Mendip Hills to the development of cave diving in Britain. The first cave dive was attempted at Swildon's Hole in 1934, and the first successful dive was achieved the following year at Wookey Hole Caves, which has the deepest sump in Britain at 76 m (250 ft). The cave complexes at St. Dunstan's Well Catchment, Lamb Leer, and Priddy Caves have been identified as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The deepest cave in the Mendip Hills is Charterhouse Cave with a vertical range of . Many caves in the Mendip area were excavated for archaeological and natural history studies by pioneer explorer
Wookey Hole Caves in 1989. A collection of fairground art of Wookey Hole was sold in 1997 at Christie's. The present owner is the former circus proprietor Gerry Cottle, who has introduced a circus school. The cave was used for the filming of episodes of the BBC TV series "Doctor Who": the serial "Revenge of the Cybermen" (1975) starring Tom Baker. This has since been referenced in the comedy of "The League of Gentlemen". The cave was also used in the filming of the British series "Blake's 7" (1978) and "Robin of Sherwood" (1983). The caves were used again for "Doctor Who" in