Issue 10 - Volume 20 - Mendip Times

Mendip Times

I N TH I S I S S U E :

HOMES & PROPERTY • HE A LTH & FA MI LY • STEAM’S UP

• WH AT’ S O N

• WILDLIFE

• RI D I N G

• SPORT

Welcome

WE’VEa real mix of youth and experience this month, featuring the sporting success of many youngsters.

There’s a nine-year-old making his name in the world of karting and school teams who have been successful in pistol shooting and basketball.

Then there’s the 60-year-old who won gold in an international judo competition, much to the delight of his younger teammates.

In other sport we have cycling as usual with Edmund Lodite, bowls and a special feature on a club for disabled sailors at Chew Valley Lake. We also preview the point-to-point season.

We report on the winners of a young musicians’ competition, meet a panto group with an average age of 84 and the rocking Lions of Wells!

The High Sheriff, Robert Beckley has been busy, including awarding medals to members of the Avon and Somerset Search and Rescue group.

One of Mendip’s best-known characters, Cliffy Pearce, is retiring – we profile his family business.

With all of our regular contributors and features, welcome to another busy slice of Mendip life.

April 2025 deadline: Friday 14th March

Published: Tuesday 25th March

Editorial:

Steve Egginton steve@mendiptimes.co.uk

Mark Adler mark@mendiptimes.co.uk

Advertising: advertising@mendiptimes.co.uk

Lisa Daniels lisa@mendiptimes.co.uk

What’s On listings: Annie Egginton annie@mendiptimes.co.uk

Accounts: accounts@mendiptimes.co.uk

Publisher: Mendip Times Limited

Coombe Lodge, Blagdon, Somerset BS40 7RG

Contacts: For all enquiries, telephone: 01761 463888 or email: news@mendiptimes.co.uk www.mendiptimes.co.uk

Design and origination by:

Steve Henderson

Printed by: Precision Colour Printing, Haldane, Halesfield 1, Telford, Shropshire TF7 4QQ

Front cover: Staff at East Somerset Railway. Photograph by Mark Adler. See page 82.

From main stage to bomb raid –top festival medic’s aid trip to Ukraine

SOMERSET

paramedic and international volunteer Nich Woolf has just returned from delivering a Festival Medical Services ambulance laden with medical supplies and equipment to war-torn Ukraine.

He drove the 1,600 miles through Europe and saw for himself the effects of the war on Ukrainian people when he was forced to join them in a bomb shelter during an air-raid.

Nich is Chair of Somerton-based Festival Medical Services, who run the medical services at Glastonbury and Reading music festivals and raise money for medical causes in Britain and around the world. He lives in Burnham-on-Sea.

The ambulance was serviced and prepared by FMS volunteers and packed with medical kit in Somerton prior to the trip. All the vehicles will be camouflaged ready for their future use. FMS, with generous support from UK donors, also obtained two 4X4 vehicles to be converted for frontline medical work in Ukraine.

Nich and three other volunteers drove the FMS ambulance through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland before crossing into Ukraine and on to the capital Kyiv, where they handed it over to a local surgeon.

It was on their way back that the team heard the air-raid sirens and sought shelter. Nich said: “The sound of the air raid sirens, and occasionally also of explosions, soon makes you realise this is not a normal city. There are also captured Russian armoured vehicles on the streets and photographs of those killed in the conflict on display.

“I was about to enter the railway station when the siren sounded and I was grabbed by a police officer, who pointed me down two flights of stairs to the shelter.”

Nich, aged 72, who was awarded the British Empire Medal for his volunteering work in 2020, said: “It was a very cold, and sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes frustrating experience, but it was obvious that the Ukrainian medical services have a very great need for what we were bringing over to them, which made it all worthwhile.

“I have always believed in using my skills to help other people keep safe and have fun – as at Glastonbury Festival – or to help them improve their own skills and ability to keep their local population safe and well, and am very pleased to be still doing that.”

Peace poster

“PEACE Without Limits” was the theme for the 202425 Lions International Peace Poster contest.

1st Cheddar Guides, sponsored by Cheddar Vale Lions Club, submitted 15 entries and the winning entry from Saoirse Cox was entered in the national competition.

Saoirse’s quote to accompany her poster also impressed the judges: “From the soil to the sea and up to the sky, no matter who or where you are, we all deserve peace.”

Details: www.cheddarvalelions.org.uk

Volunteers honoured

VOLUNTEERS from Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue (ASSAR) have received medals to mark His Majesty King Charles' coronation from the High Sheriff of Somerset, Rob Beckley QPM.

The 20 volunteers all have at least five years’ service. Typically, they get asked by the police to help search for highrisk, missing and vulnerable people in rural areas and on steep or difficult ground.

They also help rescue people, and sometimes animals, from cliffs such as Cheddar and Avon gorges.

Team leader, Jim Hardcastle, said: “It's a real honour to be recognised in this way for our role helping the local communities we live in. We're all volunteers who drop what we're doing, anytime of the day or night, when the callout comes.

“So, for all the individuals involved this is a very special moment to be publicly thanked and recognised for the sacrifice.”

The ceremony was held at the Mendip Activity Centre who have been great supporters over the years.

Nich (right) hands over the ambulance to the Ukraine emergency services

Maisey’s trip of a lifetime

MAISEY Fellows, aged 13, from Keinton Mandeville, is busy fundraising for a trip to Costa Rica, where she will be doing environmental work.

She’s raised more than £1,000 so far by making felt decorations with her nan, Christmas tree collections, a raffle and cake day with friends and other events.

On March 1st she’s holding a curry and quiz night at Keinton Mandeville village hall, with free drinks for children and a bar for adults.

But the biggest fundraiser is a sponsored swim at Strode leisure centre, swimming 121 kilometres, equivalent to the width of Costa Rica.

Maisey, a pupil at Anstey Academy, said: “This is a trip of a lifetime for me, offered through my school and run by Camp International, who work all over the world, helping communities, wildlife and protecting the environment.

“I will be living in the heart of the rainforest working alongside conservationists and the local people, to protect the natural environment.

“I will be learning about innovative and sustainable solutions to environmental issues, whilst getting fully involved in inspiring projects.

“For example, we will be helping to build new houses for the local community, cleaning beaches to protect the marine life and providing means for fresh water for the surrounding villages.”

Details: https://www.gofundme.com/f/zrk7d-camp-costa-rica-expedition • https://www.campsinternational.com/

Repairers are getting younger

STUDENTS in Somerset are learning new “green” skills thanks to Somerset Council and its waste collections contractor SUEZ recycling and recovery UK.

Team Repair, a company committed to reducing electronic waste and increasing STEM career take up, will be running a 12-week course at five of the county’s schools.

The lessons give students hands-on experience learning repair skills, teaching them to carefully take the item apart, diagnose the fault, understand the components and fix it to end up with a working gadget.

Students will learn to repair a microscope, games console, torch and a remote-control car and explore the science behind the gadgets. Students from Sexey’s School in Bruton have been the first to take on the new challenge, and a further four schools in Somerset, and one Somerset Youth Group, will also benefit from a twelve-week Team Repair sponsorship.

The Team Repair sessions are being funded from the SW:EEP fund. This uses ring-fenced income from the sale of recyclable materials to support projects that reduce waste and benefit the community.

Councillor Richard Wilkins, Executive Member for Transport and Waste Services, said: “Buying new and throwing away things that no longer work massively adds to the climate crisis.

“The things we use everyday are filled with valuable materials, including gold and copper, loving our things for longer stops this from going to waste.

“The opportunity to get a hands-on experience to learn repair skills and get young people interested in STEM is a really positive way to tackle the e-waste issue.”

Village focus on nature

ACROSS2025, the Chew Valley village of Regil will be holding a Year of Nature. The aim is to bring the community together to champion local species and wildlife and celebrate our local, rural landscape. Villagers have planned a series of events across the year and welcome all to attend.

So far, 26 bird boxes have been built and decorated to hang up around the village in time for the nesting season, the Regil Big Garden Bird Watch was held as part of the RSPB’s national scheme, and a village fun-run got residents out and active in the cold winter months to explore the local fields and lanes.

The rest of the year is set to be busy with bat activities, moth trapping, dawn chorus walks, bulb planting, a big village camp out and more. Regil has a number of orchards and they will feature heavily across the year.

Orchards are not only part of the village’s heritage but are

also vitally important for wildlife. On January 31st, the village welcomed local naturalist, Nick Gates, to talk about his experiences and observations during the seven-plus years he spent studying and regenerating an ancient orchard in Herefordshire.

In autumn, there will be a revival of the traditional Apple Day when the community comes together to make cider using an old village press and then winter will see a wassail around the orchards.

One of the key objectives of the Year of Nature is to bring together different skills and knowledge from across the community, both local and further afield.

Members of the committee hope to facilitate conversations about and demonstrations of a whole host of wildlife friendly skills and activities; wildflower sowing, composting, helping a healthy pond, companion planting, hedge-laying, apple grafting etc.

We’d love to open an invitation to join our Year of Nature to the wider community and welcome anyone with a specialist knowledge in all thing’s nature and wildlife, or those interested in learning more, to join us and get involved.

GEORGIE DUCKWORTH

Wildlife is the winner in Wells

A THREE-way collaboration between volunteers and a wildlife charity has seen the much-needed restoration of a wildlife pond on the edge of Wells.

The pond is in the garden of the mental health charity Heads Up in South Horrington and St Cuthbert Out parish council and Wells City Council stepped in with grants to fund the Somerset Wildlife Trust work by 14 volunteers.

Matt Collis, a professional ecologist from Somerset WT, said: “Given the size of the task and limited time, it’s testament to the unwavering enthusiasm of the volunteers who helped me restore and transform this keystone feature of the garden.”

Phillipa Forsey, of Heads Up, added: “We are delighted with the success of this project, the involvement of the community and the benefits it will bring our clients. Our thanks go to everyone who made it possible.”

Bird box building

Orchids and wild flowers

Matt Collis (far) left with volunteers at the pond

What’s sauce for the goose . . .

MANYof us have a scary goose story, usually remembered from childhood and about being chased by a vicious goose or two, probably the male, a gander. I would like to put a different perspective to the story. Geese have such endearing behaviour towards each other that we might do well to emulate them. They live in strongly bonded groups (gaggles) and look after each other. They also form lifelong pair bonds within the group. When a goose dies there is a period of bereavement especially if it is a partner of one of the geese. The survivor will isolate itself and stay where the partner died for some time returning again and again.

Geese have a daily routine. The first act of the day is to wash thoroughly. They look after their many, many feathers by ducking and splashing themselves with water flying everywhere. All the better if there is a pond but buckets will do. Then comes a long grooming period where seemingly every single feather is cleaned and put in place.

Only then will it be feeding time, just grass though treats such as lettuce and grain are welcomed. Geese like to rest several times during the day with their heads tucked in amongst their feathers BUT there is always one goose on guard.

All the time conversations are going on. Geese communicate with each other with sounds ranging from gentle cooing to chatter and honking (if there is perceived danger). Body language is important too for example head bowing to each other as a welcome and neck rubbing as affection.

Geese are great at teamwork, no more so than when goslings are

Improving tree cover

THEWestbury Community Tree Group has always tried to plant “the right tree in the right place” and to keep the activities of seed gathering and distribution of the young trees it produces within a radius of ten miles.

One of the species that the volunteers have found particularly challenging to source is rare wych elm, which is a different species to English elm and far more resistant to Dutch elm disease.

around. A female lays a clutch of eggs which she needs to brood for one month. This is the time when ganders may become aggressive as they defend the females, nest or goslings but if you do not encroach on their boundary line all will be well!

This is when ganders get tough. Eric, my gander, will not tolerate intruders in his domain even perceived ones,

The geese may take a day indoors to organise themselves and then with much trumpeting there is an emergence of geese with their goslings all in a row. None are allowed to step out of line. If there is a pond the goslings are introduced immediately to water.

If there are several parents with goslings a creche develops with one female in charge whilst the others have a chance to relax, preen or whatever they choose to do. The goslings are free to snuggle under any goose or gander when tired though mum is most popular.

Geese are good for the environment. They rely on grass as their main food and so keep lawns under control during the early part of the year without using machinery. They also keep grass and weeds down in orchards and paddocks.

They do not need expensive feed that is costly to the environment and they are very long-lived, my favourite goose lived to be 30. By the way, their eggs are delicious for making omelettes and cakes and for decorating (Faberge). The yolks are strong tasting and one goose egg is approximately equivalent to two large chicken eggs.

A few years ago the CommunityTree

Nursery was lucky enough to gain permission from Natural England to collect wych elm seed from Ebbor Gorge nature reserve. This was successfully propagated and grown on into small trees over the succeeding two years.

Now a healthy new stock of wych elm has been returned to its natural home in the reserve.

Since its inception in June 2000 the

Tree nursery volunteers

nursery has grown and planted nearly 5,500 trees that are now helping to improve tree cover in the local area.

DIANA REDFERN

Standing guard

Goslings emerge

(Photograph courtesy of Tina Wescott)

Causes for concern –quite apart from the weather

I ALWAYSlook forward to this time of year. The countryside starts coming to life after its winter’s rest, cows are let out to graze, baby lambs can be seen scooting around the fields and field operations start in earnest. There are always challenges, the weather seems to be the main one, but farmers are a creative breed and always find ways of addressing whatever might arise.

This year, however, there is a darker cloud than the weather can summons. Aside from the Inheritance Tax debacle being played out in the media with tractor rallies around the country there are many other issues which are affecting British agriculture. Not least smuggling meat into the UK.

The BBC recently reported a total of 100 tonnes of illegal meat was discovered at Dover in 2024. This was more than 75 percent up on what was seized in 2023. So far in 2025, 25 tonnes was discovered in January in adapted vehicles and coaches without passengers and anther four tonnes in the first two days of February.

It seems with Dover Port import officials only operating at 20% this could be just the tip of the iceberg. Media sources suggest this illegally imported meat has found its way onto high streets across the UK with little problem. As well as impacting on British farmers’ businesses it is a potential source of disease.

With the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in Germany and African Swine Fever in other parts of Europe there is a real risk of disease being smuggled into the UK in the meat. UK farmers, food companies and retailers operate under a raft of regulations and rules.

We met with an MP recently and this was one of the issues addressed. There was acceptance that not enough was being done to stop illegal meat coming into the country. He acknowledged that more funding was required to do a better job. Now is the time more than ever to engage with your MP.

If he or she is in Government we should make our voice heard directly. If they are in opposition, I am sure they will relish the opportunity to challenge Government in the House of Commons or committee room somewhere. It’s not just about food, farming and the environment which is my particular interest.

With NICK GREEN

Nick Green is Farms Director for Alvis Bros Ltd based at Lye Cross Farm. As well as the business, he is involved with a number of local and national farming charities.

Animal Feeds and Bedding

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Fir Tree Business Park, High Road, Galhampton, Somerset, BA22 7BH sales@galhamptoncountrystore.co.uk

The Mendip Mindbender

1 Classic variety from 10 Across (7)

5 Mudgley 11 Across (7) 9 Highest mountain framed in serene vista (5) 10 Sandford 11 Across (9) 11 Producer of apple-based beverage (10) 12 Produce of 22 Across (4)

Simple stair I reconstructed for Empire-builders (12) 18 Reconciled for re-run of American sitcom (7,5)

21 Backing European top speed (4)

22 Product of 11 Across (10)

25 One of seven (9)

26 Unrefined product of 11 Across (5)

27 Mel read about precious stone (7)

28 Redhill 11 Across (7)

1 Directions to get into failing Italian city (6)

2 American State (6)

3 Torments as mishmash (10)

4 Over and wide (5)

5 Flagging (9)

6 Good fortune (4)

7 Perfectionist Delia cooked first (8)

8 Anxiety gets senses up all over the place (8)

13 So derelict ruinously sheltered (10)

15 Gullible (6,3)

16 Toffs pie ingredients gone astray (3-5)

17 Follower (8)

19 Capacity for loudness (6)

20 Hereford 11 Across embraces first of easy measures (6)

23 Hundred at Church could be a problem (5)

24 Hebridean Island (4)

By Fairlight

Cryptic Clues are in italics

Grants support the environment and communities

THEMendip Hills Fund was able to make grants to nine projects this year, with a total of £9,125 awarded to projects that help the environment and community across the Mendip Hills.

Grants were awarded for restoring heritage fingerposts in Butcombe, helping vulnerable people volunteer and create new areas for wildlife, protecting a heritage trail exhibit in Axbridge, assisting people from diverse backgrounds enjoy the Mendip Hills, improving school grounds for wildlife and a contribution to energy efficient heating in the Cheddar Visitor Information Centre.

Jim Hardcastle, manager of the Mendip Hills National Landscape said: “The panel of local people who make the decisions are thrilled to see the number of children and local people who will benefit from the grants.

“Visitors and local businesses are delighted to contribute to the fund when they see how helpful a local grant scheme like this can be. It's been a difficult year raising money for the Mendip Hills Fund which is why we've only been able to distribute £9125 this year despite having applications worth over £25,000.”

Kirsty Campbell, Programmes Manager at Somerset

Community Foundation, which administers the scheme, said:

“It's fantastic that the Mendip Hills Fund is able to support such great projects and organisations, helping both communities and the environment –which so often benefit each other."

Funds are raised thanks to gifts from businesses, events and visitors who wish to give something back to this very special area, helping to conserve and enhance the special qualities of the Mendip Hills, and benefit local communities.

MendipHills-nl.org.uk/caring/mendip-hills-fund

With KATY BEAUCHAMP

Lent us your leftovers

Pancake time can be anytime and not just for Shrove Tuesday and the start of Lent. For many people, it’s a supremely devout time of sacrifice and contemplation as we head towards Easter. From a food and drink point-ofview – and that’s why I’m here – it’s also an ideal opportunity to take stock –literally – and clear out those leftover bits and pieces!

CABBAGE AND CORN PATTIES

Thrifty times: don’t chuck the Sunday cabbage!

I made these one day when I had a load of cooked cabbage leftover.

METHOD

Combine everything thoroughly, in a bowl and then put large dollops of mixture into a medium frying pan and pat down so they are flattish. Fry gently on both sides until golden brown. Serve with roast potatoes and vegetables, if desired.

AVOCADO FREEZER PANCAKES

Make and freeze: overripe avocado offers a great base for pancakes

I had a couple of avocados that needed eating, so I made a batch of thick pancakes and froze them. Ideal for a quick brunch topped with beans or eggs.

METHOD

Whizz all the ingredients in a blender or whisk well by hand. Fry these really gently - they are rather fragile –until lightly browned both sides. They may be creamy in the middle but that’ll be the avocado. Serve stacked up with your favourite fillings; here, I’ve used smoked salmon and cream cheese.

INGREDIENTS

(Makes 10 small patties or three big ones)

175 grams cooked cabbage

100g sweetcorn

75g grated cheese

2 eggs

100gr self raising flour

INGREDIENTS

(Makes 12)

2 large avocados

2 eggs

200ml milk

150g flour

Tsp garlic granules

Salt and pepper

BANANA WHEELS

These banana-based wheels will slip down well with a cuppa

This is another recipe made from something that needed eating up immediately.

