Geology of the Wellington district : a brief explanation of the geological map Sheet 311 Wellington

This Sheet Explanation provides a summary
of the geology of the Wellington district,
the area covered by 1:50 000 scale geological
Sheet 311 (England and Wales). It also
provides directions to further geological
information about the district.
The district includes parts of the counties
of Somerset and Devon, within the local
authority districts of Taunton Deane, South
Somerset, Mid Devon and East Devon.
The principal centres of population are
the towns of Wellington and Chard, the
southern outskirts of Taunton in the north
and the western part of Ilminster in the
east. Much of the district is occupied by the
northern and central parts of the Blackdown
Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
(AONB), which was designated in 1991.
The topography of the district is dominated
by the Blackdown Hills (front cover),
a dissected plateau that rises steeply to
a maximum elevation of 315 m above
Ordnance Datum south of the gently undulating
Vale of Taunton Deane. In the northwest
the ground rises to around 160 m.
North and east of the Blackdown Hills
complex, rivers such as the Isle and Tone
flow north-westwards and west towards
the Bristol Channel. Within the south of
the Blackdown Hills, the rivers Culm, Axe,
Otter and Yarty drain southwards towards
the English Channel (Figure 1).