Somerset’s Cheddar Man (England’s oldest skeleton)

A Somerset landmark is Cheddar Gorge (nothing to do with cheese!) that sees a 450-foot cliff tower over a winding road, creating a dramatic gateway to the Mendip Hills. Formed by floods during the Ice Age, it’s home to around 100 endangered cave-dwelling Lesser Horseshoe bats.

This area is buzzing with life from soaring skylarks overhead to the quirky black oil beetle (its protruding tummy being described as looking like ‘someone whose waistcoat won’t button up!)

It was here that Cheddar Man was found. He turned out to be England’s oldest ‘whole person skeleton’ ever found. What’s interesting is that he had black skin and blue eyes (a bit like that actor off CSI). So it does indeed suggest that we have African ancestry.

Two other local boys with blue eyes (with blonde hair) from the village of Cheddar were Matt & Luke Goss (from 90s pop band Bros).