METHOD

Unroll the pastry and smooth chosen spread over the top. Lay the bananas in rows along the pastry leaving a gap of about 2cm between each row.

Roll up the pastry, with the banana rows being horizontal in front of you. Lay the slices on a baking tray and cook for 15/20 minutes at 180˚C. These are delicious hot or cold.

INGREDIENTS

(Makes 10-12)

1 sheet of ready made puff pastry

3/4 sliced ripe bananas

50g approx curd or spread (e.g. lemon, chocolate, peanut butter, Biscoff)

All change in Chew Magna

Cliff and son Mark

CLIFF Pearce and his family are selling their butchery business, WJ Pearce and Sons, in Chew Magna. It had been in the family for more than 100 years.

New owner, Dave Kelly, plans to maintain and upgrade the traditional butcher’s shop, while basing his wholesale meat business there. That will mean taking on five additional staff.

Cliff’s grandfather, Clifford Henry Pearce, started the shop after serving in WWI before handing over to Cliff’s father, Jack.

Cliff, aged 72, started working with him in the shop 56 years ago. Son Mark

and daughter Sarah joined as the fourth generation in the business.

He said: “I’m pleased to see it’s

going to be in good hands.”

Dave Kelly, aged 37, has been in the trade his whole working life and was a

partner in Ruby and White in Clifton until Christmas.

He supplies up to 30 local pubs and restaurants including Bath Rugby. He and Bath hooker, Tom Dunn, also have a hog roast business.

He said: “We want to keep the shop’s character, charm and traditional elements, while giving it a bit of a facelift.

“The location appeals to me, with so many local farms on our doorstep the food miles involved will be negligible.”

He and his partner Karolina live in Wilmington, between Priston and Marksbury.

Cliff and Dave

Founder Clifford Henry Pearce

Cliff with his father Jack

Hidden places

THE weather has been at extremes recently –high winds, rain, snow, wind, fog and a smattering of freezing rain. These conditions are not helped by that wind chill lowering the temps by a few degrees making it feel even colder still! As Les Davies likes to say, it’s “two coats weather”! This has led to many simply giving up and staying indoors. And who could blame them.

Yet, with all the challenging weather, there are the first green shoots of the springtime yet to come. Crazy as it may seem, I have spotted chives popping their little green tips up out of grassy verges and the first tentative daffodil shoots are looking for light.

The snowdrops are now well established. But it’s in the more sheltered areas out of the worst of the cold wind where the lack of leaves means you can really see what might otherwise be hidden. At this magical time of year, it is in these hidden places we find our bitter Winter Greens.

Ground ivy (Glechoma hederecea) is a perennial plant, growing 10 to 20cm in height. Soft, hairy, with creeping and rooting stems, the leaves are in opposite pairs, hairy, heart or kidney shaped, with rounded scalloped edges on stalks. The flowers in whorls of two to four (appearing March onwards) are a deep violet colour with dark spots, with a larger lower petal, 15 to 25mm long.

It gets its common name from its low, creeping habit similar to real Ivy and has an intense, oily, almost mint-like (but not quite) smell. Ground ivy is a member of the mint family of plants which explains its strong aromatics and has a square stem (it’s fun to roll it around between thumb and forefinger) to aid identification. Sadly, its flavour, in my opinion, doesn’t live up to its pungent aroma and can be quite bitter. The bitterness is used for cleansing the system and that is just what is needed after the indulgence of the festive season.

To be fair, these examples are probably left over from last year which may explain the less than favourable description, new growth is marginally more bearable. The best way to enjoy this, if you can call it that, is steeped for a few minutes in hot water with the necessary dollop of honey to sweeten. You’ll need it.

Adrian Boots is a Landscape Ecologist and expert forager running wild food forays, events and activities. Please visit: www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk for more information or email him at: hello@hedgerowcottage.co.uk

GARDEN FOOD

Time to start sowing

OUTSIDE, my favourite job in March is to run a rake lightly through surface compost. That breaks the lumps, already softened by frost, and disturbs weed seeds that are now germinating into tiny seedlings, out of sight. An old saying is “an ounce of dust in March is worth an ounce of gold”. Partly it’s from farmers wanting to cultivate their soil, for which they needed access with a tractor or horses before that.

In a garden context, no dig is wonderful because we have not broken the structure of soil and therefore it continues to support our weight, even after heavy rain. We have access 100% of the time, and plants stay healthy.

I've noticed this a lot through winter, when harvesting vegetables in wet weather and the soil bears my weight. Despite being saturated, it’s in good shape, structurally speaking.

Now it’s spring and we can profit from the wonderful improvements in light levels between early and late March. Even though it happens every year, I still find it remarkable! Whether the temperature rises, nobody knows in advance, but light increase is constant.

Exciting new sowings include tomatoes under cover, whose seedlings are impressively hardy to cool conditions. While cucumbers are emphatically not, so wait until mid-April before you sow them and courgettes for that matter.

Celeriac is a great sowing for the middle of March. Drop seeds on top of pre-wetted potting mix in a small tray, with glass over to retain the moisture. They need light to germinate, as do celery seeds. Prick seedlings to module cells after two weeks.

If you do not have undercover space, then by late March, you can sow outside any of carrots, parsnips, peas, broad beans, onions, spring onions, lettuce, early potatoes and spinach. If you cover with fleece after sowing, that will help seedlings to get going.

Also to protect them from birds, but not from the big elephant in the room, slugs. Last year I sowed carrots three times and it wasn't until after the April 11th sowing that seedings grew well.

The result was good with less time lost than I had expected. I was pulling the first carrot thinnings by June 13th, just nine weeks after sowing.

Charles Dowding has made no dig popular with millions of readers and viewers. Currently he grows vegetables in Somerset. He has written 14 books and gives talks plus courses at home and abroad.

With ADRIAN BOOTS

With CHARLES DOWDING

So proud of what we have done

IT’S not an exaggeration to boast that the heart of Alhampton is beating again with the reopening of our beloved Alhampton Inn.

We’re sticking to the ethos of being a genuine pub, welcoming all. We really want anyone to be able to come in and feel that it’s a place for them. That’s allowed us to fulfil our mission for the community and to be a buzzing venue for people to socialise.

Our eclectic mix of great street food vendors, all lovely and too numerous to mention, has been augmented by the arrival of our resident chef, Ross Derby. This model has allowed us to bring variety and affordability and the chance for people to experiment. Meanwhile, Ross is really top class and all his skills and experience are evident as he serves up sumptuous Sunday roasts as well as a brilliant brunch in addition to special events like Burns Night and event dinners.

We have a steady stream of events and clubs like live music and the famous “Parlez-vous Ally?” where absolute debutants are given a conversational helping hand . . . just turn up and an

option to treat shyness is a glass of wine.

Of course the pub is mostly a place to meet and with plenty of discreet places like the canopy in the garden with the big log burner, the roaring fires in the bar and lounge, the get-away-fromit-all upstairs and the terrace out front.

There’s always a place to mingle or tuck yourself away. The local community is really happy that the heart of the village is beating again . . . the lights and sounds are a magnet.

Julia Burks, Chairperson, Alhampton Inn

Fun down on the farm

THECommunity Farm above Chew Valley Lake entertained a large crowd for its annual wassail. Instead of a wassail queen and king, they chose a wassail baker and brewer.

Making a noise

The Baker crowns the Brewer

The event attracted big crowds

Musicians from Three Hares Farm

An appreciative audience

Midsomer Norton Wassail

MIDSOMER Norton’s annual wassail drew large crowds, starting at the new Market Square on The Island, followed by a procession to the Town Park. It was run by Somer Valley Rediscovered, Bath & North East Somerset Council and Midsomer Norton Community Trust.

(Photography courtesy of Bath and North East Somerset Council)

Frome Street Bandits

The Langport Mummers

Master of ceremonies Trevor Hoddinott

Cam Valley Morris

Chew Valley Arts Trail is back

AFTER taking a break for the first time in 21 years, the Chew Valley Arts Trail will be back bigger and better than ever, over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday October 11th and 12th.

Application forms will shortly be available for anyone who lives or works in the Chew Valley and there has already been interest expressed by new exhibitors, who want to join in the event.

Hundreds of visitors regularly turn out to view the wide range of creativity on show in venues across the Valley. They will be able to appreciate painting and drawing of all kinds, photography, jewellery, sculpture and a range of crafts.

Organiser, Sandy Bell, said: “I am really pleased that in addition to our regular participants, we will be involving a number of new faces in 2025 who are keen to take part.

“Fingers crossed that the weather is kind to us and visitors can really enjoy a great day in the Valley, visiting studios but also travelling through the countryside, and possibly stopping off for a tea break or lunch in our pubs and cafes.”

Details: Sandy at tintinna@aol.com • 01275 333128

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BECKINGTON

BISHOP SUTTON

BLACKFORD

BLAGDON

BLEADON

BRENT KNOLL

BRISTOL

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

BROCKLEY

BRUTON

BUCKLAND DINHAM

BURCOTT

BURNHAM-ON-SEA

BURRINGTON

BUTLEIGH

CAMERTON

CASTLE CARY

CHARTERHOUSE

CHEDDAR

CHELYNCH

CHEW MAGNA

CHEW STOKE

CHEWTON MENDIP

CHILCOMPTON

CHURCHILL CLANDOWN CLEEVE CLUTTON COCKLAKE COLEFORD

COMPTON DANDO

COMPTON DUNDON

COMPTON MARTIN

CONGRESBURY COXLEY CRANMORE CROSCOMBE CROSS DITCHEAT DOULTING DRAYCOTT

DUNDRY

EAST HARPTREE

EASTON

EAST PENNARD

EMBOROUGH EVERCREECH FARMBOROUGH

FARRINGTON GURNEY

FAULKLAND

FELTON FROME

GALHAMPTON

GLASTONBURY

GREEN ORE

GURNEY SLADE

Photo exhibition

THEmedia charity Somerset Film are inviting anyone under the age of 25 and living in Somerset to submit up to three images for consideration for a planned showcase at The Engine Room in Bridgwater this August.

One image, selected by their panel of judges, which celebrates the environment or highlights climate change, will also receive the Robert Richards Award.

The award is in memory of their former chair of trustees, Robert Richards, who worked at Glastonbury Festival with Michael Eavis and was also a trustee for Glastonbury Abbey. Entries close on May 31st.

Somerset Film is also offering a Somerset-based artist the chance to become the Artist in Residence at The Engine Room from mid-June to mid-September 2025.

Open to artists from Somerset working in any medium –including visual arts, performance, dance, music, sound art, and the written word – this residency encourages the integration of digital ideas into existing creative practices.

Details: info@somersetfilm.com • 01278 433187

HALLATROW

HIGH LITTLETON

HINTON BLEWETT

HOLCOMBE

HUNSTRETE

HUTTON

KEINTON MANDEVILLE

KILMERSDON

LANGFORD

LEIGH on MENDIP

LITTON

LONG ASHTON

LOXTON

LYDFORD ON FOSSE

LYMPSHAM

MARK

MARKSBURY

MASBURY

MELLS

MIDSOMER NORTON

NAILSEA

NORTON MALREWARD

NORTON ST PHILIP

NUNNEY

NYLAND

OAKHILL

PAULTON

PENSFORD

PILTON

POLSHAM

PRIDDY

PYLLE

RADSTOCK

REDHILL

REGIL

RICKFORD

RODE

RODNEY STOKE

ROOKSBRIDGE

ROWBERROW

RUDGE

SANDFORD

SHEPTON MALLET

SHIPHAM

SOMERTON

STANTON DREW

STANTON WICK

STOKE ST MICHAEL

STON EASTON

STONE ALLERTON

STRATTON ON THE FOSSE

STREET

TARNOCK

TEMPLE CLOUD

TIMSBURY

TRUDOXHILL

TYTHERINGTON

UBLEY

UPHILL

WALTON

WANSTROW

WEARE

WEDMORE WELLOW

WELLS

WEST HARPTREE

WESTBURY SUB MENDIP

WHITCHURCH

WINFORD

WINSCOMBE

WITHAM FRIARY

WOOKEY

WOOKEY HOLE

WRINGTON

WRITHLINGTON

YATTON

= Mendip Times Distribution area

Salerooms’ call to arms

POCKET pistols have a long and established history, starting from the early days of handguns and evolving to meet the needs of concealability, personal defence, and convenience. These small, easily concealable firearms became particularly popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The earliest pocket pistols appeared in Europe in the 16th century and were small, single-shot firearms. They were often flintlock or matchlock designs and were typically carried by military officers or nobility for personal defence. These pistols, however, weren’t particularly practical, due to their slow reload and their large size.

The 19th century ushered in the “Percussion Cap Era” which made handguns more reliable and faster to reload. This was an important development for the pocket pistol, as smaller, easierto-conceal revolvers and pistols began to gain popularity.

Samuel Colt's 1836 patent for the revolver had a huge impact on firearms design. His guns were easier to carry, and their sixshot capacity made them more useful for self-defence.

The collecting field for 18th and 19th century pistols still proves popular with bidders at the salerooms, where we

usually have a variety on offer in our Quarterly Specialist Sales.

Some recent examples include a pair of 54 bore flintlock brass barrelled pocket pistols by E. Joseph & Co., Liverpool, which sold for £480, a George III flintlock boxlock muff pistol by “Goodwin” (Goodwin, George & Co, Birmingham gunmakers, 1807-1818), which sold for £240, and a .36 inch calibre London Colt model 1851 Navy Revolver, selling over estimate for £1,050.

Consignments of arms and militaria are welcome for our March 13th Spring Specialist Sale, with entries closing four weeks prior.

With HENRY MICHALLAT

Pair of 54 bore flintlock brass barrelled pocket pistols by E. Joseph & Co., Liverpool, sold in September for £480

Let’s see how this develops

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Mid Somerset Camera Club is not resting on its laurels with the Street-based club continuing to serve the needs of photography enthusiasts of all levels of experience. Leading member Ray Tyner explains more.

MAINTAINING a successful camera club in a world with so many other distractions and priorities can be a real challenge. It’s a challenge that the club has embraced and it looks to have a bright future.

The club started life as Street Camera Club in 1974, when workers from Clarks came together to buy camera film in bulk. As it expanded its ambitions, the club changed its name to Mid Somerset Camera Club. It is currently based at the Victoria pub in Street.

Post-Covid, the club looked to refresh itself and provide a wide range of activities, from presentations to practical photo opportunities. Topics for presentations – from outside speakers and from club members – have included a talk and debate on the influence of Artificial Intelligence, a look at how the world of painting can be an inspiration for photographers, impressionist techniques, and mobile phone photography.

These have been complemented by more traditional talks including sports photography, close-up photography and wildlife – a genre where the club has a number of highly regarded specialists.

But it’s not all talk! Practical evenings on

a variety of themes are a mainstay, often having a follow-up session, where members can show their results and the learning points can be shared.

It is not surprising that nature and wildlife photography features highly in the photos taken by members, many of these images have featured strongly in club and national competitions. Alongside landscape photography these are probably the most common themes in the club’s output. However, club members have a broad range of interests, and most photographic genres are evident in the club’s work, including portraits, cityscapes and street photography –

capturing candid moments of everyday life.

Additionally, some club members are more experimental and look to use different techniques to generate images of a more abstract feel. And, despite the digital age, the use of vintage film cameras still prevails.

Whilst many members have gained photographic qualifications, the club recognises that not all members wish to go that route. Those that do are encouraged and their success is celebrated. For others there are plenty of opportunities to improve their skills and to showcase their achievements.

For details, visit: www.midsomersetcameraclub.org.uk

Club members at Rockaway Park, Temple Cloud, on a photoshoot

Rialto Fish Market Porter, Venice. Peter Anscombe

Grebe With Tench. Carolyn Moore LRPS

(Photograph by John Law, LRPS and club chairman)

Curated interiors, Japanese Cloisonné and

collector’s

car auctions

PRIVATE collections of high calibre items lead the forthcoming Curated Interiors auction on 12 March.

The Collection of Hemington House features high quality pieces of furniture, pictures, prints, Asian works of art and more. Chinese Haan and Tang statues, a life-size Burmese buddha and lovely antique English furniture.

Paintings from the Collection of the late Andrew Guy Thomson also feature in the auction, including striking old masters such as “St John the Evangelist”, studio of Carlo Dolci, estimated at £4,500 –£5,500.

The Alan Bostock Collection of Fine Japanese Works of Art will be offered on March 19 and features a wide selection of cloisonné wares. The technique of creating a design out of metal ribbon which is filled with coloured enamels provides a highly intricate decoration. Within the auction are some outstanding examples, including a fine cloisonné box and cover attributed to Namikawa Yasuyuki, a widely appreciated cloisonné master, offered at £1,500 –£2,500.

Our Motoring team continue to grow their partnership auctions, with the second of the year coming up on March 29 at Five Zeros Supercars in Bradford-on-Avon. Head of Motoring, Nick Wells, and his team are presenting a wide selection of classic and collector’s cars alongside automobilia. This auction builds on the December auction at Five Zeros where a 1984 Land Rover Defender D110 Arkonic Custom led the pack selling for £110,000 (including fees). Contact Nick to discuss selling your collector’s car and motoring memorabilia.

Our market leading Fine Asian Art auctions will be held in May and November. Jewellery, Watches and Silver auctions are scheduled for June and November. Please get in touch if we can assist with appraisal of items and offering your items at auction, our friendly team a ready to help – email us at enquiries@doreandrees.com or call on 01373 462257.

We look forward to seeing you at the Dore & Rees auction salerooms.

UPCOMING AUCTIONS

Curated Interiors including the Hemington House Collection –12 March

The Alan Bostock Collection of Japanese Works of Art –19 March

Automobilia and Collector’s Cars –29 March

Select Interiors –25 April

Fine Asian Art –19 May

ENGLISH SCHOOL (18TH CENTURY), GREENWICH FROM THE THAMES ESTIMATE: £7,000 - £10,000

CURATED INTERIORS

WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH 2025 9.30am

VIEWING Saturday 8 – Tuesday 11 March 10:00am – 4:00pm At The Silk Mill Gallery, Marchants Barton, Saxonvale, Frome BA11 1PT

www.doreandrees.com enquiries@doreandrees.com 01373 462 257

Dore & Rees

Auction Salerooms Vicarage Street Frome BA11 1PU

• Pet Health Club

• Microchips and Vaccinations

• Dental Treatments

• Medical consultations and surgery

To book call 01761 412132 or visit our website: www.midsomervets.co.uk

North Road, MIdsomer Norton, Radstock BA3 2QE

What are matrimonial assets?

THECourt of Appeal's decision in the case Standish v Standish has significantly influenced matrimonial financial remedy law, particularly concerning the classification and division of matrimonial and nonmatrimonial assets during divorce proceedings.

The Standish case involved a couple who began cohabiting in 2004 and married in 2005. The husband had amassed substantial wealth prior to the marriage through his career in the financial services industry, retiring in 2007. In 2017, he transferred approximately £77 million to his wife as part of a tax and estate planning strategy intended to benefit their children. However, before the arrangement could be finalised, his wife started divorce proceedings.

