Mendip Times

24/06/2024

The July issue of Mendip Times will be out tomorrow (June 25th), full as usual of your favourite features and lots of events - and we’re delighted to welcome a raft of new advertisers; we hope you enjoy discovering them all!

27/05/2024

The June issue of Mendip Times - our 19th anniversary issue(!) will be published on Tuesday, May 28th. Thank you everyone for your continued support.

22/04/2024

The May issue of Mendip Times in out on Tuesday, April 23rd - St George's Day! It's packed full of our usual features such as Food & Drink, Homes & Property and, of course, What's On. We meet some aspiring young street artists and there's also a moving tribute to our late friend and Caving correspondent Phil Hendy.

25/03/2024

The April issue of Mendip Times is due to be published tomorrow (26/3) and, despite the current weather, there's a real sense that Spring is in the air with a busy Gardening section, a packed What's On section - including a preview of this year's Royal Bath & West Show Bath & West Shows - and a focus on Cheddar village.

26/02/2024

The March issue of Mendip Times will be published tomorrow (Tues, Feb 27th) with all our regular features as well as coverage of community events ranging from wassails to hedge laying and the Shepton Snowdrops Shepton Snowdrops festival.

22/01/2024

The February issue of Mendip Times is due out tomorrow (23/2) with features on tractor runs, wassails and more. Thank you to all our advertisers and readers for your continued support and contributions.

18/12/2023

The Jan '24 issue of MT is due out tomorrow (19/12). Look out for round-ups of some great community-based Christmas celebrations plus a look forward to the New Year with wassails and other events. And, of course, all our regular contributors!

27/11/2023

Seasons greetings! The December issue of Mendip Times is due out tomorrow with festive flavour features on Mallet and plus all of your regular favourites!

23/10/2023

The November issue of Mendip Times is due out tomorrow (24/10) with a focus on the Chew Valley, a look back on the Mendip Ploughing Match, a packed What's On section and all your monthly favourites

25/09/2023

The October issue of Mendip Times will be published tomorrow (26/9) packed full of local news, local events and features plus our always readable contributors including Chris Sperring, Sue Gearing, Les Davis, Mary Payne and Edmund Lodite.

28/08/2023

The September issue of Mendip Times is due to be published tomorrow (29/8), packed full of local events and features inc. Mid-Somerset Show Wedmore Harvest Home and a preview of Mendip ROCKS Festival of Geology

24/07/2023

The August issue of Mendip Times will be published tomorrow (25/7). It boasts extensive coverage of the many events that have taken place recently, from Glastonbury Festival to smaller village fetes and fundraisers - all of which make the area such a great place in which to live and work - plus our, as always, highly-readable regular contributors! We hope you enjoy the magazine.

20/07/2023

Please forward this to friends who may find it useful this summer

26/06/2023

The July issue of Mendip Times will be published tomorrow (27/6) featuring lots of events large and small including Bath & West Shows and as well as a focus on and sport such as the 1st and Chew Valley 10k - we certainly cover the patch!

22/05/2023

The June issue of Mendip Times - our 18th anniversary issue! - will be published tomorrow, packed with photos from many events, a profile of the High Sheriff of Somerset plus a look back at the and all our regular sections including and more. Very many thanks to everyone for your continued support!

29/04/2023

A truly striking photo!🦢

Thank you Jason Bryant for this stunning image of Grace with one of the newly hatched cygnets!

✨Watch the tiny cygnets take their first steps live on our Swan Cam: https://bishopspalace.org.uk/attractions/swans/

24/04/2023

The May issue of Mendip Times will be published tomorrow, April 25th. We'll be at the North Somerset Show on Bank Holiday Monday (May 1st); do pop by and say hello.

27/03/2023

The April issue of Mendip Times will be published tomorrow (28/3) - a spring-like 100-pager!

07/03/2023

20/02/2023

The March issue of Mendip Times is published tomorrow (21/2/23) with all your favourite contributors including a special walk by looking at the industrial history of and plus our usual snd sections.

15/02/2023

A date for your diary! Get revising on your caving knowledge and find a few friends to make up a team! :D

02/02/2023

Fancy doing something a bit different this year? We are looking for more butterfly recorders...

30/01/2023

27/01/2023

A warning from Chris Sperring MBE Wildlife Walks and Talks

There’s some photographs going round all seemingly taken at Portishead Marina (Portishead Dock). The photos are of 3 young Nutria (Myocastor coypus) more perhaps commonly referred to as “Coypu”. Adults can weigh up to 9kg, and have a body length of around 40 to 60 cm, then add on the tail which is an extra 45 cm in length. I’ve already heard people calling them Beavers 🦫 or Water Voles, but I can assure you that the pictures I have seen have been Coypu. I suppose it looks Beaver ish. Beaver though has a flattened tail and the Water Vole is the classic vole shape of rounded body and blunt nose and short tail. Coypu however, well to me at least, look like that classic Rat shape with a Rat like tail. Coypu is non native, originating from South America. It has been introduced to North America and Europe. It was introduced to the U.K but eradicated during the 1960s and 70s and during the 1960s it was estimated that the population of Coypu in East Anglia was around 200.000 individuals. A lot of brilliant conservation effort has gone into the re introduction of the European Beaver into the U.K and this has been very successful and has a positive effect on local biodiversity not only protecting but also increasing that biodiversity, as of course the Beaver manages a landscape that promote growth and light, Beaver also has a positive effect on water management and wetlands in general. However the Coypu as has been found in many areas, can have the opposite effect, it’s burrows can undermine water defensives, and as found in North America it can cause wetland habitats to become open water. The eradication programme in the U.K was successful with if I recall rightly, the last Coypu being removed in early 1980s? I’ve observed Coypu in the wild in France and they are fascinating animals, below is a picture I took in France of a very close encounter. They are herbivores so fishermen need not worry, we’ll not in the first instance as they don’t eat fish, but as I said already they can dramatically alter a wetland due to their eating habits of removing entire plants including digging the roots. Whilst watching them in France I couldn’t help but admire this giant of the rodent world, and feel really sorry for it, as it’s not the animals fault that it’s out of its area and clearly the animals at Portishead (3young ones) haven’t swum up from France, somebody has put them there or close by.

Picture taken in France. Coypu

23/01/2023

The February issue of Mendip Times is published tomorrow (Tues, Jan 24th) and features some inspiring stories from our diverse communities - there's even a feature about Somerset's very own tiddlywinks tournament! www.mendiptimes.co.Uk

16/01/2023

Warm spaces in North Somerset

15/01/2023

Ukranian songs, music and great food at a coffee morning at in aid of Somerset Aid for Ukraine The Alham Vale Benefice Visit www.somersetaidforukraine.org for details of their fundraising cultural events in Cossington on Feb 10th and Wedmore on Feb 24th

15/01/2023

10/01/2023

Interesting.
More evidence for the protection of older trees... as well as planting new ones.

Door de bomen in een bos met 3d laserscanner in te meten hebben onderzoekers ontdekt dat bomen bijna 2 keer zoveel koolstof opnemen dan we voorheen dachten. Maar ook dat in dit bos dat de grootste bomen in het bos 50 % van de koolstof opnemen alhoewel deze grote bomen maar 7% uitmaken van het totale areaal bos. Nogmaals aangetoond dat we onze grote oude bomen moeten koesteren.