Good morning, Mendips! Wells is turning into a book-lover's paradise for the final four days of its Festival of Literature, a Somerset music legend is celebrating sixty years, and the forecast says brolly, wellies and a firm grip on your hat. Read on . . . .
Featured Event: Wells Festival of Literature
The Wells Festival of Literature is on its final stretch, and the closing four days are packed. From today to Saturday, Cedars Hall hosts between three and six sessions a day. Each one is an hour of a writer talking about their book, often with an interviewer on hand to keep things lively.
Today kicks off with biographer Sara Wheeler on Jan Morris at 2pm, then Florence Hazrat with a history of punctuation (yes, really) at 4.15pm. Wine writer Oz Clarke takes the 6pm slot and poet Henry Normal closes the day at 7.45pm. Thursday brings Amy Jeffs with a new life of King Arthur, Gavin Francis on mental health and Oliver Bullough on money laundering. Friday has Kate Williams, Rebecca Seal, Dan Cruickshank and Andrea Wulf.
Saturday is the big finale: six sessions from 10.30am to 8.15pm, including Ping Coombes on rice, Nicholas Crane on the secret history of Britain's footpaths, Lady Hale at 2pm, Blake Morrison on memoir and Maggie Aderin at 7.15pm. Sessions are ticketed, so check availability before you head over.
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🏉 Wells RFC Says It's 'Now Or Never' For A New Home
Wells Rugby Football Club wants Somerset Council to approve its move to new land off the A371 Portway before Christmas. The club has 16 teams and 239 paying members and has been looking for a new home since 2009. Its old Charter Way pitches would make way for up to 97 affordable homes built by housing association Stonewater, and a yes by Christmas would keep the club on track to play at the new ground for the 2027/28 season.
⛪ Glastonbury's St Margaret's Chapel Is Looking For New Trustees
The Mary and Margaret Charity, which looks after the Grade II* listed St Margaret's Chapel and the Royal Magdalene Almshouses on Magdalene Street, is recruiting trustees. It particularly wants to hear from people interested in history or with IT and digital skills, and no previous trustee experience is needed. The site welcomes more than 38,000 visitors a year, and its volunteers are waiting to hear on 14 November whether they have won the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
🍽️ Shepton Mallet Restaurant Start-Up Hub Planned For Town Street
Interim Spaces, the charity that provides affordable premises for artists, makers and small businesses in Shepton Mallet, has acquired 19 Town Street. It says the building is being developed as a restaurant incubator, a place where food businesses can test their ideas. The plan came to light in a trustee recruitment listing, with applications closing on Sunday 25 October. The charity already runs The Artistry shop on Town Street, now in its second year with up to 40 local makers and traders.
🍎 Apple Day Comes To The Somerset Rural Life Museum
On Saturday 24 October, the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury celebrates Somerset's apple-growing heritage with apple-themed crafts, games and family activities. Entry is free with a Museum Unlimited pass, otherwise normal admission applies: adults £11, concessions £9, children aged 5 to 17 £5.25, and under-5s free. The listing doesn't give a start time, so it's worth checking with the museum before you set off.
Back in 1980 I was working at BBC Radio Leicester and had personal ambitions to start my own recording studio. I had scratched together the funds to buy an old 16 track tape machine, which was already a museum piece when I acquired it, and had set it up with just enough kit to make workable recordings.
I don’t know how they found my phone number but one day I got a call to say there was a band visiting the city that urgently needed to make a recording and as mine was the only studio they could find in a 50 mile radius, could I do it that day?
The band was The Wurzels. They were hoping for a follow up success to “Combined Harvester” (1976) and had the idea to cash in on Terry Wogan’s current obsession with the TV show Dallas. They had a song called “I Hate JR”. They had to strike whilst the Wogan iron was hot and this was the only gap they had in a touring schedule to record it.
It was a fun session. We recorded and mixed the A and B sides in a day and the guys were very professional. I think we were all surprised at the results.
The record was quickly released by EMI, it was plugged to Wogan and Pebble Mill at One and within a couple of weeks - it sank into oblivion, never to be heard again! That’s showbiz! If you’re curious, you can still find it on YouTube.
