Issue #78 — Thursday 1 October 2026
Good morning, Mendips! Today's Featured Event is a belter: Jo Whiley brings her 90s Anthems show to Frome on Friday night. We also have the story behind the scissor arches of Wells Cathedral, a Wells composer among Somerset's brightest young talents, car park charges on the rise and a packed weekend of music from Wells to Glastonbury.
🎤 Featured Event — Jo Whiley's 90s Anthems at Cheese & Grain
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — Wells composer's Future 30 nod · Car park charges rise · Abbey Park play area designs · Clarks Village ice rink returns
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
🏛️ Feature Article — The emergency repair that became a masterpiece
📅 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
Featured Event: Jo Whiley's 90s Anthems at Cheese & Grain
Forget the streaming playlist. On Friday night Cheese & Grain in Frome turns the clock back to the decade when Britpop emerged, dance music flourished and indie guitars ruled, with broadcaster Jo Whiley in charge of the soundtrack for Jo Whiley's 90s Anthems.
It's an all-standing night. Doors open at 7:30pm with a local opener, Toby Spin takes over at 8:30pm, and Jo is on at 9:30pm, with a finish expected around 11pm.
Tickets are £28.50 plus booking fee. It's a 14+ event, and under-16s need to come with an adult. With an 11pm finish, sort your lift home in advance.
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🎼 Wells Composer Named Among Somerset's Future 30
Quentin Taschini, a self-employed composer based in Wells, has been named in the inaugural Somerset Future 30, a countywide programme recognising 30 promising people under 30. Nominations came from businesses and organisations across Somerset and were judged by an independent panel. The winners span music, engineering, law, marketing and education, and a celebration lunch is planned at Somerset County Cricket Club on 27 November.
🐉 Glastonbury's Abbey Park Play Area Could Get Dragons And A Wizard's Hideout
Nine design concepts for a £200,000 makeover of the play area at Abbey Park in Glastonbury have been unveiled by Glastonbury Town Council. Ideas include a sword in a stone, colourful dragons, castle climbing frames, a stone circle, sensory areas and a wizard's hideout. Residents can view the designs online, and there's an in-person event at the town hall on 30 October (10am to 6pm). Community feedback will make up 30% of the final decision.
🚗 Somerset Car Park Charges Set To Rise 10% From January
Somerset Council wants a countywide tier system across its 120 chargeable car parks, replacing what it calls an inconsistent patchwork. Existing charges will rise 10% from January 2027, with the new tier system due in autumn 2027. Increases will be phased where charges are historically low, and the council says it will engage communities and councillors before any decisions on free car parks.
⛸️ Clarks Village Ice Rink Returns To Street On 10 November
The festive ice rink at Clarks Village in Street is back from 10 November to 3 January, on the lawn outside the Shoemakers Museum. Tickets go on sale on 5 October, with sessions from £14 and family tickets from £44, plus a limited-time 20% early-bird discount. New this year is a "Skate and Sing" session, alongside parent-toddler, quieter and disco sessions.
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
C
Condescending
Prisoner using a lift.
Concrete
Yorkshire nose job clinic.
Conservatory
To pickle Kemi Badenoch
Cormorant
An ant who likes a mild curry.
Cornucopia
Coming to terms with your foot ailment.
Cubic
A biro that you can play snooker with.
The Emergency Repair That Became a Masterpiece
Visitors often think Wells Cathedral's famous scissor arches are a bold 20th-century addition. In fact they're nearly 700 years old, and they were put in because the building was falling apart.
Walk into the nave of Wells Cathedral and they hit you straight away: huge crossed arches, one pointing up and one pointing down, framing the view towards the choir like a giant stone pair of spectacles. They look startlingly modern, all clean lines and bold curves, with barely a scrap of carved decoration. Plenty of visitors assume they're a daring piece of 1960s design.
The truth is more dramatic. They're a 14th-century emergency repair.
