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Mendiplodocus Daily — Issue #39 — Thursday 6 August 2026
Issue #39 | Thursday 6 August 2026
Good morning, Mendips! Thursday brings sunshine, a Cheese & Grain brass band and Wells' Hiroshima Day lantern float lighting up the Bishop's Palace moat after dark. We've also got five fresh headlines from across the Mendips, a full run of What's On picks through Monday, and everything on at Wells Film Centre. Let's get into it.
📅 Featured Event — Hiroshima Day Commemorative Lantern Float
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — Cathedral Green eclipse viewing · Street
traders raise ASB alarm · Somerset declared in drought
The Mystery of Fairy Toot
📆 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
Hiroshima Day, commemoration in Wells
Tonight, Wells joins communities around the world marking Hiroshima Day — 81 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, and of Nagasaki three days later. The Mid-Somerset CND & Peace Group holds its annual commemorative lantern float at the Bishop's Palace Moat, one of the quietest, most moving evenings in the Mendips calendar.
Gather from around 8:30pm as dusk settles over the Palace, with lanterns launched onto the moat once darkness falls — a simple, candlelit act of remembrance for the human cost of nuclear weapons, and a shared hope for peace. It's free and unticketed: bring a lantern if you have one, or simply come to stand quietly with neighbours.
There's no booking required — just turn up at the Moat as the light fades. It pairs naturally with an evening stroll around the Palace grounds beforehand.
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style
🔭 Wells Cathedral Green To Host Rare Partial Solar Eclipse Viewing
Wells and Mendip Astronomers will set up safely filtered telescopes on Cathedral Green on Wednesday 12 August for what organisers say will be the best partial solar eclipse visible from the UK since 1999. The free event runs from 3pm, with maximum coverage of around 93% of the sun expected just after 7pm. Eclipse glasses and expert guidance will be on hand so onlookers can watch safely without damaging their eyes.
🚨 Street Traders Sound Alarm Over Library Gardens Anti-Social Behaviour
Shopkeepers in Street say daily public drinking, drug use and abusive language in Library Gardens — right by the town's main bus stops — are driving away visitors and wearing staff down. Street Traders Association chairman Mark Tobin said some businesses feel close to breaking point despite repeated calls to police, and traders have now written to their MP for help. Avon and Somerset Police say they take the reports "incredibly seriously" and are stepping up patrols.
💧 Somerset Declared In Drought As "Exceptionally Serious" Dry Spell Bites
The Environment Agency has officially declared Somerset in drought, one of seven areas across England hit by a second consecutive summer of low rainfall and soaring water use. July brought just 7% of expected rainfall, and officials are warning of long-lasting impacts on rivers, wildlife and farming across Wessex, including the Mendips and Somerset Levels. Residents are being urged to use water wisely as reservoirs and groundwater come under growing strain.
🦴 Glastonbury Abbey Welcomes Home A Stolen Medieval Kneecap — 70 Years On
A 13th-century kneecap and medieval floor tile, pocketed by a schoolboy visiting Glastonbury Abbey in 1956, have finally been returned after a 9,000-mile round trip to Australia and back. George Box kept the items for the rest of his life, even displaying them alongside fossils in his Australian home, but asked before he died last year for them to go back to Somerset. His widow returned them personally this summer, and both pieces are now on show in the Abbey's museum.
🗑️ Wells Households Warned Of Bank Holiday Bin Collection Changes
Somerset Council says recycling and rubbish collections will run a day later than usual for the rest of the week following the August Bank Holiday on Monday 31 August, with Friday 4 September collections shifting to Saturday 5 September. Recycling sites that normally open on Mondays will stay open as usual over the bank holiday. Households across Wells and the Mendips are urged to check their new collection day in advance.
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
R
Rambling
Tacky jewellery for sheep.
Rampart
Any piece of a male sheep.
Ratchet
Rodent droppings.
Repartee
A party for salesmen.
Renegade
A fizzy drink made from cough sweets.
Romantic
An Italian flea.
Fairy Toot: The Tomb the Fairies Left Behind
Somerset is famous for peculiar place names, but few rival Nempnett Thrubwell — a tiny village north of Blagdon Lake best known these days for a cheeky mention in a Wurzels song.
It’s thought to combine the Celtic word "nemett," meaning grove, with the Old English "wiell," meaning well, giving us the rather lovely "grove by the well". Others argue it derives from "emnet," Old English for level ground, with the wandering "N" accidentally tacked on from the word "an" over centuries of mispronunciation, while Thrubwell may simply mean "gushing stream".
Fairy Toot - The Megalithic Portal
Who knows? But if this name were not enough, think of the villages famous landmark - Fairy Toot.
This is a Neolithic long barrow tucked into fields south-southwest of Howgrove Farm. Around 5,000 years ago, this was a genuinely monumental structure: roughly 60 metres long and 25 metres wide, originally standing far taller than today.
