Good morning, Mendips! Wednesday brings a fresh six-week closure on the A371, a big weekend of live music at Cheese & Grain to look forward to, and a busy run-up across the Mendips — from Glastonbury Abbey's Pilgrimage Weekend to touring theatre in Croscombe.
📅 Featured Event — Kula Shaker at Cheese & Grain
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — A371 shuttle buses · Shepton Mallet fraudster jailed · Street's £500k lottery win
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
It’s Knight Time again at the Cathedral.
📆 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
Featured Event
Kula Shaker bring their swirling blend of British psychedelia and Indian-inspired mysticism to Cheese & Grain in Frome this Sunday, and it promises to be one of the standout gigs of the week. The band burst onto the scene in the late 1990s with their debut album "K", which shot to number one and produced era-defining hits including Tattva, Govinda and Hush — songs that still fill dancefloors nearly three decades on.
The original lineup has reunited in recent years, releasing the acclaimed "Natural Magick" album, with an eighth studio record on the way — a rare chance to catch a genuinely influential British band in a venue as intimate as Frome's Market Yard. Expect a set mixing the nostalgia of the big singles with newer material from a band still writing with real conviction.
Doors open at 7pm on Sunday 6 September, tickets are £36 advance plus booking fee, all standing, with a minimum age of 10 (under-16s must be accompanied). It's a short hop down the A361 for anyone in Wells or Shepton Mallet fancying a proper night out to close the week.
🚌 Shuttle Buses Launch As Wells Faces Six-Week A371 Closure
Extra shuttle buses are running between Draycott and Wells for six weeks after the A371 closed on Tuesday for essential gas mains work. Wales & West Utilities began the closure yesterday, with the road not due to reopen until 11 October. Somerset Council says the shuttles will keep communities connected to schools, healthcare and other services while work continues.
⚖️ Shepton Mallet Fraudster Jailed Over £68,000 Con
A man who posed as a millionaire businessman, war veteran and cancer patient to swindle four victims out of almost £68,000 has been jailed for three years and two months. Joseph Gibson, who was living in Shepton Mallet at the time of the offences, admitted four counts of fraud at Bristol Crown Court. Investigators found none of the lavish assets he claimed to own — including a mansion, sports car and yacht — actually existed.
🎉 Street Veteran Wins £500,000 After Forgetting He Played The Lottery
Army veteran Rick Robinson, 58, from Street, was stunned to discover he had scooped £500,000 on the People's Postcode Lottery after forgetting he still held a subscription. He only realised after checking his bank account, and plans to pay off his mortgage and restore his 1980s caravan, Myrtle the Turtle. Eight neighbours on his road shared £2.25 million between them in the same draw.
🏥 Community Village Brings Health And Wellbeing Support Together In Glastonbury
Somerset organisations are joining forces in Glastonbury next month for a free drop-in health and wellbeing event open to residents from across West Mendip. The Community Village takes place at St Dunstan's House on Wednesday 16 September, 9am-4.30pm, bringing together Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership and West Mendip Primary Care Network. Visitors can speak directly with services covering everyday life, staying active, working well and general health support.
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
B
Bacchanalian
To bet on a Martian.
Balderdash
Rapidly receding hairline.
Ballylaika
A fan of Swan Lake.
Barcode
Poem for dogs.
Barrier
More like Barry.
Bazaar
Barry the pirate.
🕰️ Six Hundred Years, and He Still Hasn't Won a Single Joust
Spare a thought for the unluckiest knight in Somerset. Every fifteen minutes, on the dot, he charges into battle above the clock face in Wells Cathedral's north transept — and every fifteen minutes, he gets knocked clean off his horse. He's been doing this since around 1390. Six hundred and thirty-odd years, and he's yet to land a single win.
The battle above the clock
That clock, tucked into the north transept, is one of the oldest working clock faces on the planet — and it's not just decorative. It's a proper astronomical clock, built on the medieval assumption that the sun and moon revolve around the Earth, and it still tracks the phases of the moon and the days since the last new one with total confidence in a universe we now know is arranged rather differently. A large golden sun sweeps round a 24-hour dial to mark the time, with midday at the top and midnight at the bottom, exactly as it has since Richard II was on the throne.
The real star of the show, though, is Jack Blandifers — sometimes Blandiver, depending who you ask — a carved figure who's spent centuries perched above and to the side of the clock face with an oddly specific set of duties. Every quarter hour he strikes a bell with a hammer in his right hand, then thumps two more bells beneath him with his heels, which is either an elegant division of labour or a very strange way to be remembered for six centuries. Local tradition even credits the clock to Peter Lightfoot, a monk from nearby Glastonbury Abbey, though the truth is probably a touch less romantic: it's more likely the work of the same clockmakers Bishop Ralph Erghum brought with him after installing a similar clock at Salisbury.
