Good morning, Mendips! It's a bank holiday Monday full of splashes and start-lines — the Wells Moat Boat Race and Bowlore's medieval finale both take over the Bishop's Palace, while Street's Shoemakers Museum turns one. Plus: the Strawberry Line is crowned Britain's Favourite Path, a defibrillator lands in Wells in memory of a much-loved councillor, and we look ahead to a week of gigs, workshops and heritage days out.
🗓️ What Shall We Do This Week? — bank holiday highlights and beyond
🔤 Uxbridge English Dictionary — today's entry
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style — Strawberry Line's big win · Wells' new defibrillator · Glastonbury's £200k play area
📅 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast
What Shall We Do This Week?
It's a bank holiday week to start, and the Mendips are making the most of the long weekend before September settles in. From medieval mayhem and a moat full of homemade boats to a birthday party for one of Street's newest museums, there's plenty to fill the extra day off — and the week beyond brings gigs, workshops and one of Glastonbury Abbey's gentler family sessions.
Monday itself is the big one. Over at The Bishop's Palace, Bowlore's bank holiday encampment wraps up with a final morning archery show and an afternoon of sword-and-buckler combat — good for anyone who likes their history loud, hands-on and slightly theatrical, kids included.
A short walk away, the Wells Moat Boat Race sends a fleet of homemade rafts around the Bishop's Palace moat in a fundraiser that's been a City of Wells Lions Club fixture since 2001, tracing its roots back to a dare between two vicarage sons in 1963 — go for the spectacle of things sinking at the start line as much as the racing itself.
Over in Street, A Big Day Out at the Shoemakers Museum marks the museum's first birthday with family activities, live music and a petting zoo — a gentler, free-with-admission option for families who'd rather not queue for a boat.
Tuesday and Wednesday are quieter — a good pair of days to catch the last chances on Wells Cathedral's Mythical Creatures trail and the Harry Brockway wood exhibition in Glastonbury before both close (see What's On below for details).
Thursday brings a genuine change of pace for music fans: Starsailor — the Chorley band behind Silence Is Easy and Four To The Floor, now marking 25 years since their breakthrough debut Love Is Here — play Frome's Cheese & Grain, a rare full-band outing for anyone who grew up on early-2000s indie radio.
Younger ones are better served earlier that day at Glastonbury Abbey's free Little Discoverers apple-printing session, while Wells' regular Walk & Wine Thursday offers a low-key evening stroll-and-sip for the grown-ups.
Friday rounds the week off with something for the hands rather than the ears: a beginner's broom-making workshop at Glastonbury Abbey's Abbey House, followed after dark by free live music from Timmy Thunderrock at The Kings Head in Wells.
Look further ahead and the weekend brings Glastonbury Abbey's 102nd Pilgrimage Weekend and the opening of Beyond Horizons at Wells & Mendip Museum, plus more Cheese & Grain gigs from Oas-is and Kula Shaker — plenty to plan around if this week doesn't quite fit. Whatever you choose, get out and make the most of the bank holiday. Times, venues and the full day-by-day list — including everything running quietly in the background this week — are all in the What's On This Week section below.
📰 Hot News - Mendips Style
🚶 Strawberry Line Crowned Britain's Favourite Path
The Strawberry Line — the old railway path running through Wells and Shepton Mallet on its way to the coast — has been named Britain's Favourite Path 2026 in an annual public vote run by the Ramblers and Postcode Lottery. More than 20 miles of the former Great Western Railway branch line, once used to carry local strawberries to market, now carries walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users year-round.
📊 Somerset Council Wins Top Marks For Financial Recovery
External auditors Grant Thornton have placed Somerset Council in the highest category for financial accounts recovery, giving confidence the council can regain a fully unqualified audit opinion by 2027/28. It follows a huge push to clear a backlog of accounts covering an 18-month period, with councillors calling it an encouraging sign the authority is heading in the right direction.
❤️ Wells Defibrillator Donated In Memory Of City Councillor
A life-saving defibrillator has been donated to Wells Town Hall in memory of the late Cllr Tony Robbins, a gift organised by fellow councillor Cllr Hobbs and his team. The Mayor accepted the donation alongside Cllr Georgie Robbins, representing her family, calling it a fitting and lasting tribute to a much-missed colleague.
🛝 Glastonbury Plans £200,000 Abbey Park Play Area
Glastonbury Town Council has launched a tender for a new inclusive play area at Abbey Park, with designs asked to draw on the town's Arthurian legends, dragons and stone circles. Residents get a big say too — a public consultation this September will count for 30% of the final decision, with the new play area due to open next April.
English Lessons from the
Uxbridge English Dictionary
P
Penitent
Extremely inexpensive camping equipment.
Perversion
The cat's story.
Phantom
To waft air over a male cat.
Piccalilli
To take a flower.
Pipette
A very small pip.
Pirate
A very angry pie.
The Worminster Dragon:
Wells' Very Own Monster Problem
Forget Loch Ness. The Mendips had a monster problem long before Scotland got famous for one — and ours came with a fifty-year curse attached.
