Good morning, Mendips! It's Friday, so it's time to plan the weekend, and there's plenty to plan around: fireworks in Street and Shepton Mallet, an antiques fair with around 600 stands, and a quietly special Remembrance Sunday in Wells. We also have a busker whose cathedral dream is about to come true, a Wells teenager's national award and a cycle path with big ambitions. The forecast looks decent too.
What Shall We Do For The Weekend?
All weekend, the Bath & West Showground near Shepton Mallet hosts the Antique & Collectors Fair, from Friday to Sunday. Around 600 stands will sell everything from jewellery and china to vintage toys and postcards. Parking is free and dogs are welcome on short leads. Anyone going in saying "I'm only looking" should keep that sentence handy for the journey home.
Tonight only (Friday 6 November), The Crown Jules pops up at Petruth Paddocks Campsite in Cheddar from 5pm to 10pm, and it’s free to come along. Expect crackling campfires, street food, and cocktails and other drinks served from the bus. Ryan Haynes is playing live, and if the mood takes you, there’s room for a little dancing. It’s billed as a proper family night out under the stars, so wrap up warm and bring the children. If you miss it, there’s another on Friday 4 December, with the Somerset Crooner.
Wells City FC have their public fireworks display tonight.
Saturday is the day to be out and about. In Street, the Owen Barry annual factory sale runs from 9.30am to 4.30pm, with free entry. In Wells, Wells Art Contemporary reaches its final day at Wells Cathedral, with 20 installations around the building and 100 artworks in the Cloisters. A tip: there is a fire service training exercise at the Cathedral from 8.30am to noon, so an afternoon visit may be calmer.
When it gets dark, you have two fireworks nights to choose from. Street FC opens the gates at The Tannery at 6pm, with live music, food stalls, an open bar and fireworks at about 7.45pm. In Shepton Mallet, the Rotary Club fireworks at West Shepton Playing Fields open the gates at 6.15pm and light the bonfire at 7pm. Advance tickets are £6 for adults, £3 for children aged five to 15 and £18 for a family ticket (two adults, three children). Dogs, sparklers and personal fireworks are not allowed there.
Sunday is Remembrance Sunday. In Wells, the parade and service starts at St Cuthbert's Church at 10.15am, with the two-minute silence at 11am and wreath-laying at the War Memorial. City-centre roads are closed from 8am to noon, so plan your parking.
At 3pm, the Wells Cathedral Choir sings Fauré's Requiem in a free service that ends with the poppy drop. There is a retiring collection for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
The weather is on our side: sunny intervals on Saturday and a properly sunny Sunday, both around 11°C. More details of everything, including the smaller events, are in What's On below and at events.mendysguide.co.uk.
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🎶 A Glastonbury busker's Wells Cathedral dream comes true
Soprano Charlotte Akenhead was busking in Glastonbury when Britain's Archdruid, Rollo Maughfling, stopped to listen. Over lunch in Wells he asked about her biggest ambition. She pointed at the Cathedral and he said, "Done." On Friday 27 November she makes her Cathedral debut in Callas Candlelight Christmas, a 7pm candlelit concert with tickets from £15.
🎨 Wells teenager wins national award for art and awareness
Seventeen-year-old Eva Rainey from Wells has been named Young Sarcoma Voice of the Year at Sarcoma UK's Shining Star Awards in London, chosen by public vote. Eva has used her story and her artwork to raise awareness of the rare cancer she lives with, and two of her paintings have raised £3,700 at charity auctions. Congratulations, Eva.
🚲 Strawberry Line digs deeper towards Wells
Work is under way at Three Arches Bridge on Ridge Road in Shepton Mallet to check whether a future stretch of the Strawberry Line could pass safely beneath the road, avoiding a dangerous crossing. It is part of plans to extend the path west towards Summerhill Lane and, eventually, Wells. There is no public access to the site until early in the new year.
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
Aerobic – A chocolate biro.
Befuddle – A tight group of cattle.
Midriff – Halfway through a short repeated rock melody.
Potent – What a red Teletubby sleeps in outdoors.
Referendum – That's the last time I ask you.
Worth Planning For
Liquid Calm: a floating sound bath in Wells
On Friday 13 November, Wells Leisure Centre swaps lengths for something much calmer. Liquid Calm, run by Rest & Reignite, is a floating sound bath, with singing bowls and gongs played while you float on the water. It runs from 8pm to 9.30pm and costs £30 per person, booked through the link. If your idea of a perfect Friday night is lying very still while somebody tactfully hits a gong, this one is for you.
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Time to walk the dog (with or without an actual dog!)
Dundon Beacon - near Compton Dundon
The Admiral Who Never Came Home, and the Hill That's a Baby's Head
Drive the B3151 south of Street and you'll see it standing up out of the trees on Windmill Hill: a 110ft stone column topped with a crown of carved sails and the sterns of warships. You don't need boots or a dog to enjoy its story.
