Shepton Mallet

The Gateway to the Mendip... as stated by the tourist information and heritage centre websites.

The Mendip is a local government district within Somerset that includes Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street, Frome and Wells.

There is a lot of beauty in this little town.

It's a mixture of an ancient market town and modern industrial area. The industrial part is very prevalent in the east of the town as you go by big warehouses such as Framptons and the Cider Mill. The Cider Mill underwent a rough start of the year when it closed but the cider and drinks making company Brothers has bought the bottling plant which has brought jobs back into the market. The Cider Mill is also famous for it's little gem on the grass outside....

The Babycham Chamois

Taken from Wikipedia- By Wurzeller - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, http://tinyurl.com/yaw4z27m 

Babycham was created by Francis Showering who was born in Shepton Mallet so the chamois figure outside the Cider Mill is a lit little homage to him.

The High Street is quite a nice little walk through the town centre and if you're walking down on the right day, usually every Friday but they are introducing it on Sunday's from Sep 2017, then once you get to the bottom of it you would see a vast array of stalls set up for the local market day.

Taken from Google Images and Daily Mail http://tinyurl.com/y98847m5

In terms of little boutique shops and cafe's you have these lovely little places: The Hive, The Coffee Lounge, Denela's Bakery, My Coffee Stop, Amigo's restaurant, La Tavola D'oro restaurant, Peppers and many more.

Then for the branded shops you can travel up the top to Townsend Shopping park for; Tesco, Pampurred Pets (Known as Pet's Corner since they were brought out recently), Laura Ashley, Boots, Sports Direct, Argos, ScrewFix, Co-op and Costa just to name a few.

Opposite Townsend Shopping Park to the East you have the lovely little Collett Park. I've had a fair few trips/ runs around this park and everytime it upholds it's beauty. It has a children's play area and a lovely little independent cafe.

On a lovely day taken from Neville Stanikk Photography http://tinyurl.com/y8v8wln4

Collett Park did however flood quite badly back on 21st November 2016 and it occurred while I was going to the doctor's. The main road, Cannard's Grave, was completely flooded but cars could still just about make it through.

I debated going through the torrent of water, but decided against it even though I was in wellies. I came across a lovely gentleman who tried to egg me on as he'd just come through it by saying 'you only live once!' I was tempted but I wanted to see how bad the park was so I did that instead. It was definitely an experience as the stream had overflowed and caused the pond to flood! 

We didn't know whether to risk walking through the rushing water.

This was the stream overflowing and rushing down into the pond.

The ducks didn't mind the extra water space for their swimming!

The flood had extended all the way down to the opposite side of the park towards the entrance on the A361 Charlton Road

Shepton Mallet is also along the route of the Somerset Guy Fawkes Circuit carnival. Last year I got to experience it in all it's fantastic glory even in the rain the performers were still so enthusiastic! Some of the carts(floats as they are otherwise known) were exceptional and really made me think about how much work and money is put into this carnival. The majority of the carts are made through fundraising money collected throughout the year and the competition to be the best cart is fierce. Just take a look at some of the stunning images I've taken below:

If you want anymore information then please visit http://www.sheptonmalletcarnival.org.uk/ and come visit Shepton Mallet on 15th November 2017 from 7.30pm to view this much loved spectacular event!

All in all, Shepton Mallet is a quiet but bustling community driven little town with wonderful countryside surrounding it just waiting and wanting to be explored. I'm definitely grateful to have moved here.

You really can't go wrong with views like these;

Until next time, this time it won't be so long I promise!

A trip to the Medieval City of Wells, Somerset

Firstly, apologies for the late posting of this blog, I haven't had the energy or focus to have posted this when I said I would... anyhow let's get going!

Believe me when I say this... Wells is a gorgeous city.

It has the right to be called England's smallest city because of the fascinating, awe inspiring and beautiful 13th Century cathedral held within the centre.

I have visited twice since living in Shepton Mallet and will be going again when my lovely best friend comes to visit for a few days this coming week and I'm so excited to take her!

Our first visit was when my husband and I decided we needed to go out for the day. This was on 26th August. So we headed on a walk to the bus stop by Tesco and had a bit of time to spare so of course we picked up some sweets for the road!

The road leading up to Wells on the bus was gorgeous, in the distance we could see the cathedral standing out in the blazing blue skies. We came off in town by about 11.45 and had a little walk round the town first up and down the high street to see what shops and cafe's were around. We found a nice little art shop called Cinnamon Corner and we popped in to have a look. They have a lovely range of handmade gifts, decorative ornaments and figures and beautiful pieces of artwork.

Click here to see more info on this shop

Soon enough we were hungry and hot enough to need to sit down to have something to eat. So we opted for a local café and stumbled upon this lovely little place called Pickwick's Country Kitchen.

Drink wise I opted for a cappuccino while my husband went for a ginger beer.

It felt very vintage and countryside which I thought was very apt for the Somerset lifestyle

Lunchtime! Salmon and cream cheese bagel for me and ham and cheese panini for the hubby

It was a lovely lunch and we then went for a walk up to the Cathedral to have a look at the outside as we didn't quite fancy popping in as we would be having my husband's Dad and Step-Mum coming to visit and thought it better we wait to explore it with them. So we explored the outside instead as it was such a beautiful day.

Look how stunning and grand the front entrance is!

And this was the side.

It was quite hot in the sun and I was started to feel a bit unwell so we headed back home but eager to explore more on the next visit... which only happened to be 2 days later!

Our 2nd visit however did not provide such exceptional weather as the first time. It was the complete opposite. It started fairly lightly just drizzling on our way there, before it let rip at lunchtime in full on deluge of rain. We were hoping to go around the Bishop's Palace and Garden's but the weather didn't really hold out so we only ended up walking around the outside of it via the moat.

Entrance to the Palace

Stunning designs in the ceiling within the entrance archway

The Moat

Another view of the moat

And another view, even on a rainy day it's still so beautiful.

This beautiful mosaic art work is the Worminster Dragon. This is a special piece of work deisnged by Somerset Artist Kate Rattay. She enlisted the help of many pupils from a variety of schools in Wells to make the tiles for this mosaic.

The story itself is quite intriguing.

For more information on this you can visit:

Artist- Blog: https://katerattray.wordpress.com/  Website- http://www.rattraymosaics.co.uk/about/
Simple breakdown of  the story- http://primary.naace.co.uk/Paddington/schools/Wells/Dragon.html


Now we come to the beauty of the Cathedral... we escaped into the Cathedral because the rai had become so heavy and it was getting a bit cold. So here are some of the stunning photos I took from inside:

Beautiful and intricate detail but you can see where it has weathered in places

After an original tower showed huge cracks and wasn't stable enough, the solution was this stunning structure known as scissor arches constructed by mason William Joy between 1338-1348. 

The splendid Jesse Window dated from around 1340 and still fairly intact however is was noted to be deteriorating so conservation became crucial and solutions were made from 2011-2014 to keep it at it's best.

Intricate decoration on the ceiling

And again

Add caption

The Clock- Said to be the 2nd oldest clock mechanism in Britain!

The clock face shows the universe with the Sun and Moon revolving around a fixed Earth.

There are 2 jousting knights here which spin round above the clock at every quarter of the hour

The knights are accompanied by the Quarter Jack here who rings in the quarters with a click of his heels

In the Courtyard looking up to the Bell Tower

Thus ends this blog for now, as I said we will be visiting again soon and I hope if you get the chance to visit Wells you should, it has more to offer in the surrounding areas too but with the flowers in bloom on the streets too it really is a city to lift your spirits.

For any more information please visit: The Wells Somerset website and The Wells Cathedral website

Hopefully will have another blog up soon, maybe about Shepton Mallet itself or any other events or visits to places we go.

Until next time! Love where you live and live to love!

Christine x