The central issue was whether the transferred assets should be considered matrimonial property subject to equal division or retained as the husband's non-matrimonial property. The Court of Appeal allowed the husband's appeal, deciding that the transferred assets remained non-matrimonial. The court emphasized the importance of the source of assets, stating that assets acquired before marriage do not

automatically become matrimonial simply due to transfer during the marriage.

The decision provides clear guidance on the concept of “matrimonialisation”, which refers to the process by which non-matrimonial assets become subject to division upon divorce. The court highlighted that the mere transfer of non-matrimonial assets into joint names or for estate planning does not necessarily convert them into matrimonial property. This clarification narrows the circumstances under which non-matrimonial assets are included in the marital pot.

The ruling underscores the significance of the asset's origin in financial remedy proceedings. Assets acquired before marriage, inheritances, or gifts are generally considered nonmatrimonial. The court reaffirmed that the source of the asset is a critical factor in determining its classification, impacting how assets are divided.

The Standish decision offers greater scope for arguing that assets brought into the marriage are not automatically subject to the sharing principle, potentially influencing the outcomes of financial settlements in similar cases.

The ruling has provided essential

clarification on the treatment of nonmatrimonial assets in divorce proceedings. By emphasizing the importance of asset origin and narrowing the application of the matrimonialisation concept, the decision offers clearer guidance for individuals involved in financial remedy cases. This development contributes to a more nuanced understanding of asset division, promoting fairness and consistency in financial settlements.

EDWARD LYONS

Parking changes

SOMERSET Council members will be discussing a range of potential changes to parking charges in a bid to bring consistency across the county.

There are currently different rates and charging principles applied across the county’s 200 or so council-run car parks, and the system has not been reviewed since Somerset Council came into being in 2023. The proposals include charges at car parks which are currently free.

MG owners charity gift

BRISTOL Area MG Owners Club have presented a cheque for £2,750 to Barton Camp at Winscombe, which is run by the Bristol Children’s Help Society.

The society offers residential and outdoor learning experiences for children from deprived backgrounds.

Pictured: Tina Hounsom (BAMGOC fundraiser), Barton trustees Tony Jones, production manager for Thatchers who also support Barton Camp, Amy Jones, Andrew Pick and Bert Hurditch plus Andrew Hounsom (BAMGOC Chairman).

Ambulance support

BANWELL Football Club has announced a new partnership with the Great Western Air Ambulance charity and will be holding a series of fundraising events this year.

Club chairman, Mark Rawlins, said: “This partnership aligns perfectly with our commitment to serving our community and we look forward to working together to make a meaningful impact.”

He’s pictured with Daniel Hanley-Shearing from GWAAC.

High Sheriff’s visit

THE lifeboat crew in Weston-super-Mare welcomed the High Sheriff of Somerset, Rob Beckley and his wife Sue, to the RNLI’s temporary station on Weston's promenade.

The plan had been to show them the low water launch and recovery of the D Class lifeboat, but the winds were too strong to authorise a safe launch for training.

Instead, they were able to meet boat and shore crew as they carried out checks on equipment and the boats.

Afterwards the High Sheriff said: “Goodness the weather was grim, but their makeshift base by Knightstone Island was packed with enthusiastic volunteers.

“Such an uplifting visit which reminds us of how lucky we are that so many people volunteer to keep us safe.”

North Somerset Council has published an open tender to find a specialist contractor to restore Birnbeck Pier in Weston.

The multi-million-pound scheme will see the RNLI return to a base on the island.

Walk supports hospice

DOROTHYHouse Men’s Walk to Support will take place on Saturday, March 8th from Dorothy House at Winsley finishing at the Bath Pavilion in time for the Six Nations rugby.

The charity says: “This eight-mile walk is an opportunity for men to join together in solidarity, share their life journeys together, and raise vital funds to help Dorothy House provide crucial end-of-life care for our local community.”

Entry is £28 and all participants receive a free event T-shirt along with their free pint and food at the end. Last year’s event raised £105,000.

Details: wwwdorothyhouse.org.uk

Hospice draw

ST MARGARET’S Hospice has announced the launch of its Winter Super Draw – and in celebration of its 45th anniversary, it’s bigger and better than ever.

A £1 ticket could win a first prize of £8,000; second prize, £1,000; third prize £500, plus 45 runner-up prizes of £10 each.

The draw closes on March 12th, with the winners drawn on March 14th.

Details: www.st-margarets-hospice.org.uk

Sophie’s challenge

SOPHIE Pascoe from Weston-super-Mare swam 21 miles, the width of the English Channel, to raise vital funds for Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC).

Sophie’s challenge saw her complete 1,344 lengths of her local leisure centre swimming pool, Hutton Moor Leisure Centre, raising more than £2,200.

VIP visit

THE High Sheriff of Somerset, Robert Beckley and his wife Sue, made an official visit to the Water Survival Box team during a box packing session at their depot on the Westfield Industrial Estate, Midsomer Norton.

The team of volunteer packers were led by Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club President Andrew de Mora with trustees including founder chairman Hugo Pike OBE, Director of Operations Tony Quinn, Rob Thain, Jim Lunt and Alan Smith.

Mr Pike said: “A comprehensive presentation covering the 20year story of the Rotary humanitarian aid project was then given to the our VIP visitors who were clearly impressed with the significant support provided to families displaced by natural and manmade disasters across the globe.

“The multiple consignments of aid sent to provide relief for families affected by the war in Ukraine since February 2022 was particularly appreciated.”

A further 60 boxes were packed during the visit.

Hospice breakfast

BLAGDON'S annual Big Breakfast for Weston Hospicecare was again a big success, making £1,000 for the hospice.

New boss

GREATWestern Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) has announced the appointment of Jason Holt as its new chair of the Board of Trustees.

It says Jason brings extensive leadership skills and a wealth of experience that will help drive the charity forward in a time when its lifesaving air ambulance and critical care service is in demand more than ever.

Jason has chaired several complex organisations in logistics and medical healthcare and has a background sitting on charity boards for armed forces personnel wellbeing.

It said: “This combined with his ambition to continue to give back to the community and ‘do great things for great causes’ makes him a perfect fit for GWAAC.”

One of the organisers, Tina Smith, said: “We had an amazing morning. We sold out of food about half an hour before the end despite a couple of trips to the local shop for top-ups.

“We had some new team members in the kitchen this time who, along with long-standing cooks and some new waitresses too, worked really hard to produce nearly 50 breakfast orders.”

John Lyons with (l to r) Joan Rockliffe, Angela Smyth, Blagdon fundraiser for Weston Hospicecare, and Nicky Fairley

The kitchen staff

Coming to terms

I RECENTLYspotted an advert in a parish magazine advertising a monthly “Death Café” in Bishop Sutton.

I have always avoided talking about death and didn't even want to think about it, but the Chew Valley Death Café is held in warm, comfortable surroundings at the community library - which has a reputation for very good cake – so I decided to go along and find out what it was all about.

I found it a revelation. It was a relaxed afternoon with a small group of people talking about why they had decided to go along and what they hoped to get out of it – chatting over tea, coffee and cake.

They discussed many factors of death, from grief and counselling to different kinds of funerals and services.

People were able to talk, or to ask, about anything and someone would have the answer, or promised to find out. Everyone could join in a discussion. I found it very interesting and will definitely be going back.

Bryony Huntley, who started the Chew Valley Death Café two years ago said: “My sister had a near fatal accident, which gave me much to think about.

“Death Café is actually a global movement that invites people to discuss both life and death in a friendly, safe and supportive setting.

“We meet on the first Thursday every month, with time and space to talk about life, death and loss. Our aim is to increase understanding of death, creating a view that helps us make the most of our lives.

“A few people have asked about the difference between a Death Café and a Bereavement Group. I think that a Bereavement Group is about the help a grieving individual seeks, usually regarding a specific death.

“A Death Café is more general, because we discuss death in all aspects - our own as well as anybody else’s.

“Our next meeting will be on Thursday, March 6th from 12 noon until 1.30pm in the library at Bishop Sutton. Everyone is welcome.”

Bryony is happy for people to contact her beforehand and to meet her if they wish.

ROS ANSTEY

Details: bryonyhuntley@gmail.com

Supporting rough sleepers

BILLYCHIP, the social enterprise scheme supporting rough sleepers, has shared a documentary showing how its foundation is supporting Help Bristol’s Homeless, a charity initiative which provides support and temporary housing for those sleeping rough in the city.

The video sees Jack Gascoigne of BillyChip visit Help Bristol’s Homeless Village and meet the team and a resident.

The BillyChip foundation has supported the scheme since 2021. It has recently sponsored a unit at the village, which consists of converted shipping containers that offer safe and secure accommodation to those who are sleeping rough.

Jon Hope, from Bishop Sutton, co-founder at BillyChip, said: “It’s been a privilege to support Jasper and the team at Help Bristol’s Homeless with this amazing project, which is such a practical step in providing temporary housing and community support to those who have found themselves homeless.

“Every time someone buys a BillyChip a donation is made to the BillyChip Foundation, which provides grants to grassroots causes like this. Sponsoring one of the containers felt like an amazing project to collaborate on, and we look forward to supporting the team in the months and years ahead.”

BillyChip has begun a trial with a McDonald’s franchise in London. A variety of agencies in the Dalston and Hackney area, including the police and other homeless charities, have been supplied with BillyChips to give out to those sleeping on the streets.

The chips can then be used in the McDonald’s store to get a free hot drink.

Details: YouTube at https://youtu.be/Y4E4169Vzjo

Dementia support

A FREEdementia support and information event will be held at the Somer Centre in Midsomer Norton on Wednesday, March 5th, 10am-2pm.

There’s the chance to meet Somer Valley Medical Group’s care coordinators and also representatives from many local services to find out what dementia support is available.

Details: 01761 413334

Lions prepare to rock!

CITYof Wells Lions are holding a Rock ‘n’ Roll evening on Friday, March 28th at St Thomas’s Church in Wells, featuring the ever-popular Steve Abbot, a local plumber, and the Loose Ends.

It’s raising funds for The Lawrence Centre, which supports the older Wells community and other local charitable organisations. Tickets are £8 and are now available at the Tourist Information Office.

The Lions have distributed daffodil boxes at various establishments in Wells and will be collecting for Marie Curie in the entrance of Morrisons Supermarket on Saturday, March 1st.

They have made donations to several local organisations: £100 to the YMCA Wells Youth Club towards the purchase of Arts and Crafts for their evening club meetings; £280 to Somerset Prostate Support Association for a free testing

Grants available

THEtrustees of the Richard Jones Foundation will be meeting in April to consider applications for grants.

The trust was founded in 1692 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to young people under the age of 30 who are in education or training at university, college, school or in an apprenticeship.

Applicants must be resident in Chew Magna, Stanton Drew, Newton St Loe, Stanton Prior or Stowey Sutton (Bishop Sutton).

Grants are also made to organisations within these villages whose purpose can be considered educational. The closing date for receipt of applications is Monday, March 31st.

session on Saturday, May 10th in Croscombe Village Hall; £150 to the St Cuthbert’s Church Disaster Emergency Committee Middle East Humanitarian Appeal.

They said: “A big thank you to the people of Wells for the support that has been given for events run by City of Wells Lions over the last few months.”

Planning for the raft racing on the Bishop’s Palace moat has started already. Anyone interested in finding out more about their work is welcome at one of their social or business meetings.

Suicide memorial

MINDin Somerset are inviting people to make a square in memory of a loved one. The Somerset, Speak Their Name Memorial Quilt is being led by the Somerset Suicide Bereavement Support Service.

The movement originated in Greater Manchester in 2020 during lockdown. There are now eight quilts across the country as well as an online version.

The first community workshop is on Saturday, March 15th in Shepton Mallet. Each completed panel will be made up of 36 unique squares each created by someone bereaved by suicide and dedicated to their loved one.

Details: Shelagh speaktheirname@mindinsomerset.org.uk

Prostate support

Loose Ends

Wells youth club

Working 25 years in Africa

THE Hutton-Dabaso twinning association has made a 25th anniversary visit to its twin village in Kenya after months of fundraising and planning.

The association was set up by a local Hutton resident and builder, Mark Orchard, after a tourist visit to Kenya.

Since then, the association has supported various projects there. On this two-week self-funded trip members carried out work in the village’s clinic and school. Two doctors from the twinning committee lead clinics.

They took a laptop for the school head, as well as other donations, including football kits, donated by Hutton Football Club.

They shared letters written by the children of Hutton CE Primary school and brought back letters written by the children of Dabaso.

The association said: “All this made possible from the kind donations, fundraising and ongoing support at events in Hutton throughout the year. The people of Dabaso are very grateful.”

Hutton Twinning Group School refurb

Village life

Cinderellar in the clinic

Ex-miner’s gift to bereavement group

THE Somerset Miners Welfare Trust has donated £500 to a Midsomer Norton-based organisation offering support services for bereaved parents and families following the loss of a baby.

Bryn Hawkins and Mo Duery, from the trust, were invited for a tour of the new Hearts Talks hub in The Square in Midsomer Norton by founder Chantelle Walmsley. The hub offers comfort care packages, a resource library, signposting and information. Meanwhile, an exhibition is underway at Somerset Coalfield Live at Radstock Museum, exploring issues such as living and working conditions and serious medical conditions directly arising from working underground; rescue efforts in the event of accidents and treatment given to miners in the pit, at home and in hospital.

Somerset Miners: Welfare and Health Care has been curated by the Bath Medical Museum working with the Radstock Museum. It has benefited from existing knowledge and new research conducted by both museums, with essential contributions from local ex–miners. Aspects of the exhibition refer to mining conditions in the Victorian period, giving visitors a sense of historical change during the 100 years prior to the closure of the last two Somerset mines in 1973. It also explores wider matters arising from injuries and ill

The exhibition runs until late June • For details, visit: www.radstockmseum.co.u

Volunteer becomes a charity trustee

AVALONCamps have appointed a new trustee, Tim Weigold, who originally helped at the camps in Mark when he was a young leader sleeping under canvas, looking after 32 lively children from some of the most underprivileged areas of Bristol.

Now Tim is a fully qualified paramedic, with a degree in paramedic science and a post grad diploma – he is about to complete his masters. He works on the very streets those children come from.

Tim said: “My time volunteering with Avalon Camps greatly influenced my career path and now I am in a position to really make a difference on the streets of Bristol as both a full-time paramedic and by helping to guide the work of the charity.

“Having completed two ultra marathons I am planning a little run from Hartcliffe

to Mark as a fundraiser for Avalon Camps.”

George Osborne, chairman of the trustees, said: “It’s fantastic that a young person (Tim is only 26) who volunteered as a leader some nine years ago is now prepared to help the charity move forward into its fifth decade.”

All the children, aged eight and nine, are from the Hartcliffe and Withywood areas of Bristol, which are in the lowest five percent of deprived areas in the UK.

The charity said: “All children selected by their schools are children who would

Details: www.avaloncamps.org.uk

gain the most from a free residential experience. Many of these children have heart breaking lives to date.”

The cost of running the annual camp this year for 64 young children will be about £18,000. None of the camp leaders (young people and adults), the trustees or any of the (nearly 200) volunteers receive a penny.

Therefore, it says fundraising is critical and in today’s digital society it’s grateful that Falcon Digital, based in Newton Abbott, has offered £5,000 worth of design time for its website.

health, such as the push for compensation and better working conditions supported by the friendly societies and the Miners Association, followed by the NUM.

Pictured (l to r): Bryn Hawkins, trust chairman, with Chantelle Walmsley and trust treasurer Mo Duery

New season gets underway

WINTER is always the quiet time of year for our society, but as the hours of daylight begin to increase once again, so our diary of events starts to fill. This is the 60th anniversary of the society’s founding, so we are hoping to mark the occasion – a landmark by anyone’s standards.

January 25th saw the first organised event of the year, a beginner’s hedge laying day at our Tania’s Wood nature reserve.

Demand far outstripped the capacity of this intentionally small course, but eight willing participants were introduced to the art of traditional hedge laying by Tina Bath, society chair and prize-winning hedge layer.

We also held our traditional wassail at Burrington on February 1st. Society president and Master of Ceremonies, Les Davies MBE ran things in his own inimitable style while suitable chants and music for the occasion was provided by The Barley Rye and the pipes of Peter Janes.

April 12th will see our AGM held this year at Cross Village Hall, starting at 10.30am. All members are encouraged to come along and get involved, not only in the formal processes of reporting back on the past 12 months and electing officers for the coming year, but also to hear our guest speaker.

And finally, for now on April 26th Shipham Village Hall will host the first outing for a new slideshow and talk entitled “Somerset V Hitler”.

Based on a book of the same name by local historian Donald Brown, this is a less strenuous version of the walk that Mike Harvey of the society runs on an annual basis

across Black Down to explore some of the secret activities that went on across the Mendip plateau during WW2. It starts at 7.30pm and features the recollections of those who were involved with pictures and even a short film of what was once top-secret wartime activity.

Hedgelaying

Wassail

Can things get any worse?

By CHRIS SPERRING

AFTER last year’s apparent insect apocalypse as some have described it, I wonder as I write this article in February just what the impending spring will bring us?

In 2024, the implications of the crisis went far beyond insects, as many young small birds that, even if they are seed feeding birds, will rely on the rich protein they get from insects to rear their young.

The spring weather of the last few years has not helped as a short trend of winter cold and damp weather has persisted since 2013. Indeed, that year I was interviewed for Radio 4 by a representative of Butterfly Conservation who said that the previous year had been the worst for butterflies in the UK.

Yet, last year I heard another interview by the same organisation saying the same thing about 2024. This begs the question: “Just how many ‘worst’ years can our socalled beloved wildlife have before the whole thing collapses?”

Right, enough of the doom and gloom: what are we going to do about it?

Nature recovery is being talked about a lot, as is rewildling, but the problem remains that neither engage the public at

large and the fact is that this is so serious it needs a ground-up community response rather than the endless meetings and talking of the top down scenario. We really can all get involved.

Early bees will begin emerging soon, so give them some food. If you have a lawn this is easy, just don’t cut the lawn too early, allow the daisies and dandelions to flourish, even on colder spring days this will be a lifeline for insects that have to hug the ground for warmth as opposed to flying higher for the taller flowers.

No Mow May has been talked about and is a great idea, but please can we have “no mow” March and April as well? And while we are at it how about letting some grassy areas go completely, no not so that you can’t walk through it, just edges or areas that you decide are appropriate, because another fact is that every little we do now will really help.

And if your local authority can’t afford to keep the parks mown down to bowling green level anymore, please don’t complain, think of the wildlife that can be helped.

Indeed, I often feel the important thing that needs rewildling is not nature, but that thing between our ears; a greater understanding of our connection to nature is actually vital to our continued presence on this planet.

The bird nesting season has begun in my garden; the robin having completed construction by the second week of February. Other birds such as the dunnock are singing louder so they won’t be far behind.

If, like me, you have great hedges for bird nesting which also offer a good density of insects as well, then please give the nesting birds some space. Don’t rush out to cut the hedge or if you really have to, then just simply check beforehand that you're not going to make a bird abandon eggs or offspring.

Some of our small birds are not long lived therefore what is vital to keep the population sustained is wonderful production of young, whether in your garden, park cemetery or farm. You can have a positive effect on any nature recovery that happens.