The Wurzels, however, lived on and 46 years later, the survivors are still going strong. I’m delighted to feature them in our main article below.
Paul
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
Improper -
in folklore, a person employed to lasso mischievous small creatures possessing magical powers
Carnation -
what we've become despite people banging on about environmental footprints and global warming etc.
Dogmatic -
a twitch brought on by stating your opinion forcefully or arrogantly
Incumbent -
money earned is dodgy
Radical -
A tiny radish
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The Night Somerset Found Its Voice
Sixty years ago this fortnight, a group of oddly dressed men carrying a banjo, an accordion and a tuba went up the stairs of the Royal Oak in Nailsea. EMI had sent a recording engineer, and the pub was full of cider drinkers. What came out of that evening on 2 November 1966 was "Drink Up Thy Zider", and with it a new kind of music the band called Scrumpy & Western.
The man at the front was Adge Cutler. He had worked in the Coates cider works and on building sites, and he had driven Pensford's own Acker Bilk around the country as his road manager. Adge had noticed that pub singalongs were always about London or Glasgow. "There was nothing local to sing," he said. So he wrote songs about the places he knew, and, in his words, "they passed into local history."
Plenty of those places are in Mendip. There's "All Over Mendip", released as a single in 1967. There's "The Shepton Mallet Matador", about a farmhand called Jacko who comes home from a Spanish holiday drinking wine instead of beer; the band later filmed it dressed as matadors, dancing round Shepton's Market Cross. "When the Common Market Comes to Stanton Drew" worried about garlic and pasta reaching the Chew Valley, and there are cha-chas for Chew Magna and a love-in for Chewton Mendip.
Adge did not live to see the band's biggest moment. He died in May 1974, aged 42, when his car overturned near the Severn Bridge on the way home from a gig. Tommy Banner, Pete Budd and Tony Baylis kept going, and in the long hot summer of 1976 "Combine Harvester" spent two weeks at number one.
Fifty years on, they are still playing. This May they closed the first day of the Bath & West Show in the new Pilton Tent, and last summer's heatwave forced them off stage early at Wells' Party at the Palace. Pete now lives in the Chew Valley. Tommy is a Scot who came to Somerset in the 1960s and lived in a caravan, and he jokes that he still can't speak West Country.
You can see them next at Frome's Cheese & Grain on 27 March 2027. Before then, raise a glass of something cloudy on 2 November to the night Somerset found its voice.
Over to you: Did you ever see Adge, or dance to the Wurzels at a Mendip village hall, young farmers' do or the Bath & West? Send us your memories and photos.
Wednesday 21 October
Wells Festival of Literature — Cedars Hall, Wells. Four sessions today: Sara Wheeler on Jan Morris: A Life (2pm), Florence Hazrat on the history of punctuation (4.15pm), Oz Clarke: A Vine is a Wild Thing (6pm) and Henry Normal: Collected Poems Volume Four (7.45pm). Ticketed.
Building Stones of Wells Cathedral (Mendip Rocks) — 10am, Cathedral Green, Wells. Guided geology walk with geologist Stephen Thompson. £8, but sold out. More info
Field To Food Learning Day — Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet. A hands-on day helping young people learn where their food comes from, with the Royal Bath & West Society. More info
Follow the Plough: Growing Up on the Mendips — 2.30pm, Cross Memorial Hall, Cross. A talk by Les Davies MBE, Mendip Times columnist, author and former Mendip Hills AONB manager, hosted by the Friends of King John's Hunting Lodge. Non-members asked for a £5 donation; refreshments available. More info
Fun Dance Class — 5.30pm, Chewton Mendip Village Hall. Weekly Wednesday class led by Helena Eden, mixed styles with high and low impact options. £10 drop-in, or £42.50 for five. More info
Henton Garden Club: X Factor — 7pm, Henton Village Hall. Garden designer Neil Ross shares ten tips to turn an average garden into a memorable one. £5 for non-members, members free. More info
Queen at Sea and Sense and Sensibility — Strode Theatre, Street. Queen at Sea ends today; Sense and Sensibility runs to Thursday. Showtimes on the theatre website. Queen at Sea · Sense and Sensibility
Thursday 22 October
Wells Festival of Literature — Cedars Hall. Three sessions today: Amy Jeffs: Arthur: A New Life (4.15pm), Gavin Francis: The Unfragile Mind (6pm) and Oliver Bullough: Everybody Loves Our Dollars (7.45pm). Ticketed.
