupation from both the Neolithic and Roman periods in Cheddar. It was also the site of a Saxon Royal palace which has been fully excavated. Its outline has since been laid out in the grounds of The Kings of Wessex School, which was built on the site although not directly on the palace.

Cheddar was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ceder, meaning 'Shear Water' from the Old English scear and Celtic dwr.

When William Wilberforce saw the poor conditions of the locals when he visited Cheddar in 1789 he inspired Hannah More in her work to improve the conditions of the Mendip miners and agricultural workers.

Cheddar has a number of active service clubs including Cheddar Vale Lions, Mendip Rotary and Mendip Inner Wheel Club. The clubs raise money for projects in the local community and hold annual events such as a fireworks display, duck races in the Gorge, a dragon boat race on the reservoir and concerts in the grounds of the nearby St Michael's Cheshire Home.