Good morning, Mendips! It's a half-term weekend, with the Dragons Wild Hunt in Glastonbury, the last two days of the Wells Festival of Literature and a Grease singalong all on the menu. In the news: locals' Glastonbury Festival 2027 tickets, some very well-travelled guide dog puppies and a farmhouse mural with starlings in it. Oh, and the clocks go back on Sunday, so enjoy the extra hour.
What Shall We Do For The Weekend?
Brace yourselves, Mendips: the forecast says a windy Friday, a soggy Saturday and a brighter Sunday, and the clocks go back an hour on Sunday morning, so there's a lie-in in it for everyone. It's half-term too, which means plenty to do indoors and out, whatever the sky gets up to.
Friday night first. In Chew Magna, Moscow Drug Club bring their mix of jazz, French musette, Latin grooves and New Orleans swing to the Old School Rooms, with songs from Jacques Brel, Tom Waits and Eartha Kitt thrown in. It's a grown-ups' night out (14+) with tickets through Valley Arts, so book a sitter. Fancy something punkier? Over in Frome, Attila the Stockbroker is 44 years and 4,000 gigs in, and still mixing spoken word, dub poetry and acoustic songs at the Cheese & Grain Cafe Bar (seated, £12 plus fee).
Saturday is the big one. In Glastonbury, Samhain and the Glastonbury Dragons Wild Hunt is free and goes ahead whatever the weather: a magic market from noon, the procession at 4pm and the fire ceremony at 5.15pm, with the Red and White Dragons battling it out in between. Wrap up warm and bring a brolly.
Samhain in Glastonbury
Book lovers, it's the final day of the Wells Festival of Literature at Cedars Hall in Wells. There are six sessions, from Ping Coombes on Malaysian rice at 10.30am, to Lady Hale at 2pm and Maggie Aderin on a life under the night sky at 7.15pm. Tickets are needed, so check the programme before you set off.
Half-term families are well looked after. The Spooktacular Halloween at Shoemakers Museum in Street runs daily from 10am to 4pm with spooky trails, included with museum entry. The geology event at the Somerset Earth Science Centre in Stoke St Michael is free from 11am with no booking, and Apple Day at the Somerset Rural Life Museum has apple-themed crafts and games, included with admission.
Then on Saturday night, dust off your best Sandy or Danny for the Grease Film Singalong at Oakhill Chapel, raising money for Youth With A Future, which supports homeless 16-25 year olds in the Mendip area. It's a £10 seat donation, and seats are limited, so reserve on 07504 758263.
Sunday is the gentle one. The Frome Wessex Camera & Photographic Fair opens its doors at 8.30am (early entry is £10, dropping to £1 after noon), followed by a free Open Mic Night at 2pm, both at Cheese & Grain. Prefer a jazz soundtrack? The Julie Dunn Jazz Trio play the Bluebird Cafe & Bar in Wedmore from 2.30pm, free to enter.
Whatever you pick, get out there and enjoy it, and don't forget to put your clocks back. For the full day-by-day breakdown of everything else on this weekend, plus Monday and Tuesday, jump to the What's On This Week section below.
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🎟️ Locals' Glastonbury 2027 Tickets: Here's When You Can Book
Mark your diaries: the local ticket sale for Glastonbury Festival 2027 is on Sunday 1 November. At 9am, full weekend tickets open to the inner zone of Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and Pilton, with Wells and Street joining at 10am, and Sunday-only tickets follow at 11am for Mendip and central Somerset. A weekend ticket is £408, with a £100 deposit on the day and up to four per booking, while Sunday tickets are £145 plus postage, with compulsory return bus travel. You must already be registered, as registration is now suspended, so check you're sorted before the big day.
🐶 Guide Dog Puppies Meet The Witch Of Wookey Hole
Eight guide dog puppies, all about a year old, spent a day at Wookey Hole getting used to spooky sights, sounds and smells. They met the Witch of Wookey Hole in the caves, then explored Dinosaur Valley, the Victorian paper mill and the Mirror Maze with their volunteer raisers. Lucy Avery, Puppy Development Advisor for Guide Dogs in Somerset, said: "A big part of early training is exposing puppies to new environments and experiences." Fancy raising one yourself? Guide Dogs is recruiting puppy raisers, and Wookey Hole's own Halloween activities run from 24 October to 1 November (dogs aren't allowed unless they're guide dogs).
