Good morning, Mendips! Two big bands are back this weekend, with Mendip Swing in Bishop Sutton on Friday and the Shepton Mallet Big Band in Binegar on Saturday. Wells Food Festival fills the city on Sunday, Wells Art Contemporary opens at the Cathedral on Saturday, and Shepton Mallet Prison is hosting after-dark Halloween tours tonight.
📅 Featured Event — Two Big Bands, Mendip Swings Again
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — Wells bellringers' £60,000 appeal · Next to close at Clarks Village · Shepton Prison Halloween tours · Wells Food Festival · Medieval hygiene at Glastonbury Abbey
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
Wells Festival of Literature preview
🗓️ What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
Two Big Bands, One Weekend: Mendip Swings Again
On a November night in 1946, six shillings (30p) bought you dancing until 1am at the Drill Hall in Shepton Mallet, with Harry Western and His Broadcasting Band. By 1949, the Battle of Britain Ball there had a full RAF Dance Orchestra playing until 2am. Wells Town Hall held its Grand Dances and in wartime, Chilcompton the Miners' Welfare hall was packed with soldiers from Emborough.
That was how Mendip socialised: the works do, the club ball, the Saturday hop. A sprung floor, a reed section breathing as one, and trumpets and trombones lifting the roof. You met your future spouse there, or at least trod on their feet.
Then the 1960s brought amplifiers. Four lads with guitars cost less than sixteen musicians in matching jackets, and by June 1970 Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd were playing the Bath Festival of Blues on the Bath and West Showground. The dance band was put away with Dad's demob suit.
Except, Big Band music never went away - and this weekend you can enjoy it all again, live in two local concerts.
On Friday 9 October, Mendip Swing plays Bishop Sutton Village Hall at 7.30pm as part of the Valley Arts Festival. The band was founded more than 20 years ago so that musicians of all abilities could play in a classic big band, and it was later mentored by the jazz arranger Andy Hague. Its 17 players move from traditional swing through Basie, Ellington and Buddy Rich to show tunes, film music and Latin. The band invites anyone interested to come to a rehearsal, and would especially welcome more trombonists.
Mendip Swing - plays Bishop Sutton
On Saturday 10 October, the Shepton Mallet Big Band plays Binegar Community Hall. Born more than 40 years ago from a saxophone quartet, it now has more than 20 musicians, with a set list that runs from Glenn Miller and Sinatra to Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and Imelda May. It plays the Bath and West Show (the same showground the amplifiers took over), recently returned to the Wells Jazz and Blues Festival and is a shareholder in the Buy the Amulet community project.
Shepton Mallet Big Band - plays Binegar
Between them, the two bands give nearly 40 local players the rare thrill of sitting in a full section. They also give the rest of us the thing the 1960s took away: a hall, a bar and room to dance.
Bishop Sutton tickets are available from Valley Arts.
Binegar tickets cost £10 from Ticketsource.
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📰 Hot News - Mendips Style
🔔 Wells Bellringers Launch £60,000 Appeal for St Cuthbert's Bells
The Wells Amateur Bellringing Society wants £60,000 to restore the bells at St Cuthbert's. The existing eight are hard to handle, which makes life tough for the youngest and oldest ringers and for beginners. The Wells Bells Project would add two lighter bells, retune the old ones and fit a new frame. The online appeal had raised £4,299 from 75 donations by Wednesday.
🛍️ Next to Close Its Clarks Village Store on 17 October
Next will close its clearance branch at Clarks Village in Street on Saturday 17 October. The retailer is due back in spring, at a different spot in the centre, which leaves a gap over the Christmas shopping season. The centre says sorry to any shoppers inconvenienced in the meantime.
🎃 Shepton Mallet Prison Opens After Dark for Halloween Tours
Shepton Mallet Prison is going spooky. Its 90-minute guided tours take in the Gate Lodge, Hard Labour Yard and Execution Room, with ghost stories, actors and sudden scares. Tours run every Thursday in October, starting at 6.30pm, with extra dates on 27, 28 and 30 October and 1 November. Tickets are £30 and the tours are recommended for ages 12 and over.
🍽️ Wells Food Festival Takes Over the City on Sunday
Wells Food Festival returns on Sunday 11 October from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Expect more than 200 food, drink and artisan stalls, live BBQ demonstrations, children's cookery workshops, English wine tastings, live music and talks. Entry is free. Come hungry.
I’m delighted to see not one but two local Big Bands performing this weekend. In my youth, I played with the BBC Radio Leicester Big Band, and my Dad’s band, The Lew Branston Orchestra, won several band championships in the Midlands in the 40s & 50s. The music’s rather in my DNA.
It’s easy to forget the huge impact Big Band music had on the Western World in the war years, before amplification and Rock & Roll.
In 1969, Richard Nixon marked Duke Ellington’s 70th birthday at the White House by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour. It was the first time Nixon had awarded the medal. The citation ended: "In the royalty of American music, no man swings more or stands higher than the Duke."
Ellington didn't talk about himself in reply. He used the moment to honour Billy Strayhorn, his songwriting partner of nearly thirty years, who had died two years earlier. Instead of speaking about freedom in general, he said, he would name the "four major freedoms" his friend had lived by:
- Freedom from hate, unconditionally;
- Freedom from self-pity;
- Freedom from fear of possibly doing something that may help someone else more than it would help him;
- Freedom from the kind of pride that could make a man feel that he is better than his brother."
