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Good morning, Mendips! The Dairy Show rolls into Shepton Mallet today, Wells Cathedral hosts a day on the 500-year story of the English New Testament on Friday, and Wells Food Festival fills the city centre on Sunday. We also have a Glastonbury Abbey mystery involving an architect, a pencil and a long-dead monk.
📖 Feature Article — The Monk Who Told an Architect Where to Dig
🗓️ Featured Event — Tyndale and the English Bible at Wells Cathedral
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — Strawberry Line signs · Glastonbury Abbey bird feeders · Roadworks near Wells and Street · Wells Wednesdays photo appeal
📅 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
Featured Event: Opening the Word at Wells Cathedral
Imagine a bestseller that the bishops tried to buy up and set on fire. That was the fate of the first printed English New Testament in 1526. Its translator, William Tyndale, had to work abroad, and copies were smuggled into England hidden among other books. The Bishop of London condemned the book, bought up what he could find and had it burned in public. Tyndale was eventually executed for heresy in 1536, which is a lot of drama for a book most of us take for granted.
On Friday 9 October, Wells Cathedral marks 500 years since that translation with a full-day symposium, Opening the Word: Tyndale, Translation and Transformation.
The line-up is a serious one. Andrew Hope, an authority on the Reformation, is joined by Professor Hugh Houghton, a specialist in New Testament manuscripts, and Revd Professor John Barton, author of A History of the Bible. Between them they ask how forbidden texts became the Bible of ordinary people, what choices translators make along the way, and why putting Scripture into everyday language still matters in worship and public life.
It is aimed at scholars, clergy and students, but anyone curious about the history behind the English Bible is welcome. The day starts at 9am, and a Tyndale-themed Evensong at 5:15pm rounds it off. Tickets are booked through the Cathedral website.
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🚲 New Wells Signs Go Up Along The Strawberry Line
New Wells directional signs have been installed along the Strawberry Line walking and cycling route, paid for by Wells City Council. Extra waymarking is also going in between Haybridge and Dulcote, and a new route map will be available from Wells Tourist Information.
🐦 Free Bird-Feeder Making At Glastonbury Abbey This Half-Term
Families can make three kinds of bird feeder at Glastonbury Abbey on Friday 30 October, with free all-day abbey entry included. Two sessions run, 11am to 12:30pm and 12:30pm to 2pm, for children aged five and over. Places are free but limited, and each child must be booked in. The activity marks the RSPB's Feed the Birds Day.
🚧 Roadworks Near Wells And Street: What's Closed This Week
Whitnell Corner stays closed to Wells Hill Bottom and Bath Road until 30 October while Somerset Council and Octavius replace the crossroads with a roundabout. In Street, temporary lights remain on Somerton Road until 19 October, ahead of a full closure from 20 October to 3 November. Signed diversions are in place, so allow extra time.
⚽ Can You Name The Wells Wednesdays Footballers?
A pre-war photograph of the Wells Wednesdays football team has sparked an appeal to identify the players. Only Ivan Frederick Morgan, in the second row on the left, has been named so far. His son hopes readers can put names to the other faces and shed light on the club's history. Anyone who recognises someone can email Wells Nub News.
As I sit typing this, there is a warm dog lying across my feet!
Did you ever go shopping and come back with more than you intended? A few years ago, my wonderful Rachel went to Waitrose - and came back with a border collie!
Rachel loves to chat with the checkout staff (before they were made redundant by those dreadful machines). She made the mistake of revealing that we have rescue dogs, horses and donkeys. Within minutes, the checkout boy had offloaded a deaf collie puppy that was in his litter and facing the threat of being put down. Tommy has been with us ever since. Deaf as a post but so happy every day.
Paul
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
C
Cenotaph
A Welsh laxative.
Cervix
Cold medicine for knights of the realm.
Chuckling
A very short throw.
Clamp
To applaud in mittens.
Clamour
Mallet for opening clams.
Clarity
Like a Bordeaux.
Clematis
Not quite what you're trying to find.
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The Dead Stonemason Who Told an Architect Where to Dig
Most archaeologists start with old maps, dusty records and a good spade. In 1907, Frederick Bligh Bond added a pencil, a friend and a team of helpers who had been dead for about 400 years.
Bond was a respected architect and an expert on medieval churches. He badly wanted to dig at Glastonbury Abbey, which the Church of England was in the middle of buying. Several of the abbey's lost buildings were known only from old descriptions, and nobody knew where they had stood.
So on 7 November 1907 Bond and his friend Captain John Allan Bartlett tried something unusual called "automatic writing". Bartlett held a pencil loosely and let his hand wander across the paper, while Bond asked the questions. His first question was polite and to the point: "Can you tell us anything about Glastonbury?"
The pencil wrote back: "All knowledge is eternal and is available to mental sympathy." It wasn't exactly a site plan, but it was a start.