Back in the 1200s, so the story goes, the villages of Dinder, Dulcote and North Wootton had a serious pest-control issue. A dragon was living up on the hill above Dinder, and it wasn't interested in sheep alone — it torched fields, terrorised livestock, and generally made life miserable for anyone within scorching distance. Naturally, the locals did what any sensible medieval Somerset village would do: they called the Bishop.
Enter Bishop Jocelyn of Wells, who apparently decided this was a one-man job. He rode out, told his men-at-arms to hang back at a safe distance, and went to have a word with the dragon himself. Depending on which version you're told, he finished it off with a lance, his bare hands, or — in the more theatrical retelling — a sacred sword borrowed from Glastonbury, aimed at a dragon said to have had the unsettling face of a woman. Whichever weapon you fancy, the dragon lost.
Here's where it gets properly good: this wasn't a "the end" kind of dragon. Before it died, it laid a curse — forget about it, and it comes back. Specifically, every fifty years, unless a left-handed clergyman re-enacts the slaying, the beast gets another shot at Dinder.
The villagers have taken this admirably seriously ever since, with the last big commemoration in 2001 (complete with a giant dragon model, paraded and dramatically set alight). Mark your diary: the next one's due in 2051.
It's not just a nice story, either — the monks apparently thought it worth writing down, and a document referencing the slaying is said to survive in Eton College's library, which is either wonderfully solid evidence or a very committed medieval prank.
Either way, the dragon left its mark on the map. Worminster and Worminster Sleight, the hill above Dinder, take their name from the Old English "wyrm" — dragon — and you can still spot a carved dragon in Dinder's parish church, plus a rather charming schoolchildren's mosaic of the beast set into the ground on the Moat Walk at the Bishop's Palace in Wells.
BEWARE! THE DRAGON OF WORMINSTER - Kate Rattray’s mosaic on Moat Walk, Wells
So next time you're walking that stretch between Wells and Dinder, glance up at Worminster Sleight. It's been quiet up there for a while now. Just make sure someone left-handed and ordained has 2051 in their calendar.
All week (31 Aug – 4 Sep)
Summer Fun on the Farm — Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury. Drop-in galleries, animals and Brockway-inspired crafts, Tuesday-Sunday, running until Friday 4 September. More info
School Summer Holidays at The Bishop's Palace — Wells. Splash Play Zone, Nature Ninjas crafts and the Dragon's Lair play area, running until Wednesday 2 September. More info
Mythical Creatures Trail — Wells Cathedral. Last chance to follow the dragon-and-griffin trail through the medieval library before it packs away on Tuesday 1 September. More info
Beats 'n' Bites — Somer Valley Rediscovered, Midsomer Norton. Free food-and-music evenings, 5.30-10pm, running until Friday 4 September. More info
Monday, 31 August
Wells Moat Boat Race — from late morning, Bishop's Palace Moat, Wells. Homemade-raft charity race in aid of local causes, run by the City of Wells Lions Club. More info
A Big Day Out: Celebrating One Year of Shoemakers Museum — 10am-3pm, The Grange, Street. First-birthday celebration with family activities, live music and a petting zoo, included with admission. More info
History Alive: Bowlore Medieval — final day, The Bishop's Palace, Wells. Archery show 10.30am, weapons show 2.15pm, plus have-a-go archery and a hands-on weapons and armour display. Included with admission. More info
Tuesday, 1 September
A quieter day on the calendar — see All week above for what's still running, including the last day of the Mythical Creatures Trail at Wells Cathedral.
Wednesday, 2 September
Another quiet one — it's also the last day for the Harry Brockway exhibition in Glastonbury and School Summer Holidays activities at The Bishop's Palace (see All week above).
Thursday, 3 September
Starsailor — 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. The Chorley band play a full-band show marking 25 years since their breakthrough debut Love Is Here. More info
Little Discoverers - Apple Harvest — 10.30-11.30am, Glastonbury Abbey. Free drop-in printmaking session for under-5s and their carers using windfall apples. More info
Walk & Wine Thursday — 6-7pm, Wells. Free weekly evening stroll finishing with a glass of wine. More info
Friday, 4 September
🗓️ Coming Up
Glastonbury Abbey Pilgrimage Weekend — Sat 5-Sun 6 September, Main Abbey. The 102nd annual Anglican and Catholic pilgrimages return to the abbey. More info
Beyond Horizons — opens Sat 5 September, Wells & Mendip Museum. New exhibition running through to 4 October. More info
Oas-is & Kula Shaker — Sat 5 / Sun 6 September, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Weekend double bill — an Oasis tribute followed by the Britpop favourites themselves. More info
🎬 This Week at Wells Film Centre
Mutiny [15]
Spider-Man: Brand New Day [12A]
Spa Weekend [15]
The End Of Oak Street [12A]
Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie [U]
The Pout-Pout Fish [PG]
Coyote Vs. Acme [PG]
Moana [PG]
Toy Story 5 [PG]
Minions & Monsters [U]
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🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 31 August 2026
Rain moves through on Monday and Tuesday before the week settles into a milder, showery pattern — expect highs of 19-22°C and lows in double figures right through to Friday. The best spells of sunshine look most likely on Thursday and Friday afternoons.
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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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