Wheddon Cross

Wheddon Cross is a hamlet in the parish of Cutcombe, and it is one of the higher hamlets within the Exmoor National Park. The parish straddles the ridge between Exmoor and the Brendon Hills, and it sits 9 miles south of Minehead and north of Dulverton. It is a small place with a population for the whole parish of 361 at the 2011 census, so expect farmland and moor rather than shopping streets. Before April 2023 the parish was in the West Somerset district.

Exmoor National Park covers 692.8 square kilometres and was designated a National Park in 1954. In 2011 it was designated Europe’s first International Dark Sky Reserve. Dunkery Beacon, at 519 metres, is the highest point in Somerset, and Exmoor ponies can be seen roaming freely on the moors. They are a landrace rather than a breed of pony. The Brendon Hills lie in the east of the National Park, and Wheddon Cross is right at the edge of both landscapes.

The name Cutcombe comes from Old English meaning Cuda’s valley, and after the Norman Conquest the land was granted to William de Mohun of Dunster. The parish is therefore part of the long Exmoor story rather than a modern settlement.