I’m running a one-day course of Bird Song ID at the Community Farm in Chew Stoke, please go to their website for more information and booking.

Thank you for all the comments re: the new book “Great Misconceptions of Rewilding myths and misunderstandings.” It's still available from all good bookshops. l And lastly, the Hawk and Owl Trust Barn Owl webcam is streaming live pictures from the Somerset Levels go to www.hawkandowltrust.org.uk

Yellow legged mining bee on daisy

Bluetit. Typically short-lived bird that rears its young on insects

Walk awhile on the Isle

THIS is an easy, short late winter walk on the tranquil Isle of Wedmore. This is an elevated area of historic interest above the Somerset Levels – a land of farms, fields and footpaths and wonderful views across towards the Mendip Ridge. Walking takes us along a mixture of footpaths, tracks and quiet lanes, from the village of Wedmore, past an ancient wayside cross and at the end follows the top of Lascot Hill alongside the golf course. Here are some beautiful views across to Mendip. There are three stiles at the time of writing. Apart from an easy climb at the start up from Wedmore, the rest is flat and then downhill. Depending on

the weather, there may be mud in places. This is an ideal time of year for the walk, before trees and hedges in leaf obscure some of the wonderful views.

PARK: Wedmore free village car park, just north of the village on the road from Cheddar, Postcode (near) BS28 4EE. What3Words: deluded.quantity.juggled

START: Go out the back right corner of the car park on the Tarmac path which leads to a road. Turn right and continue to the main road in the village of Wedmore.

Now a thriving commuter village, Wedmore appears to have been exploited by humans from at least the Neolithic period. It’s main claim to fame is the event of 878 when Alfred brought to Wedmore the defeated Dane, Guthrum, and his chief followers to complete their baptismal process (with the ceremony of 'chrysom-loosing'), to negotiate the terms of the Peace of Wedmore (the treaty which recognised the Danelaw in eastern England), and to be entertained and impressed by Saxon hospitality and sport.

The Isle of Wedmore (which means the Hunting Moor) appears to have been just that – a hunting ground for the Saxon kings from which they could exploit the royal forest of Mendip and the land around.

Cross to the other side (public toilets near here) and turn right, shortly turning left up Church Street.

1. CHURCH

Further up, cut off the road a little by going up through the churchyard of St Mary’s.

With its commanding central tower and elevated position, this church presides over its village very much like a small cathedral.

Then continue on the road and take the first right on the Stoughton to Weare Road. At Lascot House on the left turn onto the footpath, past houses and along a narrow path straight on.

2. FIELD

Enter a field and go across slightly left following the shallow ditch, the remains of a former field boundary. After a Bristol Gate (BG) follow the hedge on the right for a short way, and then right through another BG. Cross the field, slightly right and soon pass a bank of solar panels on your left. Go through two pedestrian gates and then follow the left edge of the next field straight on.

On this high land on the Isle you may get a feeling of this peaceful, settled farming atmosphere.

3. FARM LANE

Reach a farm lane and turn left and then after a few yards go right on a

With Sue Gearing

path, with an orchard on your left, a reminder of the many orchards of earlier years. Follow the path through a BG and on and between trees. Go through a gate and straight on along the field edge and another pedestrian gate. Maintain direction to a very visible kissing gate, passing ridges in the field – more remains of old field systems. Maintain direction keeping on through pedestrian gates and down the length of a narrow field. A gate leads to a path, and along through another two gates before coming onto the lane (Snipefield Lane).

Due to a blocked footpath further on after the fall and uprooting of a tree and stile, we are taking the road route rather than continuing in fields. The road is quiet however and ideal for a walk after a long period rain. I have contacted the Rights of Way to ask if they can restore the path.

Turn right and follow it for a few minutes to a T-junction.

4. T-JUNCTION

Turn left and after a few minutes, ignore two turns close together on the left and immediately reach Stoughton Cross.

5. STOUGHTON CROSS

Turn right by this old wayside cross, ringed by daffodils and snowdrops.

Wayside crosses, mainly set up between the 9th and 15th centuries served as navigational aids for travellers, marking junctions and paths connecting religious sites and were regularly used by parishioners and funeral corteges. Follow the road for about ten minutes, passing farms, going round two bends and reaching a left turn. Opposite this on the right, take the footpath clearly marked which goes diagonally across an orchard of cider apple bushes.

6. HILL EDGE

Exit the other side and turn right along the hill edge – this is the direction you follow all the way now along and down to Wedmore. Already there are good views to the north to the Mendip ridge. It may be muddy for this first section. Keep going in this direction, with the boundary on your right at first and then

on the left. As you continue go through gates and over your first stile. En-route you may spot an old drinking pond. Come onto the edge of the golf course of the Isle of Wedmore Golf Club and take care of flying balls. Keep along the left boundary as before.

Eventually go through a small piece of woodland, over a stile, and then drop down Lascot Hill towards Wedmore village, staying to the left. A BG in the bottom left corner takes you onto a lane in Wedmore.

7. WEDMORE

Turn left and at the main road, by the village hall, cross with care and turn left. Continue carefully along for a short way passing Holden Gardens and then go right on a Tarmac path signed “To barns” with a footpath sign at the end. Turn right back to the car park.

4 miles, about 2-2.5 hours walking • OS Map 141 Cheddar Gorge & Mendip Hills West, grid ref: 437 481

West Countryman’s diary

ALREADYthree months into the year and I’m wondering where the time goes. March is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but I would prefer it to be a little gentle with us. We seem to have had so many storms of late that the Met Office must be running out of names for them. I’m hoping we get a break from the bad weather as I think we are all becoming somewhat tired of it all. As always, we cannot do anything about it, so it’s best not to get too wound up and instead grab what fine weather comes our way.

Sue Gearing is finding her way around the isle of Wedmore this time, exploring the land of Alfred the Great and discovering a few things that in our busy motorised lives we pass by.

Looking back to 1993 in my Warden’s journal there seems to have been a lot of tree planting going on. As I am about to start the same now, I want it dry, but not too warm (as always there no pleasing everyone).

The bottoms of the hedgerows and grassy field banks are starting to come to life. Celandines, snowdrops and primroses are already getting excited about the onset of spring. The blackbird will start nesting and the thrush will follow, leading the way for a nesting frenzy with the rest of the bird population. Once again the blackbird will sing in my garden and I can’t wait. Writing this column in the middle of February there is still no doubt more wet and cold to come. Whereas I may appear to be a pessimist, I am in fact a realist. Nothing is for nothing and if it’s going to go wrong it will! Being on Mendip is literally no walk in the park.

Even though you may be only half a mile from the nearest habitation or road you can still get into trouble if things go wrong. Only recently the Search and Rescue Team were called out to help someone in trouble on Black Down.

Mendip weather is unforgiving, having its own weather system which it guards jealously.

Although only 325 metres above sea level, (that's 1,068 feet in old school talk) there is nothing to stop the weather fronts coming in from the Atlantic. Once around the north Devon coast, looking west, the next highest ground will be somewhere in the Appalachian mountains of America.

High winds across the Somerset moors from the Atlantic will hit the lower southern slope of Mendip and push the rain-laden clouds higher where they cool and condense. Priddy receives around 1.15 metres of precipitation each year, (that’s 46 inches for us old schoolies). I would hazard a guess that it’s well over that at the moment.

Leading on from this, a trip onto Mendip needs to be done with a little preparation and never trust a sunny day. Temperatures can drop and the rain comes in rapidly. Make sure you have a good waterproof coat, trousers and a hat for the day out.

Strong boots with a good grip are the only thing between you and the ground. I have fallen several times only to be saved from injury by the rucksack on my back cushioning the impact.

You may recall from last month’s column my mention of a “go sack” that I carry in the Land Rover and my tin of beans in the rucksack. I also add a chocolate bar to the coat pocket to lift my blood sugars when I start to feel tired. It’s my get-me-home boost along with the last half sandwich in the lunch box.

Most mobile phones have a flashlight these days but I back that up with a small pendant light on the coat zip, that helps me find my keys or read the wristwatch. Animal skins and flint knives technology still plays a bit part in my technical world. Lest we forget just how bad the Mendip weather can be, here are a few examples from the past. I thought I would share some extracts from the Charterhouse school log in the late 1800s. I have written before about poor Sarah Anne Manning the school mistress, isolated in her snow-

bound building with drifts up to the windows.

Here are a couple more examples of how bad the weather could be no matter what time of the year on Mendip:

February 5th 1897: 2 boys alone came to school through the heavy rain and fog, so I am again obliged to close. This week has been one of the worst for children’s walking that I have known for several years.

January 21 1898: Fog so thick that children living at a distance cannot find their way through it. Even the postman was lost yesterday before noon.

May 14th 1899: It was so bitterly cold here that I was forced to have fires again in school. The infants have cried with the cold and the older children’s hands are so numbed that they cannot hold pen or pencil.

With all this bad weather health was bound to suffer and life was hard back then:

March 8th to April 15th 1899: School closed for a measles epidemic.

May 2nd 1899: Took Elsie Masters name off the register. She is often ill and the distance to school is great, (between 4 and 5 miles) that the doctor has advised her leaving.

I just love this comment from October 1 1891: Admitted Ernest Herring, a big boy who knows nothing.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of me holding forth at the Low Ham Wassail, my last this year with the Langport Mummers in the background. Of course, it’s misty and raining, but without a bad orchard gremlin to be seen anywhere.

Don’t forget you can always email me on: Les.davies@westcountryman.co.uk

With LES DAVIES MBE

LANGFORDCourt, home of Sir David and Lady Paula Wills, will open for the NGS on Sunday, March 9th, 2-5pm. Admission is £5 for adults, children free. Refreshments will raise money for Blagdon primary school.

kate@elements-aquatics.co.uk www.facebook.com/elementsaquatics www.elements-aquatics.co.uk

There is no time to stand and stare!

THEdays have visibly lengthened now and with luck the temperatures will rise, so all the plants, birds and insects are thinking it is high time to “get going”. Consequently, it is an equally busy time in the garden and if you can get ahead in March, you stand a vague chance of holding your own during the summer. Grass is growing, and most lawns are suffering from a surfeit of moss.

Low light levels and moisture are the key ingredients for moss to thrive and we have suffered from both since last July. Rain means cloud cover, which means low light levels, as well as excess moisture especially if your land is not particularly well drained.

The remedy for moss is to improve drainage and light levels. Removing the lower branches and crown thinning trees can help if you are not in a conservation area, where permission is required.

Moss can be killed with iron sulphate, which is the ingredient in many proprietary lawn products, but it will return, unless the underlying cause is rectified. Raking it out, without treating it, simply spreads it. Feeding your lawn will encourage a dense sward that helps resist weed invasion, especially after a wet winter when much of the nitrogen has leached away.

March is sensibly the latest for planting permanent trees or shrubs and soft fruit bushes, such as black currants, gooseberries and raspberries, whether bare rooted or container grown, but you will still have to be prepared to water individual plants through the summer in dry periods.

As many plants are starting their season of interest some are coming to the end of theirs. Dogwoods and willows, grown for their colourful winter stems, should be pruned hard now. This encourages strong new growth that will have the best colours for next winter.

Shrubs that flower on current season’s wood, e.g. Buddleja, Lavatera and

Ceratostigma can also be hard pruned now. If pruned too early and we get a mild spell in February buddleja may put on new growth which is sensitive to frost, so waiting until well in to March will overcome this problem. We tend to think that buddlejas are indestructible, but they can easily be killed.

Ornamental grass stems that have overwintered can be cut hard back to within a couple of inches of the ground. Don’t worry if they have already started growing, just chop it all off. They will grow again. Most plants elongate their growth at the top of their stems, grasses grow from the bottom.

The foliage of herbaceous perennials is emerging fast and it is an ideal time to lift and divide these if more are required. Discard the centre of the old clump and use the outer pieces to replant and spread around.

Early spring flowering perennials such as pulmonaria are best divided in the autumn or wait until after they have finished flowering. As the Christmas roses are coming to the end of their season it is the perfect time to lift and divide them too. It gives them a whole season to re-establish before flowering, although they may take a year off!

Snowdrops have also finished flowering, so before you forget where they are, lift and split large clumps to spread around. You can never have too many snowdrops and if you think you have, then I am sure your friends would love them!

It is a busy time for seed sowing both indoors and out. If your soil is reasonable many vegetables can be sown direct outside, including beetroot, broad beans and peas. Beetroot need adequate moisture to wash out the chemical inhibitor before germination can occur.

Try putting the seed in a tumbler of water overnight and you will see the colour change in the water. The seed of most varieties of beetroot consists of multiple seeds, so sowing what appears to be one seed is actually a cluster of seeds so more than one seedling may emerge.

To avoid this, and therefore the need to thin seedlings, look for monogerm varieties

such as ‘Solo’, ‘Monika’ or ‘Monorubra’ rather than the traditional ‘Boltardy’.

Flowers for cutting can easily be grown from seed by sowing in rows outdoors. Hardy annuals such as pot marigolds (Calendula) are ideal. Choose the taller growing varieties such as ‘Orange King’ or ‘Neon’ to get longer stems.

You can always add the petals of Calendula to your salads. Cornflowers and larkspur are ideal for cutting and can be sown too, but please do not eat the larkspur. Less well known is Euphorbia marginata (Snow on the Mountain). Take care with the sap and sear the base of cut stems in boiling water before arranging.

Also well worth trying are Bells of Ireland (Molucella laevis) and Panicum elegans ‘Frosted Explosion’, an easy grass, which erupts into a volcano of fine stems, making it perfect as a filler in arrangements. For the price of a packet of seed you will have an array of flowers throughout the season for cutting.

Indoors, or in a greenhouse, a multitude of seeds can be sown now. Seeds are often sown too early when the light levels are poor, leading to elongated floppy seedlings that rarely make good plants. Sowing a bit later as the days lengthen is far better and the plants always catch up with earlier sown batches.

When sowing in pots or trays remember that most seeds need light to germinate, so cover the seeds thinly with horticultural vermiculite, which helps retain moisture, but allows light through.

There is no time to stand and stare! Too many jobs to do in the garden.

With MARY PAYNE MBE

Calendula

• It’s time to sow ageratum, alyssum, antirrhinum, asters, begonias, marigolds, pansies, petunias, stocks and many other flowers in a cold frame or greenhouse.

• Apply a general fertiliser to all beds and borders.

• Make a concerted effort to get on top of weeds now, they are about to make a serious spurt of growth!

• Time to get planting new herbaceous perennial plants. Astrantia, anemone, campanula, echinacea, hardy geranium, rudbeckia and verbenas.

• Prune most roses now (climbing, rambling and shrub roses are best pruned in summer after the main flush of flower). Cut back to 6-8″ from the ground and cut just above a bud, prune out any branches that are crossing to leave an open centre.

• Lift crowded snowdrops, as they finish flowering and carefully divide and replant. Avoid breaking their delicate roots if possible.

• Remove flower heads from daffodils as they finish flowering. A liquid feed with a liquid tomato fertiliser helps next year’s flowers to form now.

• Sow Parsnip seeds into a firm fine seedbed.

• Sow tomato, pepper and cucumber seed for delicious fresh home grown vegetables from a greenhouse. Sow for growing outside in about six weeks’ time.

• You should also sow carrots, peas, broad beans, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, lettuce, sprouts and many other vegetables.

MASBURY’S

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NORTON

GREEN GARDEN CENTRE

NOW IN STOCK! SUMMER FLOWERING BULBS LOTS TO CHOOSE FROM INCLUDING BEGONIA, DAHLIA, GLADIOLI, RANUNCULUS & MORE!

NOW AVAILABLE SEED POTATOES, ONION SETS, SHALLOTS & GARLIC

THOMPSON & MORGAN, UNWINS & COUNTRY VALUE FLOWER & VEGETABLE SEEDS –GREAT CHOICE OF WILD FLOWER & SWEET PEA SEEDS TO CHOOSE FROM!

COMPOST, TOPSOIL, GRO-BAGS, SOIL IMPROVER, HORSE & FARMYARD MANURE, DECORATIVE BARK, PERLITE, VERMICULITE, GRAVELS, GRITS & SANDS

PRIMROSES, POLYANTHUS & POTTED SPRING FLOWERING BULBS FOR A BURST OF EARLY SPRING COLOUR IN THE GARDEN!

ROAD,

NGS GARDENS OF THE MONTH –MARCH

Forest Lodge

JOINT opening with Lower Shalford Farm. Forest Lodge is a three-acre mature garden for all seasons. Created on the same spit of greensand as Stourhead, it has many rare plants and flowering trees.

Around the house there are more formal beds and a beautiful orchard leads you through to a peaceful hornbeam allee with an obelisk. The lake is surrounded with dramatic planting of gunnera and other large leaved species.

Address: Pen Selwood, BA9 8LL.

Mon–Sat

Contact: James & Lucy Nelson, https://forestlodgegardens.co.uk

Opening Dates and Time: Saturday March 15th, 10am-3pm, Saturday, May 24th, 10am-4pm.

Joint Admission with Lower Shalford Farm: £10, children free. Donation to Well Wessex group of Mental Health charities in Somerset.

Lower Shalford Farm

A fairly large open garden with extensive lawns and wooded surroundings with drifts of daffodils in spring. A small winterbourne stream runs through with several stone bridges. There is a walled rose/parterre garden, hedged herbaceous garden, mature wisterias in all their glory and several ornamental ponds.

Address: Shalford Lane, Charlton Musgrove, Wincanton BA9 8HE.

Contact: Mr and Mrs David Posnett.

Opening Dates and Time: As above.

Joint Admission: £10, children free.

Other Gardens Open for the NGS

To see more gardens open for the NGS, see The Garden Visitors Handbook, or the Somerset County Leaflet, available from local Garden Centres, or go to: https://ngs.org.uk/

New garden festival

YEOValley Organic Garden in Blagdon is to hold its first threeday garden festival from September 18th-20th featuring Arit Anderson, Alys Fowler and Frances Tophill among other experts.

There will be inspiring talks and panel discussions with wellknown gardeners, including John Little, Kate Bradbury and Mark Diacono.

The aim of the festival is to encourage visitors of all experience levels, to get growing with nature in mind. There will be hands-on workshops and demonstrations, specialist nurseries offering seasonal plants and bulbs for sale, alongside music, entertainment and delicious food.

Sarah Mead, Head Gardener of Yeo Valley Organic Garden, said: “My dream is to create a gathering where garden lovers –from newbies to pros – can exchange experiences and swap tips about a better way to garden.

“There will be a barrowful of chatter about soil health, biodiversity and sustainability with ample opportunity to get stuck in and enjoy delicious food and some retail therapy!

“The garden team have been planning for the last 18 months, and we can’t wait to welcome you all to the garden very soon.”

Frances Tophill, gardener, presenter, author and environmentalist, said: “This festival promises a positive and inspiring get-together for gardeners of all skill levels to deepen their connection with nature.”

Details: https://www.yeovalley.co.uk/events/yeo-valleyorganic-garden-festival-2025

Seedy Saturday

THE15th Seedy Saturday returns on Saturday, March 8th to Timsbury’s Conygre Hall, 10am-2pm, offering growers at all stages and ages a fun and practical way to exchange seeds and tips, buy local products and get involved in community activities.

