Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Chapters: Mining in Somerset, Ham Hill, Somerset, Bath Stone, Birnbeck Pier, Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, Priddy Pools, Lamb Leer, Hamstone, Quarries of the Mendip Hills, Wookey railway station, Thrupe Lane Swallet, Emborough Quarries, Brimble Pit and Cross Swallet Basins, Batts Combe quarry, Hadspen Quarry, Cloford Quarry, Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast SSSI, Fairy Cave Quarry, Wurt Pit and Devil's Punchbowl, St. Dunstan's Well Catchment, Greylake, Stancombe Quarry, Whatley Quarry, Thurlbear Wood and Quarrylands, Doulting Stone Quarry, Radstock Museum, Colemans Quarry, Godminster Lane Quarry and Railway Cutting, Moon's Hill Quarry, Windsor Hill Quarry, Cook's Wood Quarry, Halecombe, Holwell Quarries, Torr Works, Bruton Railway Cutting, Glenthorne, Laycock Railway Cutting, Langport Railway Cutting, Snowdon Hill Quarry, Viaduct Quarry, Shepton Montague Railway Cutting, Hobbs Quarry, Leighton Road Cutting, Gurney Slade quarry, Maesbury Railway Cutting, Doulting Railway Cutting, Ben Knowle, Hurcott Farm, Dulcote Quarry, Miller's Hill, Milborne Wick, Sandpit Hole and Bishop's Lot, Maes Down, Hurcott Lane Cutting, Callow Rock quarry, Cloud Quarry. Excerpt: Somerset is a rural county in the southwest of England, covering 4, 171 square kilometres (1, 610 sq mi). It is bounded on the north-west by the Bristol Channel, on the north by Bristol and Gloucestershire, on the north-east by Wiltshire, on the south-east by Dorset, and on the south west and west by Devon. It has broad central plains with several ranges of low hills. The landscape divides into four main geological sections from the Silurian through the Devonian and Carboniferous to the Permian which influence the landscape, together with water-related features. The low lying areas of the North Somerset Levels and Somerset Levels have been subject to thousands of years of flooding and man's attempts to control the flow of water. In the north of the county the Limestone of the Mendip Hills dominates the landscape, while in the south the Blackdown and Quantock Hills rise out of the levels. The highest areas are on Exmoor. The wide variety of landscapes has led to several areas being designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest for geological reasons, and support a range of flora and fauna as can be seen from the List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset The oldest rocks are of Silurian age (443-417 million years ago), the most southerly known outcrop of rocks of this age in Britain. They make up a sequence of lavas, tuffs (volcanic ash), shales and mudstones in a narrow outcrop to the northeast of Shepton Mallet, in the eastern Mendip Hills. Rocks from the Devonian (417-354 million years ago) are found in much of Exmoor, the Quantocks and in the cores to the folded masses of the Mendip Hills. Carboniferous Period (354-290 million years ago) rocks are represented by the Carboniferous Limestone that forms the Mendip Hills, rising abruptly out of the flat landscape of the Somerset Levels and Moors. The limestones are very fossiliferous, and contain evidence of the abundant marine life that existed at the time of their creation, including fossil crinoid