Wells had a history of tower trouble. In 1248 an earthquake brought down part of the central tower, probably its lantern. Undeterred, the builders tried again. Between about 1315 and 1322 they raised a tall new central tower, topped with a lead-covered wooden spire. It looked magnificent. Unfortunately, the ground underneath wasn't up to the job.
Within a few years the crossing piers were sinking under the weight, and cracks began opening up in the tower. By 1338 the church records described the cathedral as enormiter confracta, which roughly means "seriously broken". Nobody wants to read that about their cathedral.
Enter master mason William Joy. Instead of propping up the tower with clumsy buttresses, he inserted "strainer arches" on three sides of the crossing: a low arch with an inverted arch balanced on top, forming the famous scissor shape. The choir screen braces the fourth side. The design spreads the load and ties the piers together, while leaving the space open and full of light. Its strength comes from its form rather than solid bulk.
The work ran from 1338 to about 1348. Joy is thought to have died around the time of the Black Death, which swept through England that year. He never saw his arches become the cathedral's most photographed feature.
Not everyone has loved them. The architectural writer Wim Swaan called them "brutally massive". Others call them St Andrew's Cross arches, after the cathedral's patron saint. Most visitors just stand and stare.
Almost 700 years on, they're still doing the job they were built for. The tower is still up, and the cathedral is still in one piece. Not bad for a panic fix.
So next time you're on Cathedral Green, pop inside and look up. You're looking at one of the finest bits of medieval problem-solving in England.
All week (Thursday 1 to Monday 5 October)
Somerset Art Weeks Festival — venues across Somerset. More than a hundred artists open their doors, free, 9am to 5pm daily. Final day is Sunday 4 October. More info
Tom Winter — The Bishop's Palace, Wells. Exhibition running to 21 November. More info
Adult Performance Company — 7:30pm, Chew Magna Baptist Hall, Chew Magna. Sessions run from 23 September to 9 December. Free, booking required. More info
Fun Dance Class — 5:30pm, Chewton Mendip Village Hall, Chewton Mendip. £10 drop-in, or £42.50 for five sessions. More info
Thursday, 1 October
Little Discoverers – Autumn Trees — 10:30am to 11:30am, Abbey House, Glastonbury. Free session for under-5s and their carers, making an autumn leaf collage. More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6pm, Wells Market Place (meet near the Penniless Porch). Free. More info
Jon Allen — 7pm, The Tree House, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Live music. Tickets
The Somerset Levels: our next National Park? — 7:30pm, Glastonbury Town Hall. Free talk, donations welcome. Sold out. More info
Friday, 2 October
Jo Whiley's 90s Anthems — doors 7:30pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. £28.50 plus booking fee. See the Featured Event above. Tickets
Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast — 7pm, The Tree House, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Live at the Tree House. Tickets
Skimmity Hitchers with support from Imprints Duo — The King Arthur, Glastonbury. Live music. More info
Quiz Night — 8:30pm, Bluebird Cafe & Bar, Wedmore. Free entry. bluebirdcafewedmore.com
Saturday, 3 October
Autumn Mini Yoga Retreat — 10am to 1pm, Abbey House, Glastonbury. A gentle seasonal yoga session. Ticketed. Booking
Telescope Clinic — 1pm to 5pm, St Thomas Church Hall, Wells. Free. More info
Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust Annual Evensong — 5:15pm (seated by 5pm), Wells Cathedral. Celebrating the work of the Trust, with special recognition of its Friends. More info
Così fan tutte (MET Opera) — 6pm, Strode Theatre, Street. Mozart's comedy of fickle young love, staged on a 1950s Coney Island boardwalk. £16.50 to £18.50, with one interval. Tickets