The community event has stalls selling seeds and potatoes alongside spring bulbs, fruit bushes and trees, cottage perennials, herbs, plus homemade produce, local crafts, plant-based products and gifts.

There will also be expert talks and advice about garden herbs, local wildlife, seed saving and composting, demonstrations, kids’ craft zone and the kitchen café providing refreshments and delicious homemade treats.

Event organiser, Sam Ross, said: “This event marks the start of the growing season for seed swappers, amateur gardeners, allotment-holders, horticulturalists, and anyone passionate about nature and the environment.

“The friendly, local and sustainable ethos encourages everyone to have fun growing plants, alongside saving and sharing seeds and stories with friends and neighbours.”

Entry is £2, with children U-16 free.

Details: www.seedysaturday.org.uk

Transform your garden

IMAGINEstepping into your garden, feeling the sun on your face, hearing birds chatter and watching flowers bloom. Your outdoor space should be more than just a view –it should be a part of your life.

Whether it’s picking tomatoes, cooking with friends, or enjoying a quiet coffee, your garden should serve you.

Kate Carr at West Hill Garden & Landscaping creates designs that seamlessly blend hard and soft landscaping, ensuring harmony and flow. Rather than disconnected areas, she envisions a cohesive journey through your space.

Even if you landscape in stages, planning the whole garden from the start ensures a stunning, functional result.

Take the first step toward a garden that enhances your life –one that invites you to slow down, reconnect with nature, and truly enjoy the beauty around you.

Kickstart your future with an apprenticeship at Strode

ARE you looking to earn while you learn and gain valuable experience in your chosen career? Or are you a business looking to develop fresh talent and strengthen your workforce? At Strode College our apprenticeship programs offer fantastic opportunities for both students and employers.

We work with fantastic local businesses, including Peter Green Chilled Foods Ltd, The Newt, and Brookside Academy just to name a few to provide hands-on training that equips apprentices with real-world skills.

As an apprentice, you’ll gain industry-recognised qualifications while working alongside experienced professionals – giving you a head start in your career.

We offer apprenticeships in Business and Finance, Childcare and Education, Engineering, Hairdressing, Barbering and Beauty, Hospitality, Team Leading and Management.

For employers, taking on an apprentice is a smart investment. Apprentices bring fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and the drive to succeed, helping businesses grow and innovate. Strode College provides full support, from recruitment and funding guidance to tailored training, ensuring your apprentice develops the skills that meet your business needs.

Whether you’re a student eager to start your career or an employer looking to build a skilled workforce, apprenticeships at Strode College offer a pathway to success. Take the first step towards an exciting future—contact us today to find out more!

Day centre opens new facilities

A BRANDnew semi-commercial kitchen has been opened at the Reach Opportunity Centre in Lower Weare, an innovative purpose-built day centre for young adults with learning disabilities.

It says this milestone achievement has been made possible through years of dedication, community support, and generous contributions, including a significant donation from the Thatchers Foundation.

The ribbon was cut by Anne Thatcher, alongside students and other local businesses who have supported the centre.

It provides a wide range of facilities and activities designed to enrich the lives of students, including an on-site gym which was recently converted from an old portacabin, a woodwork room, and even resident pigs and chickens.

Founder, Jill Swingler, said as the parent of an autistic son she wanted the best possible outcomes and opportunities for him as an adult.

She said: “I knew this would not be a simple task, so with determination and passion I was motivated to move forward and create something wonderful for adults with learning disabilities.”

The kitchen adds to the range of courses it offers, which include digital art and design, computer skills, fully operational mobile shop, woodwork, animal care, woodland forestry, horticulture, garden maintenance, cinema workshop, community projects and creative thinking, news group.

The centre is set in three acres of countryside at Badgworth Barns in Lower Weare. It currently has spaces available.

From despondency to delight –Vurley Swallet explored

Peter Glanvill is a retired GP who has explored caves on five continents. He was instrumental in the discovery of the Frozen Deep in Cheddar Gorge, which is the largest underground chamber in the UK. Here he describes a somewhat different experience.

UNLIKE those in the Yorkshire Dales, the caves of the Mendip Hills are generally not noted for deep shafts requiring ropes or ladders.

This is a consequence of the geology of the region, where the limestone beds are angled, allowing drainage down a slope rather than a vertical joint. There are notable exceptions, such as Rhino Rift in the Longwood Valley, but the discovery of a cave with four shafts descending in quick succession is quite unusual.

A pleasant walk above Cheddar Gorge passes through a small nature reserve at the head of the gorge before descending towards the village of Draycott. In recent years, walkers may have noticed, beside the path and in a shallow depression, what looks like the top of a chimney covered by a stout locked metal gate, adjacent to a decrepit railwayman’s hut and a small pond. This marks the entrance to Vurley Swallet which, for some years, was the centre of operations for a consortium of cavers lured by the prospect of

undiscovered caverns below.

Vurley actually lies in the bed of an ancient lake that formed during the last glaciation when the underground drainage was impeded by permafrost. More than 20 of these “closed basins” have been identified on Mendip, and two are considered so important that they are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Prior to the 1990s, very little was known about the cave systems beneath these basins, and Vurley promised to shed important new light on their development.

Two individuals from different clubs had gained permission to probe the site and combined forces to invest funds in hiring a digger for a couple of days. Work started in the spring of 2015. Why a digger? Well, in the past, cavers digging promising sites often had to go down through a considerable depth of topsoil before reaching bedrock where any choked cave entrances might lie.

Such shafts required complex shuttering and fencing to protect them from livestock and, over time, were prone to collapse. Nowadays, the preferred initial method of digging sites of this nature is to hire a digger, find a promising hole in the bedrock, then drop in concrete rings and backfill, producing a neat and tidy entrance that keeps both cavers and landowners happy.

Initially we felt a bit despondent when nothing resembling a cave entrance appeared. With fingers crossed, we arrived on day two, and much to our relief, a tiny hole in rock was soon exposed, which we covered with some sheeting to prevent it from becoming choked with rubble. Concrete pipes were then delicately lowered over the exposed hole before the depression was neatly backfilled. Then the hard work started!

Peter Glanvill

We set about widening the hole at the base of the shaft, and before long a promising draught could be felt. Cave draughts are caused by temperature differences between air inside and outside of a cave, so it seemed a sure sign of cavities below.

Over successive weeks, the two teams hauled boulders out to create a narrow passage that dropped into our first small chamber. We were still in the frost-shattered entrance zone, so a cautious approach had to be taken as we progressed following the draught emerging between the gaps. After a few weeks, we had found another small chamber and even some small stalactite formations.

Progress was inexorably downward, and the following spring we broke into a low crawl, which opened into yet another boulder chamber. Progress slowed again as we dug into the floor of the chamber, applying the liberal use of both cement and scaffolding to help stabilise the route. Then, in February 2017, we entered a larger chamber, which we named La La Land after the Oscar fiasco that year.

Here, we focused our attention on a choked descending rift in one corner and it was some months before this obstacle was passed. Beyond, the cave picked up a tiny stream, and at a depth below the surface of 80m, we finally broke free of the boulders to enter solid cave passage, which narrowed to a slot over an echoing void. Three years had passed since the digger had departed, and the way on was finally open!

From this point onwards, the cave comprised a series of

vertical shafts. An initial drop of 11m led to a chamber and a rocky trench to the head of a much bigger and wider drop of 20m. This was followed immediately by two further 7m shafts and a final small drop that entered a mud-floored chamber. Situated at a depth of 129m below the surface, this marks the current bottom of the cave. However, this point still lies a significant distance above the local water table, and the potential for further discoveries remains considerable.

Installing the rings

Worst ever NHS scandal?

By DrPHIL HAMMOND

I’VE covered some pretty awful health scandals in my 33 years writing for Private Eye, from the Bristol heart disaster onwards, but the conviction of Lucy Letby as a serial baby killer may end up causing the most harm, not least because it might have been avoided. When I started investigating the story 18 months ago, my view was straightforward. Nurses who murder babies do exist, but they are very rare.

Babies who die from substandard care in the NHS are far more common – perhaps 1,000 a year. Long before Letby was accused of murder, there needed to be a thorough, independent expert review to ensure what happened at the Countess of Chester hospital wasn’t another scandal of substandard NHS care.

This didn’t happen before Letby’s trial, which in my view was criminally negligent. It has now finally happened in two investigations – one by two UK experts and one by 14 of the world’s most eminent neonatal experts. Both had access to all the medical records and reports.

Both found no evidence of deliberate harm in any of the 17 cases Letby was charged over and both sets of experts concluded the cause of all the deaths and collapses was a combination of natural causes and the substandard care the babies received.

According to the expert reviews, the hospital simply did not have the expertise to cope with an unexpected influx of babies who were sicker and smaller than they were equipped to cope with and as a result weren’t aware of the errors they were making, deciding instead to blame the deaths on the deliberate actions of a nurse.

I was in the front row of an incendiary press conference when this was all announced and the catalogue of failures was so alarming I asked the lead neonatology expert, Canadian Dr Shoo Lee, how they would cope with such a poorly performing neonatal unit in Canada. He replied, rather grimly “we would close it down”.

He made a very clear case that Letby is the victim of a major miscarriage of justice, but demolishing the opinions of the prosecution experts and the reputation of the Chester consultants, the wider NHS, the police and British legal system in a press conference is not the same as doing so in the Court of Appeal.

Whether the case gets referred back there depends on whether the legal establishment is embarrassed into action, or so embarrassed that it tries to bury it for 20 years, as is all too often the case with miscarriages.

If it goes back to appeal, via the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the judges will also consider the “non-medical evidence”. Letby did leave handover notes and counselling

notes in her bedroom, described by the prosecution as “trophies and confessions” and she did do internet searches on the families of babies she had been involved with, some of whom died.

This was enough to convince the jury of intent to murder, although neonatal nurses have told me they often take handover notes home by mistake and do Facebook searches to check up on families they have cared for, send condolence cards and go to funerals and christenings.

Most have now stopped, however, to avoid suspicion. And if Letby is a murderer, she would have to be some sort of genius to not leave a trace of medical evidence for any of these experts to spot, nor a trace of any motive, nor any trace of an internet search on murder methods.

Would such a devious murderer really leave clues all over her bedroom for the police to find?

The real tragedy is that all of this could probably have been prevented. Had any of these experts given evidence to the trial, it would likely have reached a different conclusion.

Had they reported on the collapses and deaths as they happened, Letby would likely never have been implicated. Had the NHS had the safe staffing levels I have been campaigning for since 2001, the babies may all have received better care and many might be alive today.

The Countess of Chester was not unusual in the UK for its poor clinical outcomes. What made it so unusual is that it blamed them on a murdering nurse.

On a brighter note, there is some truly excellent neonatal care in the NHS. Sadly, it’s potluck whether you get it. Meanwhile, the police could still press further charges against Letby, but they will face a long line of angry experts if they do.

Dr Phil’s extensive coverage of the Letby case is free to view at https://www.private-eye.co.uk/special-reports/lucy-letby

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In memory of Lori

HELEN and Mark Robertson, who lost their daughter, Lori, in a car accident, have opened a new bay in her memory at the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care at the RUH in Bath.

Lori, aged 21, had just qualified as a paediatric nurse and was excited to accept a position at the centre.

Since her death, the couple, from Midsomer Norton, have been fundraising in her memory to help the ward where she would have started her nursing career.

They said: “Our beautiful daughter passed away in a car accident before she could start her dream job as a paediatric nurse in September. In her memory we have raised well over our aim of £21,000 for the unit she was going to join, in memory of Lori and her beautiful 21 years.

“We are so very proud with everything that Lori had achieved in her three years at university, and obtaining her place at the Bath NNU as a paediatric nurse. We felt that there was a need to do something that would hold her memory at the unit, therefore we started the fundraising for the project to help babies and their parents.”

Their fundraising target was £21,000 in memory of the 21-yearold Lori. And in the end over £30,000 was raised by over 825 generous supporters.

Lori’s Mum Helen completed a sky dive, a charity disco raised over £1,000 and other donations included birthday gift and graduation celebration money meant for Lori. The Lori Grace Room is the new parent and baby residential bay named in her memory.

Kirstie Flood, lead nurse at the RUH Bath’s Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care said: “This new parent and baby residential bay gives parents the opportunity to stay overnight with their baby, whilst their baby receives the clinical care they need on the neonatal unit.

“This incredible project could not have been completed without the dedicated and generous fundraising from Helen and Mark and their friends and family and we are extremely grateful.”

Wedmore Dental Care @Home

At Wedmore Dental Practice our vision is to “share our passion for health” and our reputation is built on providing personalised care for every patient. Our Practice Principal, Jennifer Morecroft, has long recognised the lack of domiciliary provision (care that takes place in someone's home) in Somerset. With this in mind, we are delighted to be able to offer ‘Wedmore Dental Care @ Home’ –private dentistry in the comfort of your own home/care setting. One of the primary advantages of domiciliary care is that individuals who cannot, through physical or mental disability, reach a dental surgery can receive care within the familiar surroundings of their own homes. This environment promotes a sense of comfort, security, and emotional well-being, which can significantly enhance the overall health outcomes and quality of life for those in need of assistance. To find out more information about this service and the treatments available please visit our website and go to our “Wedmore Dental Care @ Home” information page or phone us on 01934 713013 to speak to one of our reception team who will be happy to help.

Mark and Helen Robertson opening the room

Lori died aged 21

Church market

THEfirst market of the year raised £555 for All Saints’ Church in Publow. Pictured (l to r) are Lyndsay Cooper, Barbara Avery and Janet Smith on the home baking stall. The next market is on Saturday, March 1st.

Details: Judith Hillman 01761 490324

New shed

CHEWStoke Church School's pupils are now enjoying a new bike shed, thanks to the generosity of local businesses and volunteers. The school has won awards for its sustainable travel initiatives.

Life begins at 70!

CHEWChat, the Chew Valley’s social group for over-70s, recently staged its very own pantomime, bringing together members in a fun-filled production. The average age of the cast was 84!

The idea had been a long-held dream of Sam Oliphant, founder of Chew Chat, but despite numerous attempts to write a script, it always seemed just out of reach.

Then Fiona Tonkin, a seasoned panto writer for the local amateur dramatics group, CATS, stepped in.

Before long, Sam Jollypants and the Seven Chew Chatters was born –a creative retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Then, as if by panto magic, another stroke of luck—Judy Kendall, renowned for her directorial work with CATS, joined the project, ensuring the production reached its full potential.

On January 24th, the curtain rose to a packed hall filled with family, friends, and fellow Chew Chatters. The performance was a resounding success, concluding with a celebratory cream tea, a well-earned glass of fizz, and plenty of laughter.

Sam said: “Who knows –perhaps this won’t be the last time Chew Chat treads the boards! After all, whoever said ‘Life begins at 40’ clearly got it wrong –it’s definitely 70-plus!”

Details: sam@oliphantfamily.me.uk 07941 813137

Last session of winter

THEwinter craft workshops, held monthly in Compton Dando, had 26 participants, who also stayed for lunch.

The workshops were set up several years ago by Harriette Dottridge, as a non-profit making club, and as somewhere for people to meet and enjoy sharing various crafts,

She said: “We are delighted that over this last winter season we have also raised £288 for the Compton Dando Community Association from the craft days I have been running.

“These go towards funding the village activities for children, coffee mornings run by Alice Prescott and general funding.”

Details: www.comptondando.org

Louis and Charlie with the new shed

Showtime!

CHEDDAR Valley u3a’s spring variety show is on Thursday, March 20th, 2.15pm, in Cheddar village hall, with more than 50 members taking part.

It says: “This will be a great afternoon’s entertainment from our many multi-talented members. It’s sure to have something for everyone to enjoy.”

Before that their speaker meeting on March 6th will feature Ian Addison on “Tales and Anecdotes of the Antiques Trade”.

Details: https://cheddar-valleyu3asite.uk

Lydia’s award

LYDIAOsborne has received a Gold Young Leaders in Service Award from Cheddar Vale Lions. She spends many hours at Avalon Camps in Mark, which gives disadvantaged children from Bristol the opportunity to have a holiday in the countryside.

Details: information@cheddarvalelions.org.uk contact@avaloncamps.org.uk

Afternoon tea

CHEDDAR Vale

Lions Club’s annual senior citizens tea party will be held on April 5th in Shipham village hall. They collect people from residential homes all over the Cheddar Vale area. Individuals who have their own transport are welcome but need to let them know. They can also arrange pick-up points for those without their own transport. They say: “This is a perfect opportunity for those not able to get out as much as they would like to meet up with friends, enjoy the entertainment provided by the Somerset Crooner and be served with afternoon tea.”

Last year’s party was the first since Covid and was a great success, with just under 100 people entertained.

Details: information@cheddarvalelions.org.uk 0345 833 7402

New season of walks

MENDIPRamblers have announced their new programme of walks, with the offer of a free trial for new members. Thursday walks are around seven miles and Sunday walks around ten.

They say: “You don't need to pre-book, just turn up at the advertised starting point. All we ask is that you come suitably dressed for the weather and prepared for hills, stiles and some rough and possibly muddy terrain.

“Bring refreshments for coffee break and a lunch stop. If you have any questions, you can contact the walk leader beforehand.”

Details: https://www.mendipramblers.co.uk/ walks/walks-programme.html

Scouts’ awards

FIVE Blagdon scouts have been presented with Chief Scout Gold awards, after completing a wide range of challenges and activities.

They all started as Beavers in Blagdon and have worked their way up through Scouts. They completed the Ten Tors Challenge last year and are now Explorers over at Wrington, with one continuing to help as a young leader with the cubs. Their achievements were supported by ex-scout leaders Neil Hatherall and Dave Parke who have also moved on to help as Explorer leaders.

No distress in this tower

new

A NEW play tower installed in a park in Frome has received praise from its new users.

Designed by Bristol-based Green Play Project and installed with the help of the Frome Town Council’s ranger team, the Egford Park tower replaces one that had deteriorated with age.

Seven-year-old Gilbert and ten-year-old Joseph were among the first to test out the new facilities. Gilbert said: “I think it’s pretty decent” and Joseph added: “I enjoyed it, it’s got a nice view . . . the rugged style of the planks I like. And it’s much less dirty.”

Cllr Mark Dorrington, from Frome Town Council, said: “It’s great to see another play space in Frome refreshed and invigorated. Usually, we think it’s a shame when something is worn out and needs replacing; in the case of play equipment, it’s to be celebrated! We hope many more generations of children will enjoy playing at Egford Park.”

For details about green spaces cared for by Frome Town Council: visit: https://bit.ly/ftc-parks-green-spaces

New arts project

VALLEYArts is launching a new project, Hidden Voices of the Chew Valley, to celebrate its tenth anniversary. It follows the success of last year’s community project “Rising Waters”.

It will begin with the creation of a documentary film featuring local residents to explore life in the Chew Valley, celebrate its history and uncover the inspiring tales of unsung local heroes.

It says: “Do you live or work in the Chew Valley and have something unique that you’d like to share? Are there any local characters you think we should know about?

“We welcome stories from all angles of lived experience so whether it’s a tale from the past or present; magic, mystery, heartache or humour – we want to hear from you!”