The name itself is a folklore treasure in its own right. "Toot" comes from the Middle English "toten," meaning to project or stick out, commonly used for hills and mounds across England. Paired with "Fairy," it reflects a widespread old belief that ancient burial mounds like this were gateways to the fairy realm.
Locals reportedly visited Fairy Toot specifically to cure warts, treating the ancient tomb as a sort of prehistoric pharmacy.
Unfortunately, curiosity proved more destructive than any goblin curse. Between 1787 and 1835, local clergymen dug into the barrow and found stone-built burial chambers containing human skeletons, but the excavation left the structure exposed and vulnerable.
What survived was later plundered for stone to build a lime kiln and farm buildings, including what looks like an old sheep shed still sitting incongruously in the middle of the mound.
Today, Fairy Toot survives as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, though visitors expecting a dramatic ruin might be disappointed. What remains is largely flattened rubble smothered in ash trees and scrub, with only a couple of drystone-walled fragments at the northern end — over two metres high — hinting at former chambers and openings beneath the tree roots.
All week (6–10 August)
Thursday, 6 August (today)
Hiroshima Day Commemorative Lantern Float — Bishop's Palace Moat, Wells, gather ~8:30pm, launch after dusk, free. See Featured Event above.
Hot 8 Brass Band — Cheese & Grain, Frome, 7pm. New Orleans brass and swagger. Tickets
Little Discoverers: Colourful Illumination — Glastonbury Abbey, 10:30–11:30am, free drop-in for under-5s and carers. More info
Create a Wood Slice Painting — Glastonbury Abbey Museum, 11am–1pm, included with admission. More info
Art Adventurers: Crafting in the Undercroft — Bishop's Palace, Wells, included with admission. More info
Mini Beast Hunts — Glastonbury Abbey, 2–4pm, drop-in. More info
Badger Walks — Glastonbury Abbey, 7–9pm. More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — meet Wells Market Place near Penniless Porch, 6–7pm, free women's walk. More info
Friday, 7 August
Birds of Prey — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury, included with museum admission. More info
Beats 'n' Bites — The Island, outside the Town Hall, Midsomer Norton, 5:30–10pm, free entry, bring your own food/drink.
Bishop's Palace Summer Late Opening — Wells, 6–8pm (last entry 7:30pm), Adult £8.75 / Child £4.40. More info
Mini Beast Hunts — Glastonbury Abbey, 2–4pm, drop-in. More info
Saturday, 8 August
Wells Pride 2026 — Sadler Street, Cathedral Green & bandstand, Wells, from 10am (brunch at the White Hart, march from midday, entertainment from 1pm, Kiki with Pride at the Sheep & Penguin from 8pm), free. Event page
Ratrace + One Chord Wonders — Cheese & Grain, Frome, 7pm. Tickets
A Hans Zimmer Candlelight Experience — St John the Baptist's Church, Glastonbury, sittings at 7pm & 9pm. Tickets
The Unfurling — Art Exhibition by Leanne Ta'iki Anawa opens — Glastonbury Galleries, 10A High Street, 11am–5pm, free, runs to 18 August. More info
Hiroshima Exhibition — Wells Cathedral Green, 12–4pm, free.
Marvellous Mosaics — Avalon Archaeology, Glastonbury. More info
3SEVEN6 x Forged Records: Day 'N' Night — central Glastonbury, 2pm–midnight, from £10. More info
Sunday, 9 August
Monday, 10 August
Summer Stay and Make — Yeast Scrapstore, Unit 7 Dyehouse Lane, Glastonbury, 11am–1pm, donations from £5/family.
🗓️ Coming Up
Quiz Night at the Waldegrave Arms — East Harptree, 11 August, 7pm, £1 entry, max 6 per team.
History Alive: King Arthur and the Holy Fail — Bishop's Palace, Wells, 13 August.
The Jam'd Live at Studio 24 — Wells, 15 August. Tickets
The Devout — Depeche Mode tribute — Cheese & Grain, Frome, 15 August. More info
The Pirates of Penzance — 11 September.
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
The Odyssey [15] — final showings, today
Spider-Man: Brand New Day [12A] — final showings, today
Moana [PG] — continuing
Toy Story 5 [U] — continuing
Minions & Monsters [U] — continuing
PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie [U] — continuing
The Sheep Detectives [PG] — new from Friday 7 August
🎻 Special screening: André Rieu's 2026 Summer Concert — Viva Maastricht! — Saturday 8 August
Practical Magic — coming soon
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🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of Thursday 6 August 2026
A calm, largely dry Thursday for us with sunny spells and a top of 20°C. Warmer through the weekend — up to 25°C on Saturday — with a chance of morning rain on Sunday clearing to leave sunshine for the afternoon. Lovely conditions for Wells Pride and everything else on this week.
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Contact Mendy the Mendiplodocus
Paul Branston, Editor
Hi, I'm Paul Branston and I publish the Mendiplodocus every morning, Monday to Saturday. 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.
07912 499433