 Over 300 "Mendip Motor Cars" were built by an engineering works based in Chewton Mendip in the years immediately before and after World War I. In World War II a bombing decoy was constructed on top of Black Down at Beacon Batch in an attempt to confuse bombers aiming to damage the city of Bristol, and piles of stones (known as cairns) were created to prevent enemy aircraft using the hilltop as a landing site.