Details: kate.mcgregor@valleyartscentre.co.uk

Community awards

CHEDDAR Parish Council has announced the launch of this year’s Community Awards, which are given in recognition of special service to the parish of Cheddar.

Since their creation in 2010 over 40 awards have been received by individuals or community groups for their service.

The closing date for nominations is Wednesday, March 19th. Award winners, and their nominators, will be invited to the annual parish meeting at the Cheddar Community Pavilion on Wednesday, April 23rd to receive their community award.

Details: cheddarparishcouncil.org/nominations-invited-forthe-years-community-awards

Ladies’ night

41 Club held their annual Ladies Night at Wells Golf Club. The event started with a warm welcome from the 41 Club president Michael Flack followed by the response by Elizabeth Weelen, treasurer of Shepton Mallet Tangent Club. Robin Weelen as Master of Ceremonies ensured the evening’s activities ran smoothly and invited everyone to take part in the club’s charity raffle, which raised £463 for Children’s Hospice South West.

The

tower is a rugged upgrade on the previous one

Gilbert (left) and Joseph

SHEPTONMallet

New season

AROUND25 volunteers gathered for a pre-season social at the visitor information centre in Cheddar Gorge to meet new recruits and to hear about plans for 2025.

The centre is open weekends only until Easter, after which it will be open every day throughout the season until the end of October.

Visitors have voted Cheddar one of the most welcoming places in the UK in Booking.com’s 2025 Traveller Awards.

Details: cheddargorgevic@gmail.com

New skills for SWALLOW members

Some of the

THREE corporate friends of the SWALLOW charity have enabled 31 members to receive first aid training.

SWALLOW, based at Westfield, supports local teenagers and adults with learning disabilities to live life to the full.

Sun Chemical, Robert Taylor Architect and TPM Printers funded the course which members say makes them feel more confident that they will be able to put their learning into practice and help their friends, supporters and families in the case of an emergency.

New corporate funders are always welcome. For details, visit: https://www.swallowcharity.org

Celebrating 103 years of Stacey Rees

much laughter amongst the audience.

CHEW Chat, the Chew Valley’s social group for over-70s, recently celebrated a very special milestone - the 103rd birthday of Stacey Rees from Compton Martin whose been part of Chew Chat for the last seven years.

John Skinner of Chew Magna led a “This Is Your Life” style interview, prompting stories and

The event concluded with Stacey singing his favourite song I Left My Heart in San Francisco accompanied by the other party goers and receiving a photo book commemorating his time with Chew Chat.

Born and brought up in Bristol, he found a job working for the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in Filton. He played a role in the development of the legendary Bristol Brabazon and was there when Concorde was built.

One of his most fascinating encounters was meeting Fidel Castro, shaking hands with the Cuban leader when he came to Bristol to collect a Bristol Britannia aircraft!

His wife Margaret died in 2012.

Church repairs

SCAFFOLDINGhas gone up at St Mary the Virgin Church in Stanton Drew, where the church’s bell stair turret requires £20,000 of work.

Trustees of Pensford, Publow and the Stanton’s Community Trust have supported this with a grant of £4,000, thanks to support from members of their 100 club.

That helped the church to levy grants, nearly £6,000 from the National Church’s Trust and £2,000 from Chelwood Community Fund.

Lions support cadets

GLASTONBURYand Street Sea Cadets have received a boost to their funds from the Glastonbury and Street Lions Club (CIO) to help renovate an old Portacabin used as a classroom. They applied to the Lions’ Howard Martin Memorial Fund to install new heaters, purchase a small dehumidifier and find recycled classroom chairs and tables to finish off a renovation project at their headquarters in Glastonbury.

The classroom used by the cadets required rejuvenating and the youngsters organised a sponsored event that raised almost £1000 towards the project by kayaking, running and cycling around Cheddar Reservoir.

A spokesperson for the cadets said: "The benefits to our Junior Cadets will be enormous. The Portacabin was leaking and damp with paint peeling off inside. The project has given

the juniors pride in their dedicated area –a warm inviting space ready to learn and enjoy the sea cadet experience in comfort that is the least they deserve."

A Lions spokesman said: "When we looked at the application we were impressed by the effort that the cadets had put into raising some funds towards the rejuvenation themselves.

“The Howard Martin Memorial Fund was set up to help support young people in our area and this grant certainly ticks all the boxes and more.”

Details: https://e-clubhouse.org/sites/glastonbystreet/ Facebook page Glastonbury and Street Lions Club

We wassail thee, oh Weylands trees

WASSAILERS of all ages gathered at the community orchard at Weylands, on the edge of Frome, for the annual fruit-tree blessing ceremony.

The wassail was opened by Frome Town Crier Martin Scott with dancing by Bounds of Selwood Morris, followed by the wassail ceremony itself, led by performers Annabelle Macfadyen and Jamie Wood, accompanied by Frome Street Bandits.

Around 300 wassailers joined in the fun, made wassail crowns with Frome Families for the Future and sticks with ribbons and bells to shake accompanied by hot mulled cider and apple juice from Dowdings. A free tree giveaway by Frome Town Council saw 45 apple tree saplings head to new homes.

The community orchard at Weylands was planted in 2019 and 2020 by Charly Le Marchant of WoodfortheTrees and Pavla of Hejgro, who designed and organised the tree planting under the TreeGroup with help of FROGs and Shared Earth and funds and support from FTC and Pumpkin Day in 2019 and 2020.

Mayor Andy Jones, the first to toast the trees, said: "What a

fantastic turnout for the third Weylands Wassail! Thank you to Annabelle, Charly, Jamie, the Frome Street Bandits, Bounds of Selwood, Martin Scott and everyone who came down despite the chilly weather to wake up the orchard and look forward to Spring!"

Bounds of Selwood

Frome Street Bandits

Willow crown making

Mayor Andy Jones (left) with town crier Martin Scott

Cary’s carers recognised

Lord Lieutenant

Let them eat cake

THE Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, Mohammed Saddiq, was the guest of honour at a presentation ceremony to some of Castle Cary’s longstanding volunteers.

The event was part of Castle Cary Town Council’s commitment to celebrate volunteering in the community.

A NEWmonthly community event has started at St Laurence’s Church in East Harptree called “Thank cake it’s Friday”.

One of the organisers, Gill Stobart, said: “It’s an opportunity for all parts of our community to get together once a month and an opportunity for everyone to enjoy the newly refurbished St Laurence church. It’s now a great space and we want it to be used.”

They plan to run it every first Friday of the month, 3-4.30pm.

Details: 01761 221505 gill.stobart57@gmail.com

Annual lunch

THEannual fundraising pasty and pudding lunch, held at Stanton Drew village hall, raised £810 towards repairs for the village church.

It will go towards repairs to the stonework on the church tower, which will cost around £25,000.

Dancing for fitness

ANGELA Rippon’s national Let’s Dance event has been taken up enthusiastically by Bishop Sutton and Stowey WI.

Following her success on Strictly Come Dancing, the former TV newsreader wants to show that dance can help both mental and physical health.

The WI’s event will be at Bishop Sutton Village Hall on Saturday, March 1st, 2-4pm. Somerset Morris and Avon Dance School will also be there giving demos and encouraging everyone to join in.

WI president, Jenny Harris, said: “This is a free event aimed at bringing people together for fun and a chance to dance like no-one is watching. Refreshments will be available.”

Details: 07737 255701

Charity support

BANWELL WI has voted to support Freewheelers EVS, the blood bikes charity, this year and heard from one of its volunteers, Graham, at their February meeting.

He said they don’t get any government funding and reckon they save the NHS £450,000 a year. A charity table top sale will be held in Banwell village hall on May 10th, 10am-1pm, tables £10, with tombola and refreshments.

Details: president.banwellwi@gmailcom

Mr Saddiq with members of Castle Cary & Ansford Carnival Society

The

with Judi Morison, town council chairman

i n p r i n t a n d o n l i n e !

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Many thanks to those who spread the word

COMMUNICATION is a vital element for any business, so today I would like to put on record my thanks for the unsung heroes and heroines who produce and distribute the Mendip Times. Not only do they keep us all up to date with what’s happening in our area, but they alert people to things that can really make a difference to their lives.

For example, I have recently written encouraging house owners to think about whether their current homes are really right for them and to consider selling and moving into more suitable accommodation. I acknowledged this was a huge decision to make, especially if they had lived in a property for many years, but I stressed that my team was ready, willing and able to help them through the whole process.

That message has definitely struck a chord and I have recently had a number of really good appointments as a result of those articles, from people of mature years, not regular users of social media, but who take time to appreciate the printed word and it is great to get such positive feedback from what I have had to say.

I was especially pleased those potential vendors had carefully considered what I suggested about houses which may, at first sight, appear a bit old fashioned or “tired” as we estate agents prefer to describe them ! Whilst the price needs to reflect their condition, there are many buyers who are attracted to such

properties because they love a blank canvas to work on and create a new family home for years to come.

It's such a satisfying job to apply our widely renowned Dedication, Imagination and Delivery to help people, sure in the knowledge that we will be with them every step of the way during the process involved in selling their homes and finding new people to move into the area who appreciate our lifestyle.

I love it when businesses combine to help one another because it is the foundation for a sustainable local economy which benefits everyone. Recently a firm of solicitors became a new member of Chew Valley Chamber of Commerce and we are developing a working relationship with them, not excluding any other firms, but finding ways of co-operating which will be helpful to everyone concerned.

So, thanks again Mendip Times and let’s hope by working together we will continue to make the Chew Valley a great place to live and work.

JOANNA TILEY

20 years of working hard and dreaming big

Valentino Kitchens celebrates a milestone this March in creating beautiful, tailored spaces for Mendip homes.

THEfamily-run kitchen and interior design company, based in the Chew Valley, celebrates its 20th birthday this March with a celebratory tea party.

Furniture has always been part of life for the Whitty family with Valentino Kitchens founder, Adrian Whitty, cutting his teeth in mass manufacturing and flatpack. He then went on to launch his first business with an idea for a bathroom cabinet before progressing to kitchens and home furniture.

In 2005, after forty years of working in the furniture business, Adrian came out of retirement to set up Valentino Kitchens, bringing in his daughter Sam, newly out of university, to support the venture. His wife, Kim, niece, Faye and son, Mark followed suit.

Initially building contract kitchens, Valentino’s has now expanded into a fully bespoke design and installation service for the whole home. The company is still very much a family business as well as one that has close relationships with skilled carpenters, builders, electricians and many more contractors in the local Mendip area.

The company has a founding ethos of individuality and personalisation. Both the shape and personality of a home and

how the client will use the space are intrinsic to the final design. Sam, now director, said: “The properties in the area are all individual and rarely square!

“Whether the client is a cook, a baker or wants to use the space for entertaining, it all informs the design.”

It’s for this reason that many clients love the unique service. Sam continued: “We love staying in touch with our customers, which often results in discussing when they are moving and want a second or third Valentino Kitchen or living space. We have also been very lucky as we get to meet new generations of the families and renovate their homes.”

Mendip resident Clare Davis said of her design, fitted in 2022: “I absolutely love my kitchen! I really felt I had so many options and that my kitchen could be unique to what I wanted.”

The team are looking forward to toasting their birthday milestone by hosting an afternoon tea for clients and the public at the Valentino Showroom from 2 till 4pm this coming March 14th.

“We are proud to be a family business based in the Mendips and are excited to celebrate how far we’ve come on our 20th anniversary this year,” says Sam.

SUNLIT Solar say they were thrilled to see so many people join them to chat about all things solar and learn more about reducing their carbon footprints.

They said: “It was great meeting both new customers looking to take their first step into solar and existing customers exploring ways to extend their current systems.”

The event was held in Blackford Village Hall.

From product advice to a full bathroom re-design, we are delighted to help you with your bathroom plans. Whatever the size of your space or your budget, we’re here to help.

Visit our Showroom today!

Preparing for the new eventing season

THIS month it has been all about showjumping and dressage with attempts to try and get it better before the eventing season begins. Two dressage outings and two showjumping outings have been achieved and my predilection for collecting coats has paid off with the cold weather and trying to wrap oneself up as warm as possible. The outings have been a good starting point and lots of homework has emerged.

It is now 11 weeks until Badminton which is a bit surreal when you have not even gone cross country schooling or eventing yet. I really hope the weather is kind this year to allow us to have some early season runs as last year was a write off until April.

I have Moreton pencilled in as my first event which runs in the middle of March, but it has cancelled a few years on the trot as we have had a very wet March. At the current time I have a plan A, B and C!

It's around this time of year where I email Bristol Vet School to see if anyone is interested in riding out for me. This year I was lucky enough to get several replies and Talia Allen was the first to email and was exactly what I was looking for.

Talia is a 4th year vet student and used to have her own horse which she evented before selling it due to five years of uni which vet students need to complete before becoming qualified.

In return for riding out they get lessons with great trainers and hopefully a few opportunities to do some interesting things like ride on the beach, head to the gallops and ride around some of our beautiful countryside.

It makes a massive difference to me to have someone able to ride out as it means I can keep both horses fit doing hill work,

fast work and hacking out for a few hours. Without someone to ride out for me I would really struggle to get the work into both horses with limited daylight. Hopefully it works well for both parties and overall, they are nice horses to ride.

One of the things which I have got into this year is very small shares in racehorses. I love national hunt racing and through Owners Group have picked up shares in two horses – one with Paul Nicholls and the other with Ben Pauling. Each horse has roughly 3500 owners and you renew each year.

For £60 a year it’s a bit of fun and a lovely way to be involved in racing for a fraction of the costs. The horse with Ben Pauling is called Hard to Know and has managed to win twice this year which is cool. I even managed to win a few pounds

from backing him. He ran in a grade one in December but was soundly beaten in a very high calibre field.

The other horse is called The Final Word, and he has not set the world on fire but was preparing to run as we went to press. The Owners Group does an amazing job at keeping in touch about your horse with trainer updates, great videos and a chance to visit the horses and win owners badges in a ballot.

Best of all they take racehorse welfare very seriously and horses who cannot be retrained into a riding career are retired at their purpose-built yard in Wiltshire.

Talking of racehorse welfare, recently a

new initiative called TAP was launched and it stands for Thoroughbred Aftercare Programme. It is the brainchild of David Howden and it’s looking to help former racehorses transition to new careers as riding horses.

It offers guidance on transitioning a former racehorse into a new career, provides online resources and offers subsidised training. Anyone who has an exracehorse can take part.

In the South West we have had clinics being run with British Showjumping coach Mandy Frost at Bicton and the next one will be on March 8th. If you have an exracehorse and are interested in knowing more, the website www.thehowdenway.com should have all the opportunities available to you.

This training initiative sits alongside what the Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) are also doing with their work around welfare and competitions for exracehorses. There really has been a concerted effort in the last few years to promote ex-racehorses and make sure that horses who have been in racing can have a viable chance of a second career.

Sad news which has come out this month is the loss of the Bramham as the host of the BE80 championships. Bramham have said it is not viable and this is despite BE opening the qualification criteria for those to attend.

Instead, the championships will now be held at Chillington Hall which is a nice event, but it does not have the cache of Bramham. It is extra special locations like Bramham and Badminton which are part of the lure of attending these championships and it’s a shame for the 80cm riders that they have not got such a special event to aim for now.

Hopefully a good solution will be found for next year as we do host some amazing events in the UK in the most wonderful locations for eventing.

Lucy Counsell is a lifelong equestrian with a passion for eventing. She set up the riding club, Equestrian Training South West, served on Area 12 Riding Club committee and has her UKCC2 qualification to coach riding

With LUCY COUNSELL

When I look, I really look

Pat Lawrence, who runs Divoky Riding School at Downhead, explains how watching horses at work helps her concentrate on her favourite hobby. An award-winning riding school in

Some of Pat’s work

MY proper job as a riding coach has equipped me with a talent that I had not recognised: when I look at something I REALLY LOOK; I notice everything.

With horses and riders I notice every muscle, every change of balance of the horse and rider and I can really focus my attention deeply. I hadn't realised this ability to look and really see would help me when it came to taking up painting.

As I travel through my 60s I find that I have an urge to try lots of new things. Although I am not as brave as I was a few decades ago, I am curious to find out if I have any talents not yet discovered.

During lockdown, with time on my hands, I remembered I had bought some paints when, in a flight of fancy, I decided to make a fairy door for my hens and luckily the paints were of many colours and hadn’t gone hard. So I gave it a go.

Each canvas started life as just a white wet surface, I splashed on colours here and there, had a go with a pallet knife and pictures just seemed to emerge. Every picture grew as I added colour. I have not yet tried to paint something I have seen. I just splash and dash away and gradually it takes shape.

I usually have some mountains in the background, water seems to be a frequent addition and I am experimenting with all sorts of trees. Sometimes when I look at a picture days later the paint seems to have produced little villages and all sorts of landscapes that I didn't really mean to put in, but they are just there!

I know the Tate won't be bashing down my door to offer me wallspace but I don't care. I am fascinated by what pops up in the pictures. I find it so relaxing and I have noticed that I am now looking around again at the trees and local landscape and taking much more notice of the plants and trees whereas I think I had started to take them for granted.

Holiday Courses

H Half days and full days | 6 days a week all summer

H 10am-12.30pm & 1-3.30pm

H All ages from 5-16yrs | All abilities

H Half day £50 | full day £100

H Booking essential

Summer for the Minis

H Half hour lead rein lessons for under-5s daily

H Children must be able to be fitted with a safety helmet to ride

H Booking essential

Return to riding!

We all know it can be a bit of a challenge to get back in the saddle if you’ve not ridden for a while – but we have the answers!

H Ride and coffee mornings

H Adult group lessons H Quiet Hacks

Call or email us for more details

heart of Mendip Divoky Riding School, Manor Farm, Downhead, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 4LG www.divoky.co.uk • Email: info@divoky.co.uk T: 01749 880233 • M: 07971 207037

The unspoken rules of cyclists

ATthe London premiere of “A Complete Unknown” Timothée Chalamet defied convention by turning up on a Lime bike – one of the capital’s popular rental bicycles, which can be hired via an app. He rode the e-bike on to the red carpet, ended the ride on his phone and then carried on with the rest of the premiere as if nothing had happened.

Making an entrance on the “coolest” method of transport in London brought the Oscar nominated actor even more attention and a swathe of new fans.

However, while the bike had splatterings of mud and grit on its frame, his shoes and trousers did not. Any continuity director would have noticed, but that didn’t matter on this occasion. It was good for Lime bikes, good for cycling and of course, good for Timothée!

The reasons to cycle and where to cycle can be different for each person –but making an entrance at a film premiere on a bike is definitely a new one! There is nothing in the Highway Code that says you can’t do it.

Although the Highway Code governs important aspects of road safety, there are also unwritten rules that go straight to the heart of cycling etiquette.

First, there is “the nod”. This is the recognition by cyclists to each other as they pass each other in the opposite direction. It’s nothing more than a subtle head nod, often accompanied by a slight smile. This universal gesture is a silent acknowledgement, a shared understanding, and a symbol of camaraderie on the road.

The more times a rider makes the nod

over time the briefer it starts to become, until it becomes just a twitch of the head. Alternatively, it could be just one finger being lifted from the handlebar for a second. Blink and you could easily miss it.

