Somerset Levels - Tourism

Tourism

Being largely flat, the Levels are well suited to bicycles, and a number of cycle routes exist including the Withy Way Cycle Route (22 mi, 35 km), Avalon Marshes Cycle Route (28 mi, 45 km), Peat Moors Cycle Route (24 mi, 39 km) and the Isle Valley Cycle Route (28 mi, 45 km). The River Parrett Trail (47 mi, 76 km) and Monarch's Way long-distance footpaths are also within the area.

Visitors' centres aim to convey various aspects of the Levels. The Willows and Wetlands Visitor Centre near Stoke St Gregory offers tours of the willow yards and basket workshops and explains the place of willow in the history of the Levels. The Somerset Willow Company also allows visitors into its workshops. The Peat Moors Centre to the west of Glastonbury was dedicated to the archaeology, history and geology of the area. It also included reconstructions of some of the archaeological discoveries, including a number of Iron Age round houses and the world's oldest engineered highway, the Sweet Track. From time to time the centre offered courses in a number of ancient technologies in subjects including textiles, clothing and basket making, as well as staging various open days, displays and demonstrations. In February 2009 Somerset County Council, the owners of the Peat Moors Centre, announced their intention of closing the centre and it finally shut on 31 October 2009.

The Tribunal in Glastonbury, a medieval merchant's house, contains possessions and works of art from the Glastonbury Lake Village, which were preserved in almost perfect condition in the peat after the village was abandoned. It also houses the tourist information centre. Also in Glastonbury, the Somerset Rural Life Museum is a museum of the social and agricultural history of Somerset, housed in buildings surrounding a 14th–century barn once belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It was used as a tithe barn for the storage of arable produce, particularly wheat and rye, from the abbey's home farm of approximately 524 acres (2.12 km2). Threshing and winnowing would also have been carried out in the barn. The barn which was built from local "shelly" limestone, with thick timbers supporting the stone tiling of the roof. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, and is a Scheduled monument. The barn and courtyard contain displays of farm machinery from the Victorian and early 20th-century periods. Other exhibits show local crafts, including willow coppicing, mud horse fishing on the flats of Bridgwater Bay, peat digging on the Somerset Levels, and the production of milk, cheese, and cider. In reconstructed rooms detailing domestic life in the nearby village of Butleigh, the story of one farm worker, John Hodges, is told from cradle to grave. Outside, there is a beehive and rare breeds of poultry and sheep in the cider apple orchard.

The Langport & River Parrett Visitor Centre at Langport details local life, history, and wildlife. The Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum, near the town on the River Parrett, is housed in one of the earliest steam-powered pumping stations on the Levels, dating from the 1830s; it was closed in the 1950s. Featuring several steam engines, some built locally, the museum holds a number of live steam days each year. The pump house has been Grade II* listed, and is on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register.

As of 2009, the tourist authorities in the area were seeking to establish the term "Avalon Marshes" as the new name of the Somerset Moors.