Shepton Mallet Prison Halloween Tours — 6.30pm, Shepton Mallet Prison. Ninety-minute after-dark guided tours, running on Thursdays in October plus 27, 28 and 30 October and 1 November. £30. More info
Beth Calverley: Landscapes of Connection — 7.30pm, Chew Valley Library, Bishop Sutton. An evening of nature, poetry and connection with Chew Valley-raised poet Beth Calverley, founder of The Poetry Machine. About 45 minutes. Free, booking required. Booking
Simeon Walker: Lunchtime Concert — Glastonbury (venue is on the ticket listing). Leeds-based pianist and composer Simeon Walker plays intimate contemporary-classical, jazz and ambient piano, as heard on Radio 3 and Classic FM. Free entry. More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6pm, Wells Market Place (meet near Penniless Porch). A free weekly circular walk for women, finishing at Fosso Lounge for those who fancy a drink. No need to know anyone beforehand. More info
Chantel McGregor — 7pm, The Tree House, Cheese & Grain, Frome. The blues-rock guitarist who toured the UK with Joe Bonamassa early in her career. £20 advance plus fee. 18+, standing. Booking
Rameagle + Vertigo — The King Arthur, Glastonbury. Psychedelic rock from Rameagle, opened by Vertigo. Free entry. More info
Friday 23 October
Wells Festival of Literature — Cedars Hall. Four sessions today: Kate Williams: Regina (2pm), Rebecca Seal: Irritated (4.15pm), Dan Cruickshank: The English House (6pm) and Andrea Wulf: The Traveller (7.45pm). Ticketed.
Max Milligan: Around The World In 40 Years — Upton Noble Village Hall. An illustrated talk by photographer Max Milligan, a visual journey through his nine photographic books. £15 including a complimentary drink. 7.00pm. Booking
Moscow Drug Club — 7.30pm, The Old School Rooms, Chew Magna. Jazz, French musette, Latin grooves and New Orleans swing, with songs by Jacques Brel, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Eartha Kitt. Ticketed. Booking
Simon & Garfunkel Through the Years — 7.30pm, Strode Theatre, Street. A tribute from the duo Bookends, with The Sound of Silence, Mrs Robinson and Bridge Over Troubled Water. £22. Booking
Fallen Angels by Noël Coward (Roundabout Theatre, screened) — 7.45pm, Strode Theatre Studio, also Saturday. A filmed-live screening of the Tony Award-winning Broadway production starring Rose Byrne and Kelli O'Hara. £14.70–£16.70. Booking
Attila the Stockbroker — 7.30pm, Cheese & Grain Cafe Bar, Frome. A punk poet and singer-songwriter 44 years and 4,000 gigs in: spoken word, dub poetry and acoustic songs. £12 advance plus fee. Seated. Booking
Accidental Jazz Orchestra — The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury. The orchestra returns for a night of dance and celebration. More info
The Charlie Miller Band — The King Arthur, Glastonbury. Funk and soul from Glastonbury's longest-running funk and soul band, with classics and their own songs. More info
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Street Fighter [12A] — Wed 3pm and 7.30pm; Thu 4.30pm and 7.30pm
Forgotten Island [PG] — Wed and Thu 4.30pm
Heart of the Beast [12A] — Wed 3pm; Thu 7.30pm
Sense And Sensibility [U] — Wed 7pm; Thu 3pm
Verity [15] — Wed 7.30pm
The Social Reckoning [15] — Thu 7pm
This week's programme runs to Thursday 22 October.
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 21 October
Today brings scattered rain, a blustery wind and highs of around 9–11°C. Thursday and Friday look wetter and windier still, with Friday shaping up as the roughest day of the week. Saturday is calmer and your best bet for outdoor plans, then Sunday turns milder (12–16°C) with the rain clearing later.
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