🎨 A 95-Year-Old's Childhood Photo Becomes A Farmhouse Mural
Glastonbury artist Jon Minshull has painted a mural of an autumn sunset over the Isle of Avalon landscape on a farmhouse in Meare, for Muriel, who is 95. It features a Shire mare and foal, based on a photograph of Muriel aged five, taken in 1936, plus a starling murmuration she asked for because Meare sits near the reed beds where the birds roost. It completes a series of murals on the house, following spring and summer scenes on other walls, and Jon thanked Muriel "for pioneering appreciation of murals in Meare". Not bad for a wall.
Shepton Mallet: Friday’s Shepton on Show cancelled. Organisers announced on 21 October that the free town-centre performances planned for Friday 23 October have been postponed because of the weather. The event will return in 2027, but no replacement date is available.
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Now some jolly exciting news if you’re a Mendip small business owner. I’ve been cooking up a companion “Community Hub” for the Mendipoldocus and hoping to launch it next week. It’s a website where any local business can have a free listing with all their contact details so our thousands of ‘Docus readers can find them and buy their lovely services.
If you provide any kind of service to the Mendip area I’ll put your details on the site and we’ll send readers your way.
There’ll also be opportunities to feature your business in this newsletter. Tell us why you’re passionate about what you do and get your special offers out to our growing reader list.
If you’re interested in knowing how to get a free listing, just hit “REPLY” and tell me the name of your business. I’ll send you all the details.
Paul
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The Night Black Down Pretended to Be Bristol
A weekend dog walk from the Rock of Ages to the Mendips' wartime decoy city
There's a nice symmetry to this walk. It starts at a rock where, so the story goes, a young curate sheltered from a storm. It finishes on a hilltop that was built to pull a far worse storm away from Bristol.
Park in Burrington Combe, opposite the Rock of Ages. Legend has it that Augustus Toplady, curate at Blagdon, ducked into the cleft during a thunderstorm and came up with the hymn "Rock of Ages". A plaque says so. Hymn historians aren't convinced, and the story doesn't appear in print until long after his death. Still, it's a good place to clip on the leads and start the climb.
Follow the paths up onto Black Down. At 325 metres it's the highest point on Mendip. Head for the trig point on Beacon Batch, which sits on one of a cluster of Bronze Age burial barrows. On a clear day you can see across the Chew Valley towards Bristol, and that view is the whole point of what happened up here.
After the Coventry raid in 1940, Colonel John Turner's decoy programme set out to fool German night bombers. Black Down became one of the first "Starfish" sites. The name comes from "SF", for Special Fire. Experts from Shepperton Film Studios helped design the lighting and fire effects. Glow boxes copied Bristol's streets and railway yards, including Temple Meads. Creosote and diesel fires imitated a city already burning, so the next wave of bombers would aim at an empty Somerset hillside instead.
It did draw some bombs. Local historian Mike Harvey told the BBC that one bunker still shows the crater left by a 500lb landmine. Bristol suffered badly all the same: almost 1,300 people were killed between November 1940 and April 1941.
The remains of one of the bunkers.
You can still see a good deal of it. Hundreds of little mounds run in rows across the heath. They were built to stop enemy aircraft landing on the flat top. There are also blast-walled concrete control bunkers, including one near the Tynings Farm entrance. Historic England protects the whole complex as a scheduled monument, and it's one of very few decoy sites in the country that wasn't cleared after the war. Please leave it as you find it.
Practical bits: Black Down is open-access land. By law, dogs must be on a short lead from 1 March to 31 July for ground-nesting birds, and on a lead near grazing animals at any time of year. The top is exposed and the paths can be muddy, so dress for the weather. If you'd like the full story on the ground, The Mendip Society runs occasional guided Starfish walks.