Over the next few months, a whole chorus of voices turned up on the page. They said they were monks of the abbey from different centuries and called themselves "The Watchers". The chattiest of them was a stonemason, who introduced himself as Johannes Bryant. He said he had worked at the abbey and died in 1533, and by one account he was fond of fishing and ale. A man who knew the abbey stone by stone was a handy sort of ghost to have on your dig.
When Bond asked where to dig, the advice was brisk: "The East end. Seek for the pillars."
In May 1908 Bond was made director of excavations, and his digs found the lost Edgar Chapel at the abbey's east end. He also uncovered the North Porch and recorded his finds beautifully, including a Saxon cross fragment that later inspired Glastonbury's war memorial.
Things went wrong when Bond published his book, The Gate of Remembrance, and told the world about his ghostly helpers. The Church strongly disapproved of spiritualism, and his time at the abbey ended in the early 1920s.
So did a long-dead mason really point the way? Sceptics note that Bond knew more about medieval church design than almost anyone alive, and that old records already hinted where the chapels might be. One critic said the pair had "read all that was known about Glastonbury, and lived for months in the medieval atmosphere." Bartlett said he didn't recognise the writing as his own thoughts. A sympathetic researcher later called the case "not proven".
What isn't in doubt is that the Edgar Chapel's outline is still there for visitors to see. Whether you credit Johannes, or a brilliant architect with a busy subconscious, is up to you.
Over to you: Have you ever had a hunch that turned out spookily right? Or do you know any Bond family stories from Glastonbury? Hit reply and tell us.
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All week (7–11 October)
Roots, Routes and Resilience — Shoemakers Museum, Street. Black History Month exhibition on Emperor Haile Selassie I's exile in Somerset, with a collaborative Community Cloak artwork to add to. Open daily 10am–4pm to 15 November. More info
Tom Winter — The Bishop's Palace, Wells. Exhibition running to 21 November. More info
Wednesday 7 October
The Dairy Show — Gates 8:30am–5pm, Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet. Dairy classes and judging, trade stands, an Agri-Forum and entertainment. Adults £22 in advance, £26 at the gate; students £15; under-15s free; free parking. Booking
In Conversation with Ras Benji — 11am–12:15pm, Shoemakers Museum, Street. Talk linked to the Roots, Routes and Resilience exhibition. Price not specified, check with the museum. More info
Guided Glastonbury Abbey Tree Walk with Matt Witt — 11am, Glastonbury Abbey. Included with abbey admission, free for members. More info
Armed Forces Outreach Service — Mind, 57c High Street, Shepton Mallet. More info
Fun Dance Class — 5:30pm, Chewton Mendip Village Hall. £10 drop-in. More info
Tantalising Tulips Talk — 7pm, West Pennard Village Hall. West Pennard Gardening Club hosts horticulturist Bella Given on planting and caring for tulips. £5. More info
Army Cadets Open Evening — 7:30–9pm, Shepton Mallet Cadet Centre. Part of National Cadets Week; no commitment to enlist, and adult volunteers are welcome. More info
Thursday 8 October
Monks, Maladies, and Medieval Medicine: Health and Hygiene at the Abbey — 7pm (doors 6:30pm), Abbey House, Glastonbury Abbey. Talk by Dr Mark Hutchinson; 40 places. £6 per adult. Booking
Sherlock Bones — 10am–4pm, Shoemakers Museum, Street. Hands-on forensic facial reconstruction workshop with forensic anthropologist Sherlock Bone, 30 places, booked via the organiser. £30 per person. Booking
Walk Towards Your Own Horizon — 2:30pm, Glastonbury Town Hall. More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6pm, Wells Market Place (meet near the Penniless Porch). Free. More info
Friday 9 October
Opening the Word: Tyndale, Translation and Transformation — 9am, Wells Cathedral. Symposium marking 500 years of Tyndale's New Testament, with Evensong at 5:15pm (see Featured Event above). Booking
Ozric Tentacles 'Harmonic Mind' Album Release Party — 7pm, The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury. £22.22. Booking
Mendip Swing — 7:30pm, Bishop Sutton Village Hall. Big band swing, musical theatre and Latin rhythms, part of the Valley Arts Fringe Festival. Ages 14+; tickets via Valley Arts. Booking
Free Kitchen Garden Open Day in the Mendip Hills — 10am, Asterion & Co., The Old Vicarage, Leigh-on-Mendip. Free. More info
Little Seedlings Parent & Toddler Group — 10–11:30am, forest school site, Shepton Mallet. £8 per session, plus £3 per extra toddler. More info