Here's the properly good bit. The medieval mechanism that ran this whole show for five hundred years was eventually swapped out by the Victorians and shipped off to London, where it's now on permanent display at the Science Museum — and it still runs today, wound by hand, making it one of the oldest working mechanical clocks anywhere in the world. Wells kept the face. London got the engine. Everybody wins, except, of course, for that one unfortunate knight.
Next time you're passing through the cathedral, give it a quarter of an hour and watch him go down again. Some traditions really do endure.
All week (2–6 September)
Wookey Uncovered — Wookey Hole Caves, Wookey. Family-friendly guided heritage tours through the ancient caves and Victorian papermill, running all summer until the end of September. Wookey Hole Caves
Summer Fun on the Farm — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury. Drop-in crafts, animals and gallery browsing, running through Friday. Somerset Rural Life Museum
Wednesday, 2 September
Harry Brockway: Ways With Wood Exhibition — 10am-5pm, Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury. Final day for this exhibition of wood engravings, woodcuts and sculpture by the Glastonbury artist. Glastonbury Nub News
School Summer Holidays at The Bishop's Palace — Bishop's Palace, Wells. Final day of summer holiday trails and activities in the gardens. Bishop's Palace
Thursday, 3 September
Starsailor — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. English rock band play live at Frome's Market Yard venue. Cheese & Grain
Little Discoverers - Apple Harvest — 10.30-11.30am, Glastonbury Abbey. Free drop-in session for under-5s making prints from windfall apples. Glastonbury Abbey
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6pm, Wells Market Place. Weekly circular walk for women, finishing at Fosso Lounge for those fancying a drink after. Facebook
Friday, 4 September
The Art of the Broom - Make Your Own Handbrooms — 10am-4pm (two sittings), Glastonbury Abbey. Hands-on beginner broom-weaving workshop in Abbey House. Glastonbury Abbey
Timmy Thunderrock Live — see Hot News above. The Kings Head, Wells, 9-11pm, free entry.
Beats 'n' Bites — 5.30-10pm, The Island, outside the Town Hall, Midsomer Norton. Live music and community feasting — bring your own takeaway food and drink; the final instalment of this summer's series.
Saturday, 5 September
Oas-is — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Oasis tribute night, £18.50 advance plus booking fee, all standing, 14+. Cheese & Grain
Pilgrimage Weekend — 11am-5pm Saturday and Sunday, Glastonbury Abbey. The 102nd annual Anglican and Catholic pilgrimages return, with processions and services through the abbey ruins. Glastonbury Abbey
Cowsville Hummingbirds — 8.30pm, Bluebird Cafe & Bar, Wedmore. A rare live appearance from the Americana-blues trio, free entry, table booking recommended. Bluebird Cafe & Bar
Sunday, 6 September
Kula Shaker — see Featured Event above. Cheese & Grain, Frome, 7pm.
The Light House — 7.30pm, Croscombe Village Hall. Touring theatre from Alys Williams, hosted by Croscombe Frolics with Take Art, Somerset's rural touring charity. £9-£13. Take Art
Pilgrimage Weekend continues — see Saturday above. Glastonbury Abbey.
Open Afternoons at St Hugh's Church — 2-5pm, Charterhouse on Mendip. The little white church on the Mendips opens its doors for walkers, with refreshments available. St Hugh's Church
🗓️ Coming Up
Wells Festival of Literature — Wells. Nine-day festival returns in October with guests including Jonathan Dimbleby; tickets selling fast. Wells Nub News
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Mutiny [15] — Wed 7:30pm, Thu 7:30pm
Spider-Man: Brand New Day [12A] — Wed 7:00pm, Thu 7:00pm
Spa Weekend [15] — Wed 3:00pm, Thu 3:00pm
The End Of Oak Street [12A] — Wed 3:00pm, Thu 3:00pm
The Pout-Pout Fish [PG] — Wed 4:30pm, Thu 4:30pm
Coyote Vs. Acme [PG] — Wed 7:30pm, Thu 7:30pm
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🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 2 September
Wednesday brings light rain showers and a breezy south-westerly, with highs around 21°C. Thursday turns brighter and warmer with light cloud and highs near 22°C, before another band of showery — possibly thundery — rain moves through on Friday ahead of a mostly dry, cloudy Saturday.
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Contact Mendy the Mendiplodocus
Paul Branston, Editor
Hi, I'm Paul Branston and I publish the Mendiplodocus every morning, Monday to Saturday. 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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