– Paul
Friday 23 October
Moscow Drug Club — 7.30pm, The Old School Rooms (Lower Hall), Chew Magna. Jazz, French musette, Latin grooves and New Orleans swing, with songs by Jacques Brel, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Eartha Kitt. Ages 14+. Tickets through Valley Arts. Booking
Max Milligan - Around The World In 40 Years — Upton Noble Village Hall. An illustrated talk by photographer Max Milligan on his nine photographic books, raising funds for the Friends of St Mary Magdalene. £15 including a drink. The start time isn't published, so check the booking page. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Kate Williams — 2pm, Cedars Hall. Regina: A New History of Women and Power. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Rebecca Seal — 4.15pm, Cedars Hall. Irritated: The Allergy Epidemic and What We Can Do About It. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Dan Cruickshank — 6pm, Cedars Hall. The English House: A History in Eight Buildings. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Andrea Wulf — 7.45pm, Cedars Hall. The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and His Search for Humanity. Booking
Simon & Garfunkel Through the Years — 7.30pm, Strode Theatre, Street. Tribute duo Bookends (Dan Haynes and Pete Richards) play The Sound of Silence, Mrs Robinson, The Boxer and Bridge Over Troubled Water. £22. Booking
Attila the Stockbroker — 7.30pm, Cheese & Grain Cafe Bar, Frome. Punk poet and singer-songwriter, 44 years and 4,000 gigs in. Seated. £12 advance plus fee. Booking
Fallen Angels by Noël Coward (Roundabout Theatre, screened) — 7.45pm, Strode Theatre Studio (also Sat). Filmed-live screening of the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Coward's 1925 comedy, starring Rose Byrne and Kelli O'Hara. £14.70–£16.70. Booking
Saturday 24 October
Samhain & The Glastonbury Dragons Wild Hunt — Glastonbury town centre. Free. Magic market from noon, procession at 4pm, then the Red and White Dragons do battle before the Ancestors Fire Ceremony at 5.15pm. Goes ahead whatever the weather. More info
Street Repair Cafe — 10am–12 noon, Quaker Meeting House, Street. Free community repair cafe: bring broken items and volunteers will try to fix them. Held on the fourth Saturday of the month. Contact
Wells Festival of Literature: Ping Coombes — 10.30am, Cedars Hall. Rice: Make Rice the Heart of Your Table with Recipes from Malaysia and Beyond. Booking
Half-Term Geological Event at Somerset Earth Science Centre — 11am, Moons Hill Quarry, Stoke St Michael. Half-term geology event, part of Mendip Rocks 2026. Free, no booking. More info
Apple Day Activities — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury. Apple-themed crafts, games and family activities. Included with museum admission. More info
Wells Festival of Literature: Nicholas Crane — 12.15pm, Cedars Hall. The Path More Travelled: The Secret History of Britain's Footpaths. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Lady Hale — 2pm, Cedars Hall. With the Law on Our Side: How the Law Works for Everyone and How We Can Make It Work Better. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Cathy Rentzenbrink — 3.45pm, Cedars Hall. The Agatha Christie Cure. Booking
Wells Festival of Literature: Blake Morrison — 5.30pm, Cedars Hall. On Memoir: An A-Z of Life Writing. Booking
Grease Film Singalong (Youth With A Future fundraiser) — 6.30pm–10pm, Oakhill Chapel, Oakhill. Fundraiser for Youth With A Future, supporting homeless 16-25 year olds in the Mendip area. Non-alcoholic bar, snacks, ice cream and a £1-a-strip raffle. £10 seat donation, cash on the door. Seats are limited, so reserve on 07504 758263. More info
Wells Festival of Literature: Maggie Aderin — 7.15pm, Cedars Hall. Starchild: My Life Under the Night Sky. Booking
Bad Apples (film) — 7.30pm, Strode Theatre. Film screening (15), with a second showing on Wed 28 Oct at 7.45pm. £5–£8.80. Booking
Fallen Angels by Noël Coward (second screening) — 7.45pm, Strode Theatre Studio. The final screening of the Roundabout Theatre production. £14.70–£16.70. Booking
Sunday 25 October
Frome Wessex Camera & Photographic Fair — Doors 8.30am, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Entry is £10 from 8.30–10am, £5 from 10am–12 noon and £1 after noon, plus booking fee, with tickets also sold on the door. More info
Open Mic Night — 2pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. An open mic afternoon hosted by Craig Webber. Free, seated. More info
Julie Dunn Jazz Trio — 2.30pm–4.30pm, Bluebird Cafe & Bar, Wedmore. Vocalist Julie Dunn joins Bristol-based guitarist Andy Christie for jazz, swing, funky Latin and blues, plus original material. Free entry; reserving a table is recommended. More info
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 23 October
Friday starts wet and very windy, with gusts that could top 45mph, so bring the bins in. Saturday stays cloudy with rain by the afternoon, before Sunday turns mostly sunny but still blustery, and the clocks go back. Monday brings more rain, with a shower or two on Tuesday, and highs of 12–16°C all week. (Based on an AccuWeather forecast for Wells; the BBC link below has live updates.)
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