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Mendiplodocus Daily — Issue #42 — Tuesday 11 August 2026
Issue #42 | Tuesday 11 August 2026
Good morning, Mendips! It's a warm, sunny week ahead for the Mendips — highs climbing into the low 30s by midweek — and Thursday brings something properly different: a candlelit Secret Supper Club dinner behind Bishop's Palace's medieval drawbridge, our Featured Event today. There's also outdoor theatre at Bishop's Palace and Glastonbury Abbey, live music at Cheese & Grain, and don't miss tomorrow's full feature on Wednesday's rare partial solar eclipse over Cathedral Green — the best the UK has seen since 1999. Here's your Tuesday round-up.
📅 Featured Event — Secret Supper Club at The Bishop's Palace
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — Bishop's Palace's hidden garden · Wells
grants · Guy Fawkes dates · King Arthur comedy · Pinocchio's farewell
What has King Arthur ever done for us?
📆 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
The Secret Supper Club!
Ingredients from the Palace Gardens ?
Thursday evening, Bishop's Palace is hosting a genuinely different night out. Secret Supper Club is an intimate ticketed dining evening with a playful password-entry gimmick to cross the medieval drawbridge after hours — a proper sense of occasion before you've even sat down.
Once inside, diners get three courses built around seasonal, locally sourced produce — some of it grown right there in the Palace's own kitchen gardens — served as the light fades over one of Wells's most historic settings. Doors are 7.30pm, with the evening running through to around 9pm.
Tickets are £45pp for three courses, with a £10 non-refundable deposit to secure your place — and given the intimate scale, booking ahead is a must. Can't make Thursday? It's a recurring monthly event, with further dates on 10 September, 15 October and 12 November.
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style
The hottest July on record has done more than dry out Wells's lawns — it's uncovered history. Aerial photography of the Bishop's Palace grounds has revealed faint outlines of a Dutch-style formal garden in front of the ruined Great Hall, thought to date from the mid-to-late 1700s. A palace spokesperson said the parched grass had exposed gravel paths and clipped hedging lines never spotted in previous droughts.
💷 Wells community groups offered grants of up to £500
Wells City Council is inviting local charities and voluntary groups to apply for community grants of up to £500 before the deadline on Tuesday, 1 September. Applicants need to explain their project, its benefit to the city, and why funding is needed — March's round saw The Bishop's Palace receive £190 towards a wheelchair-accessible bench.
🎆 Somerset Guy Fawkes Carnival 2026 dates confirmed for Wells, Glastonbury and Shepton
Mark your November calendars: the Somerset Guy Fawkes Carnival circuit runs from Saturday 7 to Saturday 21 November, and dates are now confirmed for our patch —
Shepton Mallet Carnival on Wednesday 18 November (7.30pm),
Wells Carnival on Friday 20 November (7pm), and
Glastonbury Carnival closing the circuit on Saturday 21 November (6.45pm).
⚔️ Three Inch Fools bring King Arthur comedy to Bishop's Palace on Thursday
Fans of silly, family-friendly theatre should pencil in Thursday. Touring troupe The Three Inch Fools bring their outdoor comedy "King Arthur and the Holy Fail" to Bishop's Palace, with tickets sold separately from standard admission. Expect quick-change costumes, daft jokes and a healthy disregard for historical accuracy.
🎭 Pinocchio takes its final bow at Glastonbury Abbey on Thursday
Glastonbury Abbey's 2026 outdoor theatre season closes on Thursday with Illyria's open-air musical retelling of Pinocchio, staged among the abbey ruins. It runs about 95 minutes plus a 20-minute interval — bring your own chair or blanket, and expect a suitably magical setting for the season's send-off.
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
A
Abundance
Similar to Morris Dancing but with cakes instead of sticks.
Academy
School for Cads.
Acne
A borough in North London.
Adamant
A female ant.
Adultery
What happens after puberty.
Alaska
I'll go and question my girlfriend.
What's King Arthur Got To Do With The Mendips?
Quite A Lot, Actually
This week, The Three Inch Fools bring their comedy romp "King Arthur and the Holy Fail" to the grounds of Wells' Bishop's Palace, and honestly, it's about time someone poked fun at Somerset's favourite legend — because our little corner of the world has been milking the Arthur myth for about 900 years.
Let's start with Camelot itself. While Tintagel in Cornwall gets the tourist coach parties, serious Arthur-hunters point to Cadbury Castle near South Cadbury, a hulking Iron Age hillfort just south of the Mendips, as the more plausible seat of the legendary court.
It was the Tudor antiquarian John Leland who first wrote down the local tradition in 1542, noting that villagers called the hill "Camalat" and swore blind it was Arthur's stronghold. Archaeologist Leslie Alcock's 1960s-70s digs found evidence of a substantial timber hall and heavy fortifications dating to exactly the post-Roman period when a real "Arthur" figure might have swaggered about — so the legend isn't purely fanciful.
There's even a charming bit of folklore that on Midsummer's Eve the hill turns to glass and you can glimpse Arthur and his knights sleeping inside, waiting to be called.
Then there's Glastonbury, which has the best origin story in the business. In 1191, monks at Glastonbury Abbey dramatically announced they'd dug up a hollowed oak trunk containing two skeletons and a lead cross reading "Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur, with Guinevere his second wife, in the Isle of Avalon". Conveniently, the abbey had just burned down in 1184 and desperately needed pilgrim cash for repairs — historians today are almost unanimous that this was medieval marketing genius rather than archaeology.
The bones were later reburied with royal pomp before Edward I in 1278, then vanished entirely when Henry VIII's men trashed the abbey in 1539. Since Geoffrey of Monmouth had already described Arthur being spirited away to the mystical "Isle of Apples," and Glastonbury really was an island poking out of the Somerset Levels back then, the abbey happily rebranded itself as Avalon. A claim that stuck for good.
So while Arthur probably never actually fought a battle over the shape of a table, as this week's show suggests, the Mendips and their fringes gave the legend its most convincing home turf. Fitting, then, that the Fools are performing practically in Avalon's back garden.
All week (11–15 August)
Wookey Uncovered — Wookey Hole Caves, Wookey. Guided family heritage tours of the ancient caves and Victorian papermill, running all summer. More info
Harry Brockway: Ways With Wood Exhibition — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury. Wood engravings, woodcuts and sculpture, Tue–Sun 10am–5pm, runs to 2 September. More info
Summer Fun on the Farm — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury. Drop-in crafts, animals and galleries, Tue–Sun 10am–5pm, runs to 4 September. More info
Mythical Creatures Trail — Wells Cathedral. Family trail included with admission, daily 9am–4.30pm, runs to 1 September. More info
School Summer Holidays at The Bishop's Palace — Wells. Summer trails and activities throughout the holidays, included with admission. More info
The Unfurling — Art Exhibition by Leanne Ta'iki Anawa — Glastonbury Galleries, 10A High Street, Glastonbury. Free exhibition of paintings exploring myth and transformation, daily 11am–5pm, runs to 18 August. More info
Tuesday, 11 August
Wednesday, 12 August
🌒 Partial Solar Eclipse Viewing Party — 3pm–8.07pm, Wells Cathedral Green. Wells and Mendip Astronomers host a free public viewing party for the best partial solar eclipse the UK has seen since 1999, with filtered telescopes and eclipse glasses on hand so everyone can watch safely. First contact is expected around 6.16pm, with maximum coverage — roughly 93% of the sun — around 7.15pm, fading out by about 8.07pm. It's entirely weather dependent. We'll have a full feature on it in tomorrow's issue. More info
Wild Wednesdays — 10am–3pm, Somerset Earth Science Centre, Stoke St Michael. Forest-school summer club for ages 5–10, £16–£25. More info
Mini Beast Hunts — 2pm–4pm, Main Abbey, Glastonbury Abbey. Drop-in family mini beast hunt. More info
Thursday, 13 August
Pinocchio — Illyria — 6.30pm–9.30pm, Main Abbey, Glastonbury Abbey. Open-air musical theatre closing the summer season — see Hot News above.
History Alive: King Arthur and the Holy Fail — Bishop's Palace, Wells. Outdoor comedy theatre by The Three Inch Fools — see Hot News above.
Secret Supper Club at The Bishop's Palace — 7.30pm–9pm, Wells. Intimate candlelit dining evening behind the medieval drawbridge — see Featured Event above.
Family Activity: Outdoor Bug Game — 11am–1pm, Abbey Museum, Glastonbury Abbey. Drop-in family bug-hunting activity, included with admission. More info
Stories, Myths & Magic! — 11am, Yeast Scrapstore, Unit 7 Dyehouse Lane, Glastonbury. Weekly storytelling and craft session with Rainbow Roots CIC, £10 per child.
Badger Walks at Glastonbury Abbey — 7pm–9pm, Abbey House, Glastonbury Abbey. Late-summer evening badger walk. More info
Mini Beast Hunts — 2pm–4pm, Main Abbey, Glastonbury Abbey (continuing). More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6pm–7pm, Wells Market Place (meet near Penniless Porch). Weekly circular walk for women, finishing at Fosso Lounge. More info
Friday, 14 August
Bishop's Palace Summer Late Openings — 6pm–8pm (last entry 7.30pm), Wells. Evening opening with picnics welcome in the gardens, £8.75 adult/£4.40 child. More info
Mini Beast Hunts — 2pm–4pm, Main Abbey, Glastonbury Abbey (final day). More info
Beats 'n' Bites — 5.30pm–10pm, The Island, outside the Town Hall, Midsomer Norton. Live music and community feasting — bring your own food and drink, free entry.
Saturday, 15 August
The Devout — Depeche Mode Tribute — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Live tribute act. More info
Street House Mafia — 8pm, Glastonbury Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury. Live music night. More info
Glastonbury Plant-Based Market — 10am–4pm, Glastonbury. Local plant-based food and producers market from Kordia Events. More info
Glastonbury Repair Cafe — 10am–12pm, Scout Hut, Benedict Street, Glastonbury. Free community repair session — bring broken items along for volunteer repairers to try to fix.
The Jam'd Live at Studio 24 — Wells. Live music. More info
🗓️ Coming Up
The Toasters — Live at the Tree House — Cheese & Grain, Frome. Thursday 28 August.
Kinda Dusty Presents: Meatloaf by Candlelight — Wells Cathedral. Friday 28 August.
The Pirates of Penzance — Bishop's Palace, Wells. Friday 11 September.
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Wells Film Centre updates its schedule regularly through the summer — the website didn't have a current listing pulled at build time, so check the latest films and showtimes directly via the link below before booking.
Let us promote your event - FREE
Click Here for details
🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 11 August
It's a warm, mostly sunny week across Wells and the Mendips. Today (Tuesday) is sunny with a high of 27°C, climbing to 32°C on both Wednesday and Thursday under largely clear skies — the warmest spell of the week. It eases back to a more comfortable 25°C on Friday and 23°C on Saturday as breezier, slightly cloudier conditions move in. Stay hydrated and seek shade during the hottest midweek spell.
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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.
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