Then there are the protocols about “drafting”. The biggest advantage of riding in a group, even if it is small group of three, is the aerodynamic effect on the whole group. The rider at the front works hardest, pushing the air out of the way while the riders in the slipstream save energy.

But the rider at the front is not doing this out of kindness. Each rider is expected to take their turn at the front, even in a race.

Another strong part of the camaraderie amongst cyclists is the expectation that one rider will help another – even if they don’t know each other. If a cyclist looks like they are lost or have a mechanical problem, it’s worth checking if they need help.

Even if they are in control and don’t need help, it’s about sticking together and caring for each other. Anyone new to cycling will appreciate the help in fixing a puncture for the first time.

Cycle helmets are important but how they get used can easily go wrong for those new to cycling. First of all, it’s important to make sure the helmet is facing the right way! Also, the helmet should drop down covering the side of the head above the ears and not sit on top of the head like a hat.

When it’s not right, experienced riders have a duty to point it out. It’s one of those slightly embarrassing things to do so but needs to be addressed in as subtle a way as possible, in order to protect the rider’s safety.

The other thing about helmets is that they look okay when riding a bike but

the moment you step off – they need to be taken off, it just doesn’t look cool. If you leave it on, its more than likely you’ll forget you’re wearing it and knock it against a doorframe or bash it into someone’s head while queuing for a coffee!

And with clothing, don’t be a “kit snob". Don't judge others (or yourself) based on their gear. While cycling apparel can enhance performance and comfort, it's not a prerequisite for enjoying a ride. Everyone needs to start somewhere, and the most important thing is to get out and ride.

Finally, remember to be humble about riding a bike. It’s all too easy to take for granted the beautiful scenery and wildlife that you come across on a bike ride, notwithstanding the health benefits that also go with it.

Be positive about when you ride fast and ride well, and when you don’t remember that “form is temporary, class is permanent” – especially if you happen to ride your bike onto a red carpet!

CYCLING with EDMUND LODITE

ACROSS: 1. Vintage 5. Wilkins 9. Nevis 10. Thatchers 11. Cidermaker 12. Sloe 14. Imperialists 18. Friends again 21. Pace 22. Blackthorn 25. Septuplet 26. Rough 27. Emerald 28. Hedgers. DOWN:1. Venice 2. Nevada 3. Assortment 4. Extra 5. Weakening 6. Luck 7. Idealist 8. Suspense 13. Cloistered 15. Easily led 16. Off-piste 17. Disciple 19. Volume 20. Inches 23. Catch 24. Jura

Judo champion

LEEAdams, aged 60, was the toast of the Full Fat Grappling Judo and Jiu-jitsu club after winning gold in the masters/veterans Eurometropole competition in France.

The last time he entered he was fifth in what is one of the top three veterans’ tournaments in the world. He has been British champion three times.

The engineering manager from Gurney Slade has been practising judo for 50 years and was previously coach at the club, which is based at Westfield.

He said: “I’ll carry on until my body tells me I can’t. I’m not one for just sitting on the sofa.”

Current coach, Matt Hucker, said: “The smallest in his category, Adams was as quick as a whippet with his fast hips and nimble defence, he proved too much for his French and Belgian opponents.”

It was a very successful tournament for the club: Kern Foot won silver; Matthew Hucker took bronze; Max MacDonald took fifth place in his category; Charmaine Alford, in her first international, won silver.

Details: Facebook or Instagram

Sailing for the disabled

THE Chew Lake Association of Disabled Sailors’ charity (CLADS) is preparing for a new Sailability season starting in April and is looking for new sailors and volunteers.

They sail on Chew Valley Lake on most Saturdays from the end of April until the beginning of October each year. They cater for any age from eight to 80 and any form of disability.

They say: “You will find sailing a breath of fresh air,

meet fantastic people and learn loads. Sailing is great for mind, body and soul. Come and enjoy sailing in this beautiful setting.

“Or, if you have been a sailor but have become infirm and unable to sail without assistance you are also very welcome.”

They have four “Challengers”, (15' single-handed trimarans), a “WindRider” trimaran which takes four and an “Access” singlehanded dinghy. All their boats are specially adapted for disabled sailors.

They say they need a mix of helpers to assist with onshore and offshore activities. Onshore activities include helping set-up boats at the start of the day and packing up at the end of the day.

Sailors need assistance getting in and out of the boats. Sailing experience isn’t needed to be able to assist with onshore activities. Offshore activities involve being able to take people out on their accessible dinghies and assist where necessary. Whilst some sailing experience would be an advantage, they are able to train people where necessary.

Details: https://www.clads.co.uk info@clads.co.uk

Lee with his gold medal

THE Kings of Wessex Pistol Shooting team from Cheddar excelled at the British Schools National Championships, held in Birmingham, winning the silver medal.

Ferris Lovell, aged 15, Megan Tasker, 14, and Lulu Lovell, 13, all remained calm under extreme pressure to deliver accurate targets throughout.

Ferris and Megan both secured personal bests in the initial rounds of the competition which set the team up well but left Lulu under intense pressure to secure the silver medal in her shoot.

She held her nerve and truly delivered getting their combined score to 478, within two points of the gold medal!

All three team members took up pistol shooting via Pony Club tetrathlon, where shooting is just one of four sports they have to excel at. In pure British shooting competitions, they compete against specialist pistol shooters, so second place was a massive achievement.

Shooting stars International success

ALFIEGarrett, aged nine, from Holcombe has made a successful debut on the international kart racing circuit.

His mum Lisa got a surprise phone call saying Alfie was selected to participate in the prestigious Dubai O-plate at the Dubai Autodrome as part of the Mumbai Falcons.

This would be on the weekend of January 25th but for more experience

Alfie would be able to participate in the 4th round of the 24/25 UAE RMC the weekend before.

As a kart had been custom built for Alfie, the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were testing days with racing at the weekend. In a grid of 28 he triumphed and came in 1st place.

In the Dubai O-plate the following weekend he finished 2nd in a grid of 32, despite having mechanical problems.

He seems to have an astonishing future ahead of him. He is entered into the

Micro Max cadet class for the Full British Championship and the Ultimate Karting Championship. The next goal is to win these and receive a golden ticket to the world championships held in Bahrain.

Mum Lisa said: “Alfie is a nine-yearold full of grit and ambition with the desire to achieve his dreams. He is dreaming big, with his skillset and the support of his family and friends there is nothing he can’t accomplish.”

Alfie is looking for sponsors to help him.

Details: lisa@garrett-transport.co.uk Facebook & Instagram

Basketball winners

CHEWStoke Church School's Year 5/6 basketball team brought home the trophy after a triumphant performance at the Bristol Sport Foundation Bristol Flyers Basketball Cup Tournament.

One of the school’s team, Louie, was awarded a prestigious Golden Ticket, which grants him a free session at the Flyers hub.

Vicki Hennessy, deputy headteacher at the school, said: “This special recognition acknowledges his outstanding talent, unwavering enthusiasm, and exemplary sportsmanship throughout the tournament.”

Keeping it local

The presentation in front of the clubhouse

BURNHAM and Berrow Golf Club are delighted to have raised an impressive £25,624.62 for the town’s RNLI Lifeboat Station during the club Captain’s Charity year

Julie Fisher, club member and RNLI shop volunteer, said: “A further presentation is planned at the lifeboat station over next couple of months where it is hoped that crew and volunteers can come together to recognise the generosity of everyone who helped raise this large amount for a fantastic local cause.”

Deputy Launch Authority Phil Counsell added: “This is a most generous amount that will help our lifeboats continue to save lives at sea. Thank you to all those who help raise the money.”

Details: 07737 255701

Pirates on the green

YATTONBowling Club is looking forward to the new outdoor season starting on Saturday, April 12th.

The club was founded in 1928 when all the players were men and the rent for the green was £7 per year. On June 5th that year, players' wives were invited to enjoy “a cup of tea and an exhibition of bowls, with tobacco pouches being offered to the winners”.

The club now enjoys good facilities, including changing rooms, club house, bar and a well kept green, with members of all ages and abilities. They play competitively against other local bowling clubs as well as social

Details: Alison 07855 496779 or 01934 833547

friendly matches throughout the season.

Newer players are offered free coaching, loan of equipment and a warm welcome. Coaching can be arranged for a time that suits them whether they have some experience or are totally new to the game.

They also have an active social calendar, the latest event being a Murder Mystery Night, written by one of their talented members, Ian Selby, with participants in full pirate costume. A games evening and a quiz night are planned before the outdoor season starts.

Charity ringers

COMMUNITYChimes handbell ringers will be playing in Shepton Mallet market place for Comic Relief on Friday, March 21st, 10.30-11.30am.

The six members practice each week at the home of Chloe Baker and raise money for Red Nose Day, Children in Need and other charities. At Christmas they visited care homes to play carols.

Details: chloe.baker@talktalk.net

Fitzhardinge Consort

YATTONMusic Society is hosting the Fitzhardinge Consort at St Mary’s Church, Yatton on Saturday, March 29th.

Members of this renowned choir of professional musicians from across the West of England and South Wales have sung with the Tallis Scholars, the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, and in lead roles on the stages of Covent Garden and Glyndebourne.

Their programme for this concert will be focused on 19th and 20th century sacred English music for voices and organ. The choir will be conducted by Peter Wagstaff with organist James Drinkwater.

The concert starts at 7.30pm, tickets are £12, students £6, children free.

Details: www.yms.org.uk

Trinity Singers

LOCAL choir, Trinity Singers, will be presenting “Kirchenmusik”, an evening of lyrical and uplifting works by Schubert and Rheinberger at St Mary’s Church, Yatton, on Saturday, March 22nd, 7.30pm.

The concert, featuring beautiful sacred music from either end of the 19th century, will be conducted by their musical director, Andrew Tyrrell, and accompanied by Alison Blundell.

Details: www.trinitysingers.co.uk

The sounds of Zimbabwe

Bruce will lead a celebration of his Zimbabwean heritage

CELELBRATED Zimbabwean musician and choir leader Bruce Ncube will visit Frome for the first time in March to deliver an inclusive and participatory workshop of joyful singing with adult participants based on traditional songs from his home country.

Bruce has toured extensively in the UK, captivating audiences at some of the world's most significant and renowned events, including the prestigious WOMAD Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, and the World Music Workshop Festival. Participants will delve into the beauty of multi-part harmonies, exploring the intricate melodies and rhythms characterising this rich musical heritage. His approach not only imparts musical knowledge but also revives the communal aspect of singing, uniting voices and people in the spirit of togetherness. The workshop is on Saturday, March 8th at the Bennett Centre in Vicarage Street from 10am-4.30pm.

For details, visit: www.tinyurl.com/yy9cbcbk

Joint concert brings choirs and orchestra together

A CONCERTin Writhlington School’s Dragonfly Theatre raised £1,700 for the Swallow charity in Radstock and for the restoration of Paulton Junior School's Forest School equipment.

It involved 100 performers from From The Top Music Groups based in Farrington Gurney, the orchestra, Cam Valley Choir and Men Of Chew, appearing for the first time together.

Details: www.fromthetop.live

Conductor wanted

PAULTONConcert Band have had a busy time, despite the retirement of Richard Soulsby after more than 30 years with the band.

They performed at various places including St Peter’s Church Westfield, Paulton Christmas Extravaganza and nursing homes. They also travelled to Warminster to give Richard a surprise concert.

They are still looking for a new conductor and would also welcome new members. They meet on a Monday evening in The Cellar in Paulton.

Details: paultonconcertband@hotmail.com • www.paultonconcertband.org

Young musician competition

THE 17th Churchill Young Musician of the Year Competition was held at St John’s Church in Churchill, hosted by Churchill Music in association with Churchill Academy and Sixth Form.

The audience heard a wide range of styles and instruments, from baroque violin music to Radiohead on piano, via songs by Schubert and Minchin.

The distinguished panel of judges – Richard Crabtree, Julian Forbes and Holly Greenwood-Rogers – gave interesting feedback, with a couple of impromptu and fascinating masterclasses.

The winner was Wilfred Maitland-Round, whose euphonium pieces included a spectacular Concert Etude by Goedicke and a mellow rendition of “Stardust”.

Toby Wilson, in his fifth and last appearance in the competition, won the audience prize, for his performance on the violin of “Romance” by Amy Beach.

The Junior Trophy was won by Molly Blundell (Year 9), for her lively and bold playing of Telemann – unaccompanied.

The winners also have the opportunity to enter the District

Final of the Rotary Young Musician of the Year competition on Sunday, March 2nd held this year at Churchill Academy.

Pictured (l to r) Jamie Samuel, Wilfred Maitland-Round, Toby Wilson, Jason Corke, Tomos Parsons, Ella Phippen, Molly Blundell, Senuli Gamage and Maisie Vowles who was presented with the Raymond Hayter Song Prize for the most promising vocal student

Telling tales

COLINEmmett, from Mendip Storytelling Circle, ran a short beginners' course at Chew Valley Library in Bishop Sutton to celebrate National Storytelling week and B&NES Festival of Libraries.

Mendip Storytelling Circle will be running informal Saturday afternoon story rounds for adults 16-plus on March 1st and April 5th, 1.303pm at the library, based at The Link in Bishop Sutton.

Exclusively for adult storytelling from memory, these events are for tellers, listeners, and those who want to try telling for the first time with some guidance available.

A great day out

A VISIT to either the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Pointto-Point or the Mendip Farmers Point to point – or even both – is a guaranteed way to enjoy a traditional day out of sport, friendship and fun.

Both of the March fixtures will entertain seasoned racegoers as well as those discovering P-P events for the first time.

The BSV meeting takes places on the edge of Charlton Horethorne, near Wincanton, on Sunday, March 9th, and will see seven pony races followed by the point-to-point races which can attract some of the biggest names in the sport, jockeys, horses and trainers alike.

Visitors are welcome to take their own picnics – the more adventurous the better – for a get-together, otherwise there will be plenty of refreshments on sale. The same is true of the Mendip meet at Ston Easton, where pony racing follows the main action on Sunday, March 23rd..

The fixtures make up just a small part of the national P-P season and part of the Wessex 11-month-long season running in Wessex – Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset.

Medieval mayhem and mischief in Glastonbury

THE Glastonbury Abbey Medieval Fayre returns on April 26th & 27th, taking over the whole historic site for a full weekend of medieval mayhem.

Advance discount tickets are on sale for the weekend; each day will feature two jousting shows as well as battles, living history camps, storytelling, live music, an alchemist, fine ale and a massive medieval market.

Re-enactors travel from all over the UK for the event and visitor will see and experience what life was like from the very early middle ages right up to the 15th & 16th century. The abbey ruins are a spectacular backdrop to the event and provide further opportunities for exploration during your visit.

The live medieval music is hosted in the 14th century Abbot’s Kitchen and a short stroll away you will find the antics

of What-A-Palava, the fire breathing Jester. Both days will feature a best dressed visitor competition in the main arena.

For 2025 the event has introduce a Kids go Free policy meaning all children 15 and under can come to the event free of charge with a ticket holding adult.

Discounted online tickets are available now from www.glastonburyabbey.com and advanced booking is recommended

Volunteers welcome

THE Somerset & Dorset Railway at Midsomer Norton is getting ready to re-open for the 2025 season on Sunday, April 6th and there are still plenty of opportunities to become involved as a volunteer in the continued growth of the attraction.

Although closed since New Year, the team has been hard at work preparing for the coming season.

This is an important year for British railways as a whole as it sees the 200th anniversary of the modern railway – the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in September 1825. The railway at Midsomer Norton joined other heritage railways across the country in starting the celebrations on New Year’s Day with a “Whistle Up” where locomotives of all types sounded their whistles and horns. There will be celebrations across the country under the banner “Railway 200” throughout the year and Midsomer Norton will be joining in.

Currently, just The Emporium is open on Sunday mornings at the station, selling secondhand books and a wide range of model railway items. The Pines Buffet will re-open on Sunday, April 6th and is then open every Sunday for the rest of the season.

This is also the first day of train services this year, with the first train at 10.30am. Trains will be running again on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. In addition, the quirky Wickham Trolley will be running on Wednesday, April 9th and Wednesday, April 16th.

For up-to-date details and to discover more about volunteering, visit: www.sdjr.co.uk

Buffet open 10.30am to 15.30pm every Sunday from 6th April

Easter at the Station –Sunday 20th & Monday 21st April

Wickham Trolley Rides Wednesday 9th & 16th April

For details and to book: www.sdjr.co.uk Forthcoming highlights: REOPENING SUNDAY, 6TH APRIL

The Glastonbury Abbey Fayre returns

(Photo courtesy of Jason Bryan)

T HE M ENDIP T IMES W

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Saturday March 1st

Annual Harptree Charity Hop: live band, dancing, bar. From 6:30pm West Harptree village hall. £10. Details: www.westharptreehall.com

Tell a story if you can! Listen and learn storytelling techniques for grown-ups, 1.30 to 3pm Chew Valley Community Library, Bishop Sutton, BS39 5UU. Accessible former Methodist Chapel with car park. Details: mendipstorycircle@gmail.com

Yatton Music Society: Wyvern Afinado Guitar Orchestra with Craig Ogden, 7.30pm, St Mary’s Church Yatton. Tickets £12: www.yms.org.uk Bishop Sutton WI Tea Dance 2pm 4pm village hall. Details: 07737 255701.

La Vie en Rose, finest Gypsy Jazz & Swing. Meals and drinks available. The Charltons Community Centre, Top Road, Charlton Adam, TA11 7BE. To book: 07809 730677.

Acoustic music night, Hutton village hall, 7.30pm, £5. Details: 07483 806115. Churchill Music, Carducci String Quartet 7pm All Saints Church, Wrington BS40 5LF. Tickets £1 to £19.50 from Ticketsource or holly@churchillmusic.org.uk

Sunday March 2nd

Chew Magna: Tree care & planting, with refreshments, 10.30 to 12.30 every Sunday morning in March. Please email bryonyhuntley2019@gmail.com

Monday March 3rd

Congresbury Memorial Hall Club: Friendship evening with bingo, 8pm War Memorial Hall. Visitors welcome.

Chew Valley Flower Club Floral demonstration 7.30pm Compton Martin Hall Visitors welcome 01275 835711.

RAFA-MSB AGM 11am, followed by optional lunch, Wells Golf Club BA5 3DS. Details rafa.midsomerset@gmail.com or 01458-224057. Cheddar Valley Singers, Mondays 7pm Cheddar Catholic Community Hall. Details: cheddarvalleysingers@gmail.com or Facebook.

Tuesday March 4th

The Arts Society Mendip: Three Baltic capitals: Tallinn, Vilnius and Riga with Simon Rees, 11am Croscombe Village Hall and by Zoom. Details: www.theartssocietymendip.org.uk

Bath NATS talk by Maurice Avent “Butterflies” 7.30pm BRSLI, 16 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN. Visitors welcome £3.

Weston u3a meet for coffee every Tuesday, 10am Friends Meeting House, 6 High St Weston-s-Mare, BS23 1JF. Come and make new friends!