The column remembers Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, whose family had links with Butleigh. At the Battle of the Nile in 1798, his ship, the Zealous, beat the leading French ship in 12 minutes.
The Hood Monument
Seven years earlier, in a storm off Jamaica, his crew had baulked at rowing out to three men stranded on a wreck. So Hood jumped into the boat himself, saying: "I never in my life gave a sailor an order that I was not ready to execute myself." He went on to lose his right arm to a musket ball in 1805.
Admiral Hood
He died of fever in Madras on Christmas Eve 1814 and was buried there, so he never came home. His fellow officers paid for this column instead. It was finished in 1831 and modelled on the proportions of Trajan's Column in Rome. There used to be a door in the base, but it was sealed up in 1990.
Across the village, Dundon Hill has a quieter story. Its top is ringed by the ramparts of an Iron Age fort. Its corner mound, Dundon Beacon, began as a Bronze Age burial mound and may later have carried a Norman castle. When it was dug into in 1827, it gave up a burial with rings made of tin. A spring on the hill may once have been a holy well.
To Dundon Beacon
The artist Katharine Maltwood, who mapped her fanciful "Glastonbury Zodiac" across this countryside, saw Dundon Hill as the huge round head of a baby, her Gemini. Believe it or not, it's a lovely thought at the top.
Down in the village, St Andrew's churchyard has a hollow yew. Some say it's 1,000 years old, others much older. In June 2025 the church bells, which hadn't been rung properly since 1935, rang out again after six years of local fundraising.
If you go: Combe Hill Wood, on Reynald's Way, has a car park and stony paths. Dogs are welcome there, and the monument is about half a mile away along the Polden Way. For Dundon Beacon, park in the village and walk about 200m along School Lane. Expect steps and steep slopes, and keep dogs under close control. Bring a lead for roads and fields with livestock.
Over to you: have you climbed Dundon Beacon, or did you ever go through that door in the base of the monument before it was sealed? Hit reply and tell us.
Today — Friday 6 November
Antique & Collectors Fair — Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet. 9am to 5pm, around 600 stands, free parking, runs to Sunday. More info
Wells Art Contemporary — Wells Cathedral. "For what is time?" exhibition, ending Saturday. More info
The Bluetones, Expecting To Fly 30th Anniversary — 7.30pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Booking
Pop-up at The Crown Jules — 5pm to 10pm, Petruth Paddocks Campsite, Cheddar. Free. More info
Tom Winter — The Bishop's Palace, Wells. Exhibition, runs to 21 November. More info
Tomorrow — Saturday 7 November
Cam Valley Arts Trail — 10.30am to 4.30pm, villages along the Cam (Tunley, Paulton, High Littleton, Timsbury, Clutton). Free, also Sunday. More info
Antique & Collectors Fair — 9am to 5pm, Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet. More info
Wells Art Contemporary — final day, Wells Cathedral. Fire service training at the Cathedral 8.30am to noon. More info
I'm Muslamic Don't Panik — 7.30pm, Bishop Sutton Village Hall. Ticketed. Booking
Paranormal Ghost Hunt — 8pm to 2am, Shoemakers Museum, Street. £38 per person (£20 deposit). Booking
Street FC Fireworks Night — gates 6pm, The Tannery, Street. Live music, food stalls, bar.
Shepton Mallet Rotary Fireworks — gates 6.15pm, West Shepton Playing Fields. £6 / £3 / £18 family. Tickets
Owen Barry Annual Factory Sale — 9.30am to 4.30pm, Street. Free. More info
Indoor Boot & Craft Sale (Walton WI) — 11am to 3pm, Walton Village Hall. Free entry.
RNLI Mendip Branch Christmas Pop-Up Sale — 10am to noon, Winscombe Community Centre. Free entry. More info
Free Motion Embroidery Workshop — 10am to 3pm, Needle Nook Haberdashery, Wells. £65. More info
WMA Monthly Talk, Members' Night — 7.30pm, Wells & Mendip Museum. More info
Abbey House workshops — Glastonbury Abbey. Life Drawing with Sticks and Ink 9.30am (£55), Winter Mini Yoga Retreat 10am (£40), Life Drawing with Collage 2pm (£55). More info
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of Friday 6 November
As at Thursday: Friday is cloudy at 11°C with a 30% chance of rain around 11am. Saturday brings sunny intervals and Sunday is the pick of the weekend, sunny and 11°C. Monday turns cloudy and breezy, with light rain from Tuesday to Thursday and highs of 11 to 13°C. Days marked BETA (Thursday 12 onwards) are less certain.
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Paul Branston, Editor
Hi, I'm Paul Branston and I publish the Mendiplodocus every morning, Monday to Friday. Each issue goes out to a growing base of thousands of local residents who want to keep up to date with events and local news. If you have events or news to share or you have a local business to promote, please get in touch.
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