The Mells River flows through the eastern

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. It rises at Gurney Slade and flows east joining the River Frome at

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...

. The river forms one of the boundaries of

Mells Park Mells Park is a country estate of near Mells, Somerset, Mells, Somerset, England. It originated as a 17th-century deer park (England), deer park, probably created by the Horner family, who had been the owners of Mells Manor from 1543. The Horner ...

, a country house estate in Mells. A few kilometres downstream it flows between the pre-Roman fortifications of

Wadbury Camp Wadbury Camp is a promontory fort in Somerset, England that protected the mining district of the Mendip Hills in pre-Roman times. It seems to have been an outwork of the larger Tedbury Camp. Location Wadbury camp lies on a ridge to the north o ...

to the north and

Tedbury Camp Tedbury Camp is a multivallate Iron Age promontory hill fort defended by two parallel banks near Great Elm, Somerset, England. Background Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium&nb ...

to the south. The river flows through the western part of the Harridge Woods nature reserve. Mells River also powered the Old Ironstone Works and several other mills set up by

James Fussell III James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

in 1744. It is now a 0.25

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

, as it is used by both Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats. Vobster Inn Bridge, which carries the lane over the Mells River, is dated 1764 and is Grade II listed. At

Great Elm Great Elm is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish between Mells, Somerset, Mells and Frome in the Mendip District, Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Hapsford. History The name Great Elm was ...

the

Murtry Aqueduct Murtry Aqueduct is a three-arched aqueduct that was intended to carry the Dorset and Somerset Canal over the Mells River, near Frome in Somerset, England. It is a grade II listed building. Construction The aqueduct was built as part of an 8-m ...

, built around 1795, carried the

Dorset and Somerset Canal The Dorset and Somerset Canal was a proposed canal in southwestern England. The main line was intended to link Poole, Dorset with the Kennet and Avon Canal near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. A branch was to go from the main line at Frome to the ...

over the river. The river takes the outfall from

Whatley Quarry Whatley Quarry, is a limestone quarry owned by Hanson plc, near the village of Whatley on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England. The quarry exhibits pale to dark grey Carboniferous Limestone with small area of overlying horizontally bedded buf ...

. Downstream of the outfall is the Mells River Sink. This acts as a spring when the water table is high and as a sink into underground aquifers, through the

Limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, when the water table is low. Water tracing showed this to be part of an underground part of the river long. Archaeological investigations found the remains of

woolly rhinoceros The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...

bones and a 1st-century bronze brooch.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Somerset 2Mells Mells, Somerset