Yatton Local History Society AGM then talk “the NHS at 70: Bristol Healthcare” by Clive Burlton. 7.30pm Yatton Methodist Church BS49 4DW. Details: yattonlocalhistorysoc@gmail.com Joyful Voices: fill your afternoon with song! Tuesdays 1.30-3pm Cheddar Catholic Community Hall. Details: joyfulvoicesafternoon@gmail.com

Wednesday March 5th

Sing2breathe for breathlessness – techniques for breathing control and improved posture. 1.45 to 3pm Cheddar Catholic Community Hall. Details: Kate vocalkate@gmail.com 07595745884. Nailsea & Backwell Support Group for Carers with a rep. from “Silvertime” – legacy fortress for generations, 2-3.30pm WI Hall, Backwell. Clevedon Gardener’s Club 1st and 3rd Wed. each month, 7.30pm Kenn Rd Methodist Church

Hall, Clevedon BS21 6LH. Details: clevedongardeners.chessck.co.uk

Pensford Super Soup Lunch 12 to 2pm, Old School Room. All welcome. Details: Jane 07780 677253

Thursday March 6th

Chew Valley Death Café meets 12-1.30pm

Community Library Bishop Sutton, first Thursday every month. A safe supportive space to talk about life, death and loss over tea and cake. All welcome. Details: bryonyhuntley2019@gmail.com

Cheddar Valley u3a talk: “Tales and anecdotes of the antique trade” 2pm Cheddar Village Hall BS27 3RF.

Congresbury Gardening Club talk by Mandy Bradshaw “The chatty gardener”, 7.30pm

Congresbury Methodist Hall. Visitors welcome. Details: www.congresburygardeningclub.com

Draycott Art Club sessions 10am-1pm & 2-4pm every Thursday except school holidays, Memorial Hall BS27 3UE. All welcome. Details: draycottartclub.mendip@gmail.com

Paulton Folk Night 8.30pm Red Lion. Music, song and good company! Free. All welcome. Details: richardlm397@gmail.com

Wells Scottish Dancers the Blue School Dance Studio BA5 2NR. Every Thurs 6.30–8.30pm. Beginners welcome. Tel 01934 740065 or email ann.wellsdancers@gmail.com

West Mendip Walkers moderate 9m circular walk starting 9.30am from Compton Dando, BS39 4JZ. W3W: trash. whites. bend. Details: www.mendipramblers.co.uk

Shepton Mallet u3a Cybercrime advice from Avon and Somerset Police 10 -12 Salvation Army Hall. Visitors £4. Details: Janet 01749 344627. Congars café coffee morning hosted by Right at Home North Somerset, 10-12am Congars café Broad St. Congresbury BS49 5DG.

RNLI Winscombe & District Branch AGM, 2.30pm in Winscombe. For venue & details: mary.wallace@hotmail.co.uk

Friday March 7th

Radstock Folk Dance Club, every Friday 8pm-10 St Peter’s Church Hall, Westfield. Beginners welcome, partners not essential. £3 incl refreshments. heather.m.leverton@gmail.com

Save the Children lunch 12.30pm Shipham village hall. Soup, bread and cheese, biscuits, tea/coffee £5.50.

Wells Natural History & Archaeology Society AGM then talk by Prof John Munns about possibly the only surviving example of a 13th century wooden pyx cover – in Wells Cathedral, 7pm Wells & Mendip Museum. Visitors welcome, £4 on door.

Friday March 7th and Sat March 8th

“The Good, the Bad, and the Beardy” by Chew Amateur Theatrical Society, 7 for 7.30pm Chew Magna Village Hall. Tickets £10 from Chew PO. Raffle for hospice.

Saturday March 8th

Brent Knoll Bazaar, farmers’ market & parish café 10am-12 parish hall, TA9 4EH.

Frome Society for Local Study: Rosie Martin: “Shoemaker’s Museum: the story of Clarks” 2.30pm Memorial Theatre BA11 1EB. Visitors welcome, £5.

Uphill Village Market 9.30 -12.30, Victory Hall, Westfield Rd, BS23 4UH. Details: Leigh 01934 628373.

Congresbury Book Sale: 9am-1pm War Memorial Hall. Good quality books & Jigsaws etc. Seedy Saturday 10am-2pm, Timsbury Conygre Hall. Seed swaps, potatoes, plants, produce, crafts, talks, displays, advice. Adults £2, U16 free. www.seedysaturday.org.uk

What if you could see music? an immersive sound and visual experience with pianist Charlie Hooper-Williams. 7.30pm Chew Magna Old School Room. Details: www.valley-arts.co.uk

Mark T & Iqbal Pathan, 7 for 7.30pm Caryford Hall, Castle Cary. Tickets £12 from www.caryfordhall.co.uk or £14 on the door. Parkinson’s NW Somerset Support Group 10.30-12.15, St Francis’ Church Hall, Nailsea. Talk: “Wassail, Wassail, Wassail!”. All welcome! Sunday, March 9th

Blackmore and Sparkford Vale point-to-point, Charlton Horethorne. See P78.

Oxfam Quiz night 7 for 7.30pm St Thomas’ church hall, Wells. Teams of up to six, £5pp. No bar so please BYO drinks. Raffle prizes welcome. To book, call 01749 672342 or email terryricketts1948@gmail.com

Monday March 10th

Mendip Folk Dance Club, 8-10pm St James’s Church Winscombe BS25 1BA. All welcome, 2nd 4th & 5th Mondays. £3 incl refreshments. Details: Pat 01934 742853.

Priddy Folk Session 8.30pm Queen Vic. Music, song and good company! Free. All welcome. Details: richardlm397@gmail.com

Nailsea & District Local History Society talk by Clive Burlton “The NHS at 70” 7.45pm Nailsea School, BS48 2HN. Visitors welcome £3. Details: 01275 463479 or www.ndlhs.org.uk

Norton Radstock u3a talk on British wildlife by Naomi Johns, 2pm-4 Somer Centre, M Norton, BA3 2UH. Visitors welcome. Details www.noradu3asite.uk

Farmborough Floral Art Group talk by Katherine Kear “White knights” 7 for 7.30pm Conygre Hall Timsbury. Charity sales table. Visitors welcome £6. See Facebook / Instagram. Tuesday March 11th

Timsbury Gardening Club talk “Gardens of the rich & famous” by Dave Moon, 7.30pm Conygre Hall, BA2 0JQ. Visitors welcome £2. Details: timsburygc@gmail.com

Shipham, Rowberrow & Star History Society talk: Prof Richard Coates “Dialects around Bristol” 7.30pm Shipham Village Hall, BS25 1SG. Guests welcome £4. Details: Jan 01934 260784. Singing helps voice loss due to Parkinson’s, join our friendly group at St Francis' Church Hall, Nailsea every 2nd and 4th Tuesday, 2.30-4pm. West of England branch of the Cricket Society, talk by Mike Selvey; former Middlesex and England, 2pm Widcombe Social Club, Bath. £5 all welcome.

Clutton History Society: talk by Paul Hulbert: “Appliances of a bygone age” 7.30pm village hall, Venus Lane, BS39 5SP. All welcome. Visitors £5 incl tea/coffee. Details: 07341 266986 or chris.border@live.co.uk

Jazz Jam with the Valley Arts House band, all welcome, 8pm The Pelican, Chew Magna. Details: www.valley-arts.co.uk Wednesday March 12th

Wells Folk & Barn Dance Club 7.30-9.30pm St Thomas’s Church Hall, BA5 2UZ. All welcome:

O N G UIDEFOR M ARCH 2025

2nd, 3rd & 4th Wed every month. Details: wellsfdc.co.uk

Kilmersdon Gardeners talk “Gardening for a sustainable future” by Blooming Wild Nursery, 7.30pm village hall, BA3 5TD. Visitors welcome £3. www.kilmersdongardeners.org

Mendip story-telling circle stories to entertain a grown-up audience, 7-30pm Ston Easton Village Hall, Green St. BA3 4DA. £5 in the hat. www.mendipstorycircle.com

Bereavement Help Point, Shepton Mallet: an informal, supportive space where you can meet others who may be experiencing similar feelings. All welcome. Free drop-in, 10-11.45am, Shepton Brasserie, 64 High St. Details: 0345 0310 555 or dorothyhouse.co.uk

Cameo (come and meet everyone) talk 7.30pm Congresbury Methodist Hall “Sailing in the footsteps of Celtic Saints” All welcome, £2 Inc. refreshments.

Blagdon Local History Society 7.30pm Court Lodge BS40 7TQ. “Bristol Channel & Steepholm maritime activity before the age of steam” with Philip Ashford. Details: www.blagdonlhs.com

Thursday March 13th

Chew Valley Garden Society talk by Micky Little ‘Summer flowering bulbs: the living jigsaw’ 8pm Stanton Drew village hall.

Hutton Men’s Club, a new social club 2-5pm Hutton village hall. £3, first visit free. Details: 07725 173707.

West Mendip Walkers moderate 10m circular walk starting 9.30am from Wookey Hub BA5 1JR. W3W: furniture. pushing. zapped. Details www.mendipramblers.co.uk

Friday March 14th

Keynsham Avon Wildlife Trust talk by Dr Jen Nightingale, “Saving the Crayfish” 7.15pm for 7.30pm Baptist Church, High St, Keynsham BS31 1DS. Visitors welcome £4.50, incl drink. Puppet show, Angel Heart Theatre & Skylarker Arts Westbury-sub-Mendip village hall, for children over 5. Adults £8, U-16s £5, family £23. Tickets: community shop. Details: 01749 870457 or sueisherwood9@gmail.com

Monday March 17th

Winscombe District U3A talk by Ian Caskie about the SS Great Britain, 2.30pm Winscombe Community Centre, BS25 1JA. Visitors welcome, £2.50.

Timsbury Nats talk by Simon Carder “Hokkaido”, 7.30pm Conygre Hall BA2 0JQ. Visitors welcome £3. Accompanied U16s free. Chew Valley Flower Club Practice Class 1.30pm Compton Martin Hall Details 01275 835711. Chew Valley u3a talk by Naomi Johns about modern birds of prey and urban evolution, 10 for 10.30am. Visitors welcome: £2.50.

Tuesday March 18th

Arts Society Mid Somerset lecture ‘The gardens of Great Dixter: gardening as an art form’ 11am Caryford Hall, Castle Cary BA7 7JJ. Coffee from 10.15. Visitors £7.

Wrington Local History Society: talk by Martin Powell “The maid in the haystack” 7.30 for 8pm Wrington URC Chapel, Roper’s Lane, BS40 5NF. Visitors welcome, £2.50 incl tea/coffee. Details: osmansteve@yahoo.co.uk

Wednesday March 19th

RSPB Bath talk by Matt Prior “The Wiltshire Tree Sparrow Project”, 7.30pm St Andrew's Church, Hawthorn Grove, BA2 5QA. Visitors welcome. Pensford Super Soup Lunch 12 to 2pm, Old School Room. All welcome. Details: 07780 677253.

Somerset Vernacular Research Group talk by Joe Rogers on Tithe Barns, 7 for 7.30pm Somerton Parish Rooms TA11 7NB. Visitors £2. Details: www.svbrg.org.uk Sing2breathe for breathlessness – techniques for breathing control and improved posture. 1.45 to 3pm most Wednesdays, Cheddar Catholic Community Hall. Details: Kate: vocalkate@gmail.com 07595 745884.

Henton & District Gardening Club talk by Derry Watkins ‘Late summer colour: the big, the bold and the beautiful’. 7 for 7.30p, Henton village hall, Nr Wells. Visitors welcome, £5. www.hentongardenclub.weebly.com

Friends of Weston Museum talk by Ian Boskett “The Great Train Robbery 1963” 2.15 for 2.30pm Weston Museum, BS23 1PR. Visitors £4. www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofthemuseumws m/

Thursday March 20th

Shipham & District Garden Club talk by Hilary Little, “Gardening on the wild side of Dartmoor”, 7.30pm Shipham village hall, BS25 1SG. Wrington Gardening Club AGM then talk by Mark Cox from Barleywood Walled Garden on “No Dig Veg” 7.30pm Wrington Memorial Hall BS40 5QL.

Cheddar Valley u3a Coffee morning at 10am and Spring Variety Show 2.15pm, entry by ticket only, Cheddar Village Hall, BS27 3RF. www.cheddarvalley.u3asite.uk

West Mendip Walkers moderate 10.5m circular walk starting 9.30am from Ham Wall nature reserve BA6 9SX. W3W: lookout. manicured. winners. Details www.mendipramblers.co.uk

“Research on the Somersetshire Coal Canal” talk by Roger Halse about the sources, maps and photographs of the SCC. 7.30pm Paulton Village Hall, BS39 7LW. Details: www.coalcanal.com/events/

Yatton & District Horticultural Society: Talk & demo by North Somerset Master Composters, 8pm Hangstones Pavilion, Stowey Rd, BS49 4HS www.yattonhorticulturalsociety.co.uk

Friday March 21st

Community Chimes handbells in Shepton Mallet Market Place, 10.30 to 11.30am, for Comic Relief. Do support us please. Save the Children lunch 12.30pm Shipham village hall. Soup, bread and cheese, biscuits, tea/coffee £5.50.

Saturday March 22nd

Winscombe Tennis Club Open Day 10am-4pm at The Lynch BS25 1AP. All ages & abilities welcome. Full membership reduced that day. Details: winscombelawntennisclub@live.co.uk

Frome Society for Local Study: 2pm, AGM. 2.30pm Amy Frost: “William Beckford, the tower and the transatlantic slave trade”, 2.30pm Memorial Theatre BA11 1EB. Visitors welcome, £5.

Trinity Singers, Kirkenmusik, 7.30pm St Mary’s Church, Yatton. Details: bob.shapland@btinternet.com 07769 813489.

Sunday March 23rd

Mendip Farmers point-to-point, Ston Easton. See P78.

Minima perform live during a screening of Nosferatu. 3.30 for 4pm Caryford Hall, Castle Cary. Tickets £10 from www.caryfordhall.co.uk £12 on door.

Tuesday March 25th

Chilcompton Gardening Club “Tales from the Potting Shed” by Frances Burroughs, 7.30pm village hall, BA3 4EX. Details: Facebook.

Open Mic Night 7.45pm The Pony, Chew Magna. Details: www.valley-arts.co.uk

Wednesday March 26th

Harptrees History Society BS40 6EG. “Shirehampton WW1 Remount Depot” by Prof Richard Coates. Visitors £3. Book after March 12th by email: info@harptreeshistorysociety.org Subject line “March” Wells Folk Night 8pm City Arms. Music, song and good company! Free. All welcome. Details: richardlm397@gmail.com

Bereavement Help Point, Shepton Mallet: an informal, supportive space where you can meet others who may be experiencing similar feelings. All welcome. Free drop-in, 10-11.45am, Shepton Brasserie, 64 High St. Details: 0345 0310 555 or dorothyhouse.co.uk

Thursday March 27th

Avon Wildlife Trust talk: “Putting in a pond, the pleasures and pitfalls” by Stephanie Chadwick. 7.45pm Chew Magna Old School Room, £2.50. Refreshments.

West Mendip Walkers moderate 10m circular walk starting 9.30am from Compton Dando BS39 4JZ. W3W: trash. whites. bend. Details: www.mendipramblers.co.uk

Friday March 28th

Whitchurch Local History Society: “The farms of Whitchurch” by Brian Edwards, 7.30pm United Reformed Church, 24 Bristol Rd, BS14 0PQ. Visitors welcome £4. Details: 01275 830869. City of Wells Lions’ Rock ‘n’ Roll evening, St Thomas’s Church. Tickets £8 from Wells TIC. Details: 0345 8336736 or cityofwellslions@gmail.com

Camelot Area u3a talk by Richard Chatham. ‘Concorde’ 2.30 pm, Caryford Hall, Castle Cary BA7 7JJ. Visitors welcome, £2 incl refreshments. Details www.camelot-area.u3asite.uk

The Duke, award winning one man show from Shon Dale-Jones, 7.30pm, Chew Stoke Village Hall. Details: www.valley-arts.co.uk

Saturday March 29th

Congresbury Gardening Club Spring Flower Show 2.30pm Old School Rooms. Schedules from PO and St Congar’s cafe. Details: www.congresburygardeningclub.com Fitzhardinge Consort with organist James Drinkwater, 7.30pm St Mary’s Church, Yatton. Adults £12, students £6, children free. Details: www.yms.org.uk

Monday March 31st

Norton Radstock u3a Coffee Morning 10am-12 Somer Centre, M Norton, BA3 2UH. Visitors welcome. Details www.noradu3asite.uk

Yatton & District Horticultural Society Spring Show 2pm Yatton Village Hall, BS49 4HL. Details: www.yattonhorticulturalsociety.co.uk

Bonfire Radicals 7 for 7.30pm Caryford Hall, Castle Cary. Tickets £12 from www.caryfordhall.co.uk £15 on door.

Monday March 31st

Norton Radstock u3a Coffee Morning 10am-12 Somer Centre, M Norton, BA3 2UH. Visitors welcome. Details www.noradu3asite.uk

Tuesday April 1st

The Arts Society Mendip: “The road to Santiago de Compostella: pilgrimage and spectacle” with Ian Cockburn, 11am Croscombe Village Hall and by Zoom. Details: www.theartssocietymendip.org.uk

Weston u3a meet for coffee every Tuesday, 10am Friends Meeting House, 6 High St WsM BS23 1JF. All welcome!

Flying frogs

WRINGTONVale Rotary Club are staging an evening of frog racing at Shipham village hall on Saturday, March 22nd to raise funds for local charities. Tickets, £15, include a hog roast or vegetarian option and there’s a bar. The frogs are made of plywood! Tickets are available online or from Thatchers or the Alvis farm shop.

Details: https://bit.ly/4hHf9Bv Angie Biggs 07790 400718

Help create a little history

THE East Somerset Railway at Cranmore is on the look out for more volunteers to help continue the popularity of the heritage line near Shepton Mallet. It is hosting a volunteer recruitment day on March 9th and would be delighted to welcome new faces to the team. This event is an excellent opportunity to explore the diverse and exciting volunteering roles they have to offer ranging from customer roles as a guard, travelling ticket inspector and platform “meet and greet” member, shop and ticket office assistant.

For those who prefer a more hands-on experience, you can work in a workshop setting helping to restore our locomotives, vintage carriages, or even the signal box. There are also opportunities for maintaining station buildings, grounds and train tracks.

ESR, established by renowned wildlife artist David Shepherd in 1974, offer flexible time commitments and provide full training to all our volunteers. The day will commence at 10.30am in the historic old waiting room, followed by a ride on a steam train. Attendees will then have the chance to tour the site, meet different teams, and learn about the available roles.

Get on your bike

FROMECommunity Bike Project (FCBP) is planning a day of bicycle-powered fun at the Frome Independent Market on Sunday, March 2nd, 10am-3pm, outside Frome library.

Director, Emma Parker, said: "Whether you're looking to discover new routes, connect with fellow cyclists or get your bike ready for spring and summer adventures there’s something for everyone."

They are also planning a Kindness Festival bike ride on March 18th and free health checks for bikes at the festival on March 22nd.

Details: www.fromebikeproject.org

A step up from usual volunteering roles at the ESR