Shipham

Shipham stands on the western edge of the Mendip Hills near the A38 road. The village overlooks Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel, a view H. G. Wells described in The Secret Places of the Heart. The parish also includes Rowberrow and the hamlet of Star. Somerset Council has been the local authority since 1 April 2023.

The village has a mining past. The Singing River Mine was worked in the 18th and 19th centuries for calamine, a zinc carbonate ore, and the 19th-century calamine processor survives as a Grade II listed building. The Anglican parish church of St Leonard was built in 1843 by James Wilson of Bath and is also Grade II listed.

The wider hills are protected: the western end of the Mendips has been an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1972, covering about 198 square kilometres. Black Down, with Beacon Batch at 325 metres, is the highest point of the range, and limestone dissolution has carved gorges such as Cheddar Gorge. The Mendip Way, an 80 km (50 mi) footpath, runs from Uphill, on the edge of Weston-super-Mare, to Frome across the hills, and the 36-mile Limestone Link Path runs from Shipham to Cold Ashton.

Shipham suits walkers who want to start on the hill rather than drive to it. Cheddar and its gorge lie in the same hills.