DON’T FORGET – MELLS OPEN GARDENS ON SATURDAY 4 JUNE

St Andrew’s Church bells will be ringing to celebrate a record 17 lovely gardens, including 4 new ones, open for your enjoyment on Saturday 4 June from 11am – 5pm.
Why not make a day of it and have coffee, lunch and tea either in the Cricket Pavilion, laid on by Mells Shop volunteers, or in newly opened Mells Café?  And, if you get inspired, you can buy some of the plants you have seen at the Plant Stall outside Mells Shop.  All profits go to community-run Mells Village Shop, where you can buy tickets with map (£5, accompanied children free) in advance or on the day. 

MARY BERRY OPENS MELLS CAFÉ

Mells Cafe opened in a blaze of sunshine to the click of cameras on Easter Saturday as TV Chef Mary Berry cut the ribbon on the terrace door.  Introduced by the Earl of Oxford & Asquith, who also thanked the Management Team for their work and praised architects Llewellyn Harker and builder Dave Fishlock for the handsome building, Mary Berry told the crowd, "Tell all your friends about it because it is very very special."

The large crowd of well-wishers expressed their delight that the wait for Mells Cafe was over.  It gives people jobs in the local area, they said, it brