Found quoted in 'History of the parish and manor of Wookey' by Thomas Scott Holmes (1885).
William of Worcester visited this neghbourhood with Symon Simeon about the year 1470, and gives a description of [the river Axe...] The wonders of the cave at Wookey-hole seem to have especially struck him, his account of it being as follows:
Below the parish at Wookey-hole, about half a mile from Wells, there is a certain narrow entrance (into the rock) where at the beginning is an image of a man who goes by the name of the porter, and it is the duty of the people who desire to enter the hall of Woky to ask permission of the porter, and they carry in their hands torches, which are called in English 'shevys of reed-sedge,' for the purpose of lighting up the hall. The hall is about as large as Westminster Hall, and there hangs from the vaulted roof wonderful pendula of stone. The passage from the entrance to the hall is about half a furlong long, and is arched with stones of plane work hanging down from the roof. And there is a certain broad piece of water between the 'tresance' and the hall for the distance of five stepping stones, which stepping passage is about twenty feet wide, and if a man goes beyond the stepping stones he falls into the water, which is on all sides about five or six feet deep.
There is a kitchen in a chamber near the entance to the hall of immense breadth, and roofed in stone. There is also a chamber called an ost, for the purpose of drying barley grain to make beer, &c., and the figure of a woman is there clad, and holding in her girdle a spinning distaff.
And thence people pass on a hundred paces, and a man may go along it with dry feet over the stones. And then the chamber called the parlour follows, which is a round appartment built of huge rocks, about twenty paces broad, and in the northern part of the said parlour there is what is called in English a 'holie-hole', and in the said well, which is fairly arched over, there is abundance of the clearest water, the depth of which water no one is able to say. Moreover, from the said Woky-hole comes forth a great torrent, which runs into the mere, near Glastonbury, for the space of two miles.
It sounds like the tourist trade was doing well even then, even if the stone figures hadn't been interpreted as witches. I'm not sure why he would be saying "in English" but that's no doubt just my ignorance. Reverend Holmes insists that the locals call the hole from which the water flows 'Wookey Hole Witch', with witch / wych being a local word for a break in the rocks. But is this his reluctance to deal with unChristian goings-on? I dunno. I can't see this use of the word in the OED. But then it's not a dictionary of Somerset dialect.
It's all very well being scared of the Witch, but what about the 30ft long conger eel that lives in the caves? To use the standard unit of measurement in these situations, it is as long as a double decker bus.
A long time ago it swam up into the Severn estuary and set itself up as King of the River. Naturally most creatures weren't prepared to argue. But after watching the eel repeatedly ruining fishing nets, splashing about and flooding the land, and generally stuffing himself with fish, the local fishermen had had enough. They lined up their boats and drove him towards Brean Down, forcing him up the narrow River Axe. The eel had no choice but to keep swimming, and eventually squeezed himself into Wookey Hole, where he'll probably be stuck forever. He must get pretty hungry.
It's possible you know. Some mad cave divers set the British record by diving down nearly 80 metres, and the cave system still isn't fully explored.
(mentioned in the collection "Reader's Digest 'Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain'")
In several parts of Britain there are caves which are known to have been occupied at various periods during the last 400,000 years. Wookey Hole is easy to visit as it's a famous tourist attraction.
The Wookey Hole Caves site has provided rich pickings for archaeologists and anthropologists over the years, and several exciting excavations have been undertaken.
Only the first chamber, lit by daylight, was occupied. In 1912 an archaeologist Herbert Balch excavated the site. Pottery found there dates this occupation to the late Iron Age and into the time after the Roman occupation. The discovery of the bones of two goats, a pot, and the remains of a tethering post indicate that part of the outer chamber had also been used as a goat pen; and nearby was found an almost complete skeleton of an old woman, plus a dagger, knife, billhook and a stalagmite / alabaster ball (whatever that is!).
Workmen digging the canal in 1857 found the remains of prehistoric man, including flint tools, as well as the bones of animals such as hyenas, mammoths, rhinoceros and lions.
Many of these are now on display at the nearby Wells City Museum, but most were retained and are now housed in Wookey Hole Cave’s own museum. The museum has various displays giving more information about the history of the caves, archaeological excavations (including artefacts) and cave diving.
Janet & Colin Bord's 1978 book, 'A Guide to Ancient Sites in Britain' says that it's a long way back in time from the relatively recent occupation of Wookey Hole to the occupation of the nearby Hyena Den, a small cave which was occupied during the Old Stone Age, 400,000 years ago. Hyena Den, with its 30cm thick bed of bones, was discovered by the workmen digging the canal. Excavations in 1852 brought to light the bones of many Ice Age animals - cave lions and bears, mammoths, bison, hyenas, wooly rhinoceroses, elk and others - as well as flint implements. Archaeologists reckon that the cave was occupied by hyenas and man alternatively between 35,000 and 25,000 BC. It seems that packs of hyenas drove their prey over the cliff edge and then ate the remains. There is also a theory that early man may have done the same.
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