The last few weeks have been spent sorting through wedding photos and it was finally time to deliver the wedding album to Bristol. Whilst there I had a few outings with my brother and his family, which included a trip to Wookey Hole.

Wookey Hole Caves were formed by the action of the River Axe on the limestone hills. The river still runs underground through the cave system and was used for the first successful cave dives in Britain in 1935. The caves are at a constant temperature of 11 °C (52 °F), and the low temperature means that the caves can be used for maturing Cheddar cheese.

The caves have been inhabited for 50,000 years, when they were explored by Neanderthal Man who hunted bear and rhinoceros with stone weapons. Numerous travellers from the Romans onwards have made reference to the caves, showing that even when vacated as a home for Iron Age people they remained a place to visit and marvel at. By the 15th century only bones, broken pottery and legends remained.

The most famous story associated with the caves is that of the Witch of Wookey Hole. The story was first written down in 1748, even though the story had been handed down for generations.

Legend has it that during the Dark Ages an old woman who kept a dog and some goats lived alone in the caves. Everything that went wrong in the village was blamed on her and the local people believed she was a witch who cast spells and caused misfortune. Eventually the villagers asked for help from the Abbot at nearby Glastonbury Abbey. They sent a monk called Father Bernard to exorcise the witch's spirit. Father Bernard entered the cave armed only with a bible and a candle. In the faint light he saw the witch stooping over her cooking pot. He tried to talk to her, but screaming curses and casting spells, she fled deeper into the cave down a narrow passageway called Hell's Ladder. The monk followed her and they met again in the shadowy depths of an inner cavern. Quickly, Father Bernard scooped up a handful of water from the river, blessed it and threw it over the witch. She turned instantly to stone and her frozen figure remains in this cavern, which is still known as The Witch's Kitchen.

Intriguingly this is not the end of the story. In 1912 an archaeologist named Herbert Balch found the almost complete skeleton of an old woman in the caves. The bones of two goats, a dagger, some household items and a polished alabaster ball were also found amongst other Iron Age remains near the entrance to the Hole.

In the last few weeks the attraction has appointed a new 'resident witch'. She beat 300 other finalists who queued for hours to take part in X Factor-style auditions. In total, 3,000 men and women applied for the job. She can be seen standing in the centre of the photograph. To her right, silhouetted against the green light, is the rock formation that is supposed to be the real witch that the monk turned to stone.

Visit http://www.wookey.co.uk for more details.

Andrew Trenoweth 9th August 2009.