Under Milk Wood — 7:30pm (also Saturday), Westbury-sub-Mendip Village Hall. Westbury Footlights stage Dylan Thomas's play for voices, with a cast of 17 playing 69 parts. £10 from the village shop. More info
One Night in Nashville — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Booking
Black Water County — 7pm, The Tree House at Cheese & Grain, Frome. Sold out. More info
Country & Western Evening — 7pm, The Victoria Club, Street. Free. More info
Saturday 10 October
Glastonbury Abbey & Town Guided Tour — 11am–1pm, starts at the Abbey Museum, Glastonbury. Members £5, non-members £15, abbey admission included. Booking
Wells Art Contemporary — Wells Cathedral. International contemporary art competition and exhibition on the theme 'For what is time?', opening today and running to 7 November. Mon–Sat 9am–4:30pm, Sun 11am–3pm. Free to residents of the Bath & Wells diocese. More info
Shepton Mallet Big Band: An Evening of Movie & Show Tunes — 7:30pm, Gurney Slade & Binegar Memorial Hall. Dancing and a licensed bar. £10. Booking
Somerton Concert Band — 7pm, St Nicholas Church, West Pennard. Live music in aid of church funds, with drinks and cake in the interval. £12 on the door. More info
Under Milk Wood — 7:30pm, Westbury-sub-Mendip Village Hall. Second night. £10. More info
Palomar 200" Hale Telescope: The Inside Story — 7:30pm, Wells & Mendip Museum. Talk by local amateur astronomer Bud Budzynski for Wells & Mendip Astronomers. More info
Greg Agar — 8:30pm, Bluebird Cafe & Bar, Wedmore. Free entry; reserve a table. More info
Kavus Torabi Record Release Show and Party — The King Arthur, Glastonbury. More info
RNLI Mendip Folk Concert: Harbottle & Jonas — St James' Church Centre, Winscombe. More info
Rising Stars Recital Series: Nurry Lee — Cedars Hall, Wells. More info
Sheppey Live Music: Riki Buckingham & Amir Mojazzer — The Sheppey, Lower Godney. More info
psyRANDOM Psytrance Party — The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury. A few pounds on the door. More info
Sunday 11 October
Wells Food Festival — 10:30am–4:30pm, Wells city centre. More than 200 food, drink and artisan stalls, live BBQ demonstrations, children's cookery workshops, English wine tastings and talks. Free. More info
Yara in the Wild Wood — 2:30pm, Compton Martin Village Hall. Family puppetry show (ages 3–8), preceded by a free drop-in puppetry workshop 11am–1pm. Tickets via Valley Arts. Booking
Toy & Train Collectors Fair — 10:30am–2:30pm, The Showground, Shepton Mallet. Over 300 stalls of vintage toys and models; under-16s free with a paying adult; free parking. More info
Cloudbusting: The Music of Kate Bush — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Booking
🗓️ Coming Up
Walter Trout — Cheese & Grain, Frome. Thursday 15 October. Booking
The Secret Supper Club at The Bishop's Table — The Bishop's Palace & Gardens, Wells. Thursday 15 October, 7:30pm. £45 for three courses. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature — various venues, Wells. 16–24 October, with Jonathan Dimbleby, Stephen Sackur, Lady Hale, Oz Clarke and Maggie Aderin among the speakers. Booking
Enchantment: A Festival of Music, Myth, Theatre & Storytelling — The Modern Theatre of Myth, Glastonbury. 16–18 October. More info
Murder At Abbey House: A 1920s Murder Mystery Dinner Party — Abbey House, Glastonbury Abbey. Saturday 17 October, 6pm. Booking
Biker Down Motorcycle Safety Workshop — Wells Fire Station, Burcott Road. Saturday 17 October, 9:30am–1:30pm. Free, booking via Eventbrite. More info
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Digger [15] — Wed 3pm, 7:30pm; Thu 3pm, 7:30pm; Fri 4:30pm; Sat 4:30pm; Sun 7:30pm
Verity [15] — Wed 3pm, 7:30pm; Thu 3pm, 7:30pm; Fri 7:30pm; Sat 4:30pm, 7:30pm; Sun 4:30pm, 7:30pm
Sense And Sensibility [U] — Wed 7pm; Thu 3pm; Fri 4:30pm; Sat 1:30pm; Sun 1:30pm
Pressure [12A] — Wed 3pm; Thu 7pm
The Social Reckoning [15] — Fri, Sat and Sun 4:30pm, 7pm
Heart of the Beast [12A] — Fri 7:30pm; Sat 2pm, 7:30pm; Sun 2pm, 4:30pm
Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom [U] — Sat 2pm; Sun 2pm
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 7 October
Wednesday is the soggy one, with a 70% chance of rain and highs near 14°C. It brightens from Thursday, with mostly dry days at 15–17°C through Friday and Saturday. Sunday looks decent for Wells Food Festival (around 16°C, 20% chance of showers), and early next week turns a touch warmer, nearer 18°C.
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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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