Worldwide the name "Cheddar" is almost synonymous with the Cheese that bears its name but its history shows that it is more than just a cheese producing area.
Major tourist attractions are the Cheddar Caves at Cheddar Gorge. There, finds of human skeletons and flint tools date back 10-12,000 years. Also of historical interest are the earthen circle of the Gorsey Bigbury hinge at the top of Cheddar Gorge, and the later round mounds of Bronze Age barrows. In the low light of morning, the fields of later prehistoric peoples can be seen everywhere on the south-facing slopes of the Mendip hills, above the Cheddar to Wells road.
A large building (possibly a villa) stood somewhere near the site of Cheddar church in Roman times. Many Roman farms have been found in other parts of the parish, revealed by the spreads of pottery left after the ploughing of their long-abandoned sites. Other Roman finds in the village itself, implies that it may have been a small settlement even this long ago.

Cheddar’s name is probably from an old Celtic word meaning a bag or pouch, and referring to Cheddar Gorge; this great landmark can be seen from many miles away. It is first recorded in the will of King Alfred the Great, in about 880 AD, when it was called Ceodre. In this document, the king referred to the community at Cheddar, which was probably a religious community, as Cheddars church was later described as a Minster, an important lay and religious regional centre. The village was also the centre of a medieval forest where the king had hunting interests which meant "special laws" to protect the "Royal" game. A story in the medieval Life of St Dunstan claimed that King Edmund narrowly escaped falling into Cheddar Gorge while hunting in 941. The so-called palace was the King's hunting lodge when he came to Cheddar. The building was actually a grand wooden kings hall and farm whose building layout can be seen in the Kings of Wessex School, in the village

At the time of Domesday Book in 1086, Cheddar was largely owned by the crown. In the later medieval period, there were as many as six separate small manors or estates, within the parish which were owned by such worthies as the Bishop of Bath and Wells as well as powerful families such as the Berkeleys and de Cheddres. The manor house of the de Cheddres, later known as Hannam Manor, stands near the Kings of Wessex School, and still has a fine 14th century timber roof. Each manor had at least one mill on the river Yeo that runs from the rocks in Cheddar Gorge. In the 18th century there were fifteen mills on the river within a mile of its head. Initially for the purpose of grinding corn, they later became cloth mills, paper-mills, and in the late 19th century, even a shirt factory. Some of these buildings survive today in a much altered state.

Cheddar was generally a peaceful agricultural village and thrived during the prosperous years of the l3th century, when its cheese was already famous. In the more troubled years of the early 14th century, when farming was poorer and famine common in England, the great landowners embarked on huge and ambitious drainage schemes to make the wet Cheddar valley blossom. These included the Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of Bath and Wells. In this period they straightened rivers, drained the moors and built bridges. Yet, the lines of the old winding rivers they replaced can still be seen today.

Cheddar's church of St Andrew, built over and above the ruins of the great Roman building, was important as a Minster before the Norman Conquest. Only one or two stones now visible in its structure are as early as the l2th century though. The majority visible today is late l4th century, with a fine 15th century tower. Another chapel, dedicated to St Columbanus is now a ruined shell.  This ruin can be seen close to the Kings of Wessex School, and was the chapel of the royal palace, perhaps originally built in the 10th century.

A stone 15th century market cross stands at the meeting of three roads in the village, where the twice yearly fairs and weekly markets were held for centuries.

After the Reformation in the middle of the l6th century, the Thynne family; ancestors of the present Lord Bath, became the Lords of the Manor of Cheddar Episcopi, the largest manor, which had formerly been the bishops; the Bath Arms, in Cheddar, is named in honour of this great land owning family.

Visitors to Cheddar over the centuries have been impressed by its Gorge and caves. In the l2th century. Henry of Huntingdon described the caves with awe as one of the wonders of Britain. Daniel Defoe, in the 18th century, was more impressed by its fine cows and its cheese, and the philanthropist Hannah More in 1789 by the poverty and illiteracy of its people.
The caves of Cheddar Gorge that are visited today were discovered by the Coxes and Goughs in the l9th century, and it was during the digging and blasting that opened Goughs Cave to the light of day, that the remains of the Cheddar Man were found. These are the remains of a human male found and date to approximately 7150 BC. It appears that he died a violent death, perhaps related to the cannibalism practiced in the area. He is Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton. The remains were excavated in 1903, and currently reside in the Natural History Museum in London, with a replica in the "Cheddar Man and the Cannibals" museum in Cheddar village.

In the late 1990s, a research team led by Oxford Professor of Human Genetics, Bryan Sykes, compared mitochondrial DNA from twenty living residents of Cheddar village to DNA extracted from Cheddar Man’s molar. It produced two exact matches and one match with a single mutation. The two exact matches were schoolchildren, and their names were not released. The close match was a history teacher named Adrian Targett.

This modern connection to Cheddar Man (who died at least three thousand years before agriculture began in Britain) lends credence to the theory that modern-day Britons mainly are not descended from Middle-Eastern migratory farmers, but rather the hunter-gatherer tribes who came first.

The caves and Gorge, and the strawberry industry brought good fortune and the railway to Cheddar in the middle of the l9th century; although little now remains to be seen of the railway apart from the fine station buildings, the prosperity remains.

For more details surrounding Cheddar Go to website
http://www.channel4.com/history/timeteam/archive/cheddar.html
http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/may05/Travels0505.html

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