L1NKN P4RK (The Linkin Park Experience) — doors 7pm, Studio 24, Wells. Tribute show. £20 in advance, 16+ (under-18s with an adult). Tickets
Doe Paoro — 7:30pm, St John's Church, Glastonbury. A live concert of chakra-themed songs. Ticketed. Tickets
Rising Stars Recital Series – Nurry Lee — Cedars Hall, The Liberty, Wells. Piano recital in the Rising Stars series. More info
George and the Drag Queen by Pipeline Theatre — Whitstone School Hall, Shepton Mallet. More info
Reggae in da Bank — The Art Bank, High Street, Shepton Mallet. Reggae night, £4. Tickets
The Gleaves — 8:30pm, Bluebird Cafe & Bar, Wedmore. Free entry, table reservations recommended. bluebirdcafewedmore.com
Sunday, 4 October
Life Drawing with Charcoal and Bread — 9:30am to 12:30pm, Abbey House, Glastonbury. All-levels workshop with artist Lucy Litchfield, from a nude model. Booking
Wells Tuesday Strings – Concert for Strode — 3pm, Strode Theatre studio, Street. Local string and classical musicians play to raise funds for the theatre, with tea, coffee and cake at the interval. £10. Tickets
Brushy One String — 7pm, The Tree House, Cheese & Grain, Frome. The Jamaican musician plays his one-string guitar with humour, soul and roots. £14.50 in advance. cheeseandgrain.com
Noel Fitzpatrick – Pets & Hugs & Rock n Roll — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. The vet-turned-rocker mixes music with stories from his veterinary career. From £35, minimum age 10. Tickets
Monday, 5 October
Roots, Routes and Resilience — 10am, Shoemakers Museum, Street. New exhibition opens today and runs to 15 November. More info
Trio Paradis Café Concert: From Dawn to Dusk — 11am, St Thomas' Church, Wells. A 45-minute themed classical concert, with a pop-up café from 10:15am. No need to book, pay what you feel. More info
Street's Sustainability Network — 6pm to 7pm, management suite, Clarks Village, Street. Monthly meeting open to new members. Free. Contact Nina on 07564 289334 for details.
Glastonbury Abbey: The West Gate — Glastonbury Town Hall (Festival Hall). Francis Thyer talks about the history of the abbey's West Gate, following the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society's AGM, which starts at 7pm. More info
🗓️ Coming Up
Wells Cathedral School Soloist Showcase — St Mary's Church, Wedmore. Tuesday 6 October, 7:30pm. More info
Tom McRae — The Tree House, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Tuesday 6 October, 7pm. Tickets
The Dairy Show — Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet. Wednesday 7 October. More info
Ozric Tentacles 'Harmonic Mind' Album Release Party — The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury. Friday 9 October. More info
Wells Art Contemporary — Wells Cathedral. Saturday 10 October to Saturday 7 November. More info
Wells Food Festival — Wells city centre. Sunday 11 October, free. More info
Wells Festival of Literature — various venues, Wells. Friday 16 to Saturday 24 October. More info
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Thursday 1 October: Sense And Sensibility [U] 3pm and 7pm · Pressure [12A] 7:30pm · Practical Magic 2 [12A] 3pm · Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom [U] 4:30pm · Girl From the North Country [15] 7pm, includes a 15-minute interval
Digger [15] — Fri 4:30pm and 7:30pm · Sat and Sun 1:30pm, 4:30pm and 7:30pm · Mon 3pm and 7:30pm
Verity [15] — Fri to Sun 4:30pm and 7:30pm · Mon 3pm and 7:30pm
Sense And Sensibility [U] — Fri 7pm · Sat and Sun 1:30pm and 7pm · Mon 7pm
Pressure [12A] — Fri 4:30pm · Mon 3pm
Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom [U] — Sat and Sun 2pm and 4:30pm
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of Thursday 1 October
It's looking mild and mostly dry through the weekend, with highs of 18 to 19°C and only a 10 to 15% chance of rain each day. Overnight lows hover around 10°C, so a layer is sensible for evening gigs. Check the latest forecast before you head out.
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