I recommend awarding yourself the freedom to enjoy some great music this weekend from the Shepton Mallet Big Band and Mendip Swing.
Paul
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
M
Mirth
A French moth.
Monogamy
Celebrating New Year in Scotland by yourself.
Monkey
A bit like a monk.
Mutilate
Up all night meowing.
Mutant
An ant who's lost his voice.
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16–24 October
Big Laughs Lined Up for Wells Festival's Year 6 Crowd
Comedienne-turned-children's-author Helen Rutter is set to bring the giggles to this year's Wells Festival of Literature, entertaining around 1,000 Year 6 pupils from more than 30 local schools.
Helen swapped the comedy stage for the page after years working as an actor and comedienne, and it shows — her stories are packed with humour and characters kids can't help but love. Her debut, the award-winning The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh, has since found young fans right around the world, and she's gone on to write several more titles in the series.
Her latest offering is something a bit different: The Game Changers, an interactive book set at a lively Game Camp. Readers step into the shoes of a character called Tig, tackling team challenges and mystery-solving along the way — with multiple paths that can lead to triumph or total chaos, depending on the choices made.
Helen Rutter, bringing literature to life.
Helen will be running several sessions during the festival, entertaining the youngsters and signing copies of her books for eager fans.
The Year 6 event has become a real fixture on the festival calendar, having previously welcomed authors including Sam Sedgman (author of thriller The Clockwork Conspiracy), M.G. Leonard, and Lindsay Galvin.
It's a hugely popular occasion each year, and one that's fully funded by the festival, which covers transport costs and offers subsidised books at just £2 each — last year, young readers snapped up over 2,000 copies between them.
Wells Festival of Literature is a registered charity run entirely by volunteers, and the profits from its annual festival go straight back into encouraging a love of reading across more than 50 local schools. Beyond the big festival event, that support stretches to books for school libraries and classrooms, theatre trips, bookshop outings, and visits from authors and poets throughout the year.
Hemington School, enjoying last year’s Year 6 event
Already this year the festival has brought storytelling to youngsters at the Bishop's Palace with author Rebecca Gryspeerdt, delivered a weekly poem on a postcard from A.F. Harrold to Years 5 and 6 at Ditcheat Primary School, and placed inspirational author-in-residence Andy Seed at St Benedict's Junior School in Glastonbury.
The 2026 Wells Festival of Literature runs from 16–24 October.
Full details are available at www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk.
Thursday, 8 October
Sherlock Bones — 10am to 4pm, Shoemakers Museum, Street. Family detective day, £30 per person. Booking
Monks, Maladies and Medieval Medicine — 7pm, Abbey House, Glastonbury. Talk on health and hygiene at the Abbey, £6 per adult. Booking
Shepton Mallet Prison Halloween Tours — 6.30pm, Shepton Mallet Prison. Ghost stories and scares, £30. See Hot News above. More info
Undercover Hippy — 8pm, The King Arthur, Glastonbury. Politically driven acoustic roots reggae folk-hop. More info
Walk Towards Your Own Horizon — 2.30pm, Glastonbury Town Hall. More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6pm, Wells Market Place (meet near Penniless Porch). Free. More info
Friday, 9 October
Mendip Swing — 7.30pm, Bishop Sutton Village Hall. Big band swing for the Valley Arts Festival. See Featured Event above. Tickets
Ozric Tentacles 'Harmonic Mind' Album Release Party — 7pm, The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury. £22.22. More info
Opening the Word: Tyndale, Translation and Transformation — 9am to 5pm, Wells Cathedral. More info
Under Milk Wood — 7.30pm, Westbury-sub-Mendip Village Hall, Westbury Footlights. Also Saturday. £10. Tickets
One Night in Nashville — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. More info
Black Water County — 7pm, The Tree House, Cheese & Grain, Frome. More info
Free Kitchen Garden Open Day — 10am, Asterion & Co., The Old Vicarage, Leigh-on-Mendip. Free. More info
Country & Western Evening — 7pm, The Victoria Club, Street. Free. More info
Saturday, 10 October
Shepton Mallet Big Band: An Evening of Movie & Show Tunes — 7.30pm, Gurney Slade & Binegar Memorial Hall. £10. See Featured Event above. Tickets
Artists in Conversation — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury. With Candace Bahouth, Gladys Paulus and Helen Cammock. More info
Harlem Rhythm Cats — The Riflemans Arms, Glastonbury. 1940s and 50s blues, boogie woogie and swing. More info
Somerton Concert Band Autumn Special — 7pm, St Nicholas Church, West Pennard. £12 on the door. More info
Palomar 200" Hale Telescope: The Inside Story — 7.30pm, Wells & Mendip Museum, Wells. 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
RNLI Mendip Folk Concert: Harbottle & Jonas — St James' Church Centre, Winscombe. More info
Greg Agar — 8.30pm, Bluebird Cafe & Bar, Wedmore. Free entry, table reservation recommended. More info
Sunday, 11 October
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Thu 8: Digger [15], Verity [15], Sense And Sensibility [U], Pressure [12A]
Fri 9 – Thu 15: The Social Reckoning [15], Heart of the Beast [12A], Digger [15], Verity [15], Sense And Sensibility [U]
Sat 10 and Sun 11: Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom [U], 2pm
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 8 October
It is October in the Mendips, so pack a waterproof and a warm layer, especially for Sunday's Food Festival and the Saturday evening gigs. Check the latest forecast before you head out.
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