Good morning, Mendips! A hosepipe ban lands across Wells, Shepton, Glastonbury and Street from today, but there's still plenty to get out for — Meat Loaf by Candlelight lights up the cathedral tonight, Truckfest thunders into Shepton this weekend, and the Bank Holiday brings boats, bikers and medieval battles to the Mendips.

🎉 What Shall We Do For The Weekend? — Meat Loaf, Truckfest and a bank holiday of choice

📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — hosepipe ban · TG Jones closes · Street traffic worries

🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry

Jesus & Joe’s trip to Glastonbury

📆 What's On This Week — across the Mendips

🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast

It's a proper Bank Holiday weekend in the Mendips — one part gig guide, one part motorsport spectacular, one part medieval battlefield, with a splash of nostalgia and a charity ride-out thrown in for good measure.

Friday evening splits neatly in two. In Wells, a full cast of West End singers — several straight from the West End production of Bat Out of Hell — bring Meat Loaf by Candlelight to the cathedral, working through Bat Out of Hell, Anything For Love and Two Out of Three Ain't Bad by flickering candlelight. Doors are 6.45pm for a 7.30pm start — go for the big anthems and the setting as much as the tribute act itself, and dress warmly, cathedrals hold the chill even in August.

Over in Frome, ska pioneers The Toasters play Cheese & Grain's Tree House stage from 7pm — the louder, sweatier alternative for anyone who'd rather skank than sit still.

Saturday belongs to the bigger spectacles. Truckfest South West rolls into the Bath & West Showground for two days of American rigs, monster trucks and freestyle motocross — genuinely one for the whole family, especially anyone with a child who's ever asked what happens when a truck drives over a car (the answer, at Truckfest, is Swamp Thing finding out). Gates open 9am both days.

Over at the Bishop's Palace, History Alive: Bowlore Medieval sets up camp for the weekend with archery and combat re-enactment among the ruins — a quieter, more atmospheric alternative if the truck-crushing isn't your thing.

And in Glastonbury, bikers gather for RITS Day, the annual ride-out and family fun day held in memory of Lee Baker, raising money for the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance — sign-in for the ride closes at 10am, but the free family fun day at Tor Leisure runs from midday with stalls, food and live local bands well into the evening.

If you'd rather keep things low-key, the monthly Glastonbury Last Saturday Market in the Market Place is free to browse and a nice antidote to all the noise elsewhere.

Sunday is the day to slow down — Bowlore's medieval camp is still running at the Palace, and Frome gets one more night of music with Vicky Jackson: Pink at Cheese & Grain from 5.30pm.

Get out there and make the most of it — and don't put the kettle on with a hosepipe. Times, venues and the full day-by-day list, including Bank Holiday Monday's Wells Moat Boat Race, are all in the What's On This Week section below.

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A few days ago we declared that homes supplied by Bristol Water in Wells had escaped a hosepipe ban imposed by Wessex Water last week. That has now changed and Bristol Water's first hosepipe ban in decades came into force across parts of Wells, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury and Street yesterday, as the exceptionally dry summer continues to bite. Garden hoses, pressure washers and paddling pool refills are all off the table until further notice, with fines for anyone caught breaking the restrictions.

Bristol Water hosepipe ban info page

Wells's long-running TG Jones department store is set to close as part of a wider national restructuring by its parent company. Details on timing and what happens to the site are still emerging, but the news has already prompted a wave of nostalgia from shoppers who've grown up with it, formely WH Smith on the high street.

Read full story → (Wells Nub News)

Shepton Mallet's Dean Halliwell is due to complete his epic 260-mile fundraising run today, having already raised £850 towards water aid for a family in Gaza. The challenge has taken him across the county over recent weeks, and well-wishers are being encouraged to cheer him over the finish line.

Read full story → (Shepton Mallet Nub News)

Traders and councillors in Street have raised concerns over the closure of the B3151 Somerton Road, with worries the diversion signage is confusing and could be putting shoppers off the town centre. The closure is part of ongoing works, and calls are growing for clearer signage while it remains in place.

Read full story → (Glastonbury Nub News)

Somerset Council chiefs say scrapping free Sunday parking would make charges fairer across the county, with a decision expected before the end of the year. The move would affect car parks in Wells and the wider Mendips, and is likely to prove one of the more contentious changes on the table.

Read full story → (BBC Somerset)

If the Mendips and their fringes have a Champions League of myths, this one lifts the trophy. Somewhere between folklore and full-blown national mythology sits the claim that Joseph of Arimathea — the man who gave up his own tomb for Jesus — sailed to Somerset, planted his staff on Wearyall Hill, and founded Britain's first Christian church.

Some versions go further still, having young Jesus himself tag along on a Mendip lead-and-silver-buying trip during his "lost years." William Blake immortalised the idea in verse; Hubert Parry set it to music as "Jerusalem"; and now half of England hums a hymn built on a Somerset fishing tale.

Here's the twist: it's almost certainly a lovely invention, and a fairly late one. Joseph doesn't get mentioned at Glastonbury at all until around 1247, when a scribe quietly slipped him into a much older manuscript by William of Malmesbury — some 1,180 years after he supposedly waded ashore.

The fuller story, with Joseph's hidden tomb and vials of Christ's blood and sweat, only appears around 1340, courtesy of a monk called John of Glastonbury. No staff, no Holy Thorn, no Grail in the well yet — those all turn up later still, some not until the 1500s or, in the case of the young Jesus touring the tin mines, not until a Victorian folklorist printed a Cornish version in 1899.

None of this was idle storytelling. Glastonbury Abbey burned down in 1184, taking its relics and reputation with it. Seven years later, monks conveniently "discovered" King Arthur's grave — superb timing for a fundraising drive. Claiming an apostolic founder who'd known Christ personally was the next logical upgrade: instant seniority over every rival abbey in Christendom, and a pilgrim trail practically guaranteed.

It worked spectacularly. The legend turned a Somerset market town into one of medieval Europe's premier pilgrimage sites, later fuelled the Church of England's claim to independence from Rome, and by the twentieth century had reinvented Glastonbury again as the beating heart of British mysticism, tourism, and festival culture.

So no, there's no evidence Jesus ever admired the view from the Tor. But as a piece of world-class local marketing, spun by monks who understood the value of a good story eight centuries before content strategy was a job title, it remains unbeaten — and we salute it.

→ Full listings and booking at Wells Film Centre

🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 28 August 2026

Bank Holiday weekend brings a mixed bag: Friday sees sunny spells broken up by heavy, thundery showers blowing in from the west, with highs around 21°C. Saturday turns mostly cloudy with rain spreading in from the west — and a risk of thunder — before clearing by evening, and Sunday starts dry before thundery showers build through the afternoon, turning a little cooler. Bank Holiday Monday settles into lighter, showery rain with highs only in the high teens.

→ Full 7-day forecast on BBC Weather

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