RESIDENTS of a Wellington dementia care home have pledged to love and care for the toy animal they have chosen to adopt as a ‘pet’.

The adoption day is one of the many activities that are offered to residents at Camelot House and Lodge.

Harriet Burraston, activities coordinator at Camelot House and Lodge, said: “We held a 'Pick a pet animal adoption' day where residents could pick from a variety of cuddly toy animals, depending on their personal favourites.

“Choices included a guinea pig, giraffe, sausage dog, duck, horse, tiger, fish and many more.

“After they’d decided which pet they wanted, our ladies and gents filled out an adoption certificate stating the name they had chosen for their animal, and answering questions about things like its favourite food, its colour, and how many legs, or fins it has.

“Finally they had to sign a pledge to love and take care of their new pet.

“They are all very pleased with their animals and proud to show them off to staff at Camelot House and Lodge and to other visitors.

“Obviously it’s all just for fun, but activities like this do help keep engaged the people we care for, who are all living with dementia.

“They also enjoy the calming effect of stroking a furry toy animal – in the same way that cat and dog owners benefit from stroking their pets – so all in all it’s proving to be a great success and is helping keep them very happy.”

Camelot House and Lodge is run by the dementia care provider Camelot Care, who also run homes in Bridgwater and Yeovil in Somerset, and Holsworthy and Plymouth in Devon.

MEMBERS of Wellington and District Townswomen’s Guild gathered for May’s meeting at Lodge Close Hall on Monday, May 12.

The guest speaker this month was Diana Fox, who gave an engaging and entertaining talk, telling us about her happy childhood with her parents and siblings at Legglands, and about the various branches of the Fox family generally. She also told us about her interesting and varied career, which included working at plant nurseries both locally and near Malvern, a stint as a teacher following teacher training college, working as a matron in independent schools in Surrey and Worcestershire and training to be an occupational therapist.

Diana brought with her numerous interesting visual aids including family photographs, maps and paintings, including a beautiful watercolour of Mantle Street, painted in 1929 – coincidentally, the year the Townswomen’s Guild was born.

Chairman Mrs Joyce Jones gave the vote of thanks and presented Diana with flowers, some chocolates, and a card, as she was shortly to celebrate her birthday.

Refreshments followed, during which the raffle was held, and then it was time for the business part of the meeting. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved, the possibility of having a cream tea at The Cleve for our August meeting was discussed, and news was given of the upcoming National AGM, to be held this year at Weston-super-Mare. Unfortunately, owing to a last-minute change of venue, the AGM is now sold out, so a Wellington delegate will not be able to attend.

The next meeting will be held at Lodge Close Hall at 2.30 pm on Monday June 9. We welcome potential new members, so do come along as a visitor if you are thinking of joining us.

WELLINGTON Folk and Custom Society held their annual folk custom event at the Cottage Inn, Wellington on the evening of Saturday, February 7.

Lord Misrule, aka ‘Mr Double Danger the second’, opened proceedings, speaking about Wellington's ‘Blaize festival', as an annual event which was first noted in 1889 AD.

Back then, the local wool industry workers would choose their own Bishop Blaize and celebrate.

This included wool-combers, wool-staplers, spinners, apprentices, wool-sorters, comb-makers, dyers and more.

They would gather in local Taverns and sometimes cottages for much drink and merriment for the folk custom festival.

Mr Double Danger said that before the Christian adaptation, Blaize meant ‘wolf man’ in Cornish and in the Arthurian legends, Blaize taught Merlin when he was young.

Mr Double Danger continued to explain the strong connections in Somerset to Saint Bridget from Ireland and her ancient connections across England and other parts of Europe with her association of the bringer of light, the eternal flame, healing, poetry, and the animal kingdom.

Afterwards, Mr Double Danger the second opened up the event to audience participation.

A mysterious lady called ‘V’ read out information about St Blaize which was very engaging.

Rupert Sells then recited a piece about Bridget's Talismans and her universal aspects, amongst the symbols and association with Bridget, which is the spindle, spinning wheel, spinning and weaving.

Both Saint Blaize and Saint Bridget are entwined with pre-Christian foundations.

Blaize 'n' Bridget Night in Wellington, is the only event in the UK and Ireland that celebrates a double festival of the two's saints. Their actual official saint days in early February are only two days apart.

The oath swearer Brian Storey, swore in the new Bishop Blaize for 2025: Ralph Langworthy Smith and the new Saint Bridget was Bridget Sells.

This was followed by the act of blessing the throats by the Bishop Blaize with his candles and Brigit's healing water upon volunteers from the audience.

Dan Langworthy Smith recited a great poem about Blaize and Bridget.

Then followed celebrations of music and dancing in the pub car park with the local 'Bootstrap Border Morris Team'.

This was then followed by celebrations for the rest of evening with traditional folk music and songs.

The crowd sung along to traditional folk tunes and rowdy sea shanties.

A spokesperson for the event said: “We are finding each year a increase of numbers attending our folk Custom events, since the recovery from the lockdowns and also we have noticed more interest in our meetings and events since we did our first 'Folk Parade' in the Wellington Carnival in the Autumn 2024.”

FOLLOWING a brief AGM, the Friends of The Museum of Somerset (FOTMOS) were pleased to welcome to their February Zoom meeting Sean Pringle Kosikowsky, the site manager at the museum, to talk about his recent walk along Hadrian’s Wall.

Following the Roman invasion in 43AD, a stone road (Stanegate) was built in northern England linking the forts that guarded important river crossings. In 122AD Hadrian’s Wall was built closely following this route, which secured the northern frontier against the Scots. It is 73 miles long, (80 Roman miles) and runs from Wallsend to Bowness on Solway. Sean decided to walk East to West as it fitted in with the coach timetable. Unfortunately this was against the prevailing winds (making him regret he had decided to walk in shorts rather than trousers) and he met few fellow walkers going that way.

Sean reported that the views could be spectacular. Walking gave him great opportunities to observe the construction of the Wall - there are two ditches, one V shaped on the North side for defence, the other a vallum, marking the southern boundary of the military zone.

Sean’s first encounter with the actual Wall came some 27 miles into his walk at Planetrees. The Wall was originally planned to be 10ft wide, but obviously the Romans decided this was taking too long to build so it was reduced to 6ft. The change in plan must have come after the foundations had been laid for the wider Wall, and these can still be seen to this day. Because the Wall was built using local stone, the materials and colour change as it progresses. Moreover, inevitably the Wall falls under different councils across the country, so different rules apply to different sections (‘Walking on the Wall is permitted’ ‘Do not walk on the Wall’).

Obviously local people need to cross the Wall, so there are many stiles along its length. Sean came across the Temple to Mithras at Carrawburgh. This was one of the religions practised by Roman soldiers. When Sean reached the now notorious Sycamore Gap, he was pleased to see that the original tree was sending out new shoots, despite the vandalism perpetrated there.

Reflecting on his walk, Sean decided he had taken too much in his backpack, which had given him sore ankles. However, although he had found it arduous, he would definitely be happy to repeat it or something similar. Moreover, he had reached his charity fund-raising goal.

The next FOTMOS meeting will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, March 17, at 7.30pm, when Amy Downes will talk about The Snailman of Pontefract.

Tickets are selling quickly for the FOTMOS Annual Lecture (At the Edge of the World) which will be held on Tuesday, April 14, at 7.30 at the Museum.

Professor Danielle Shreve will explore the impact of climate change on wildlife in southwestern Britain over the last 100,000 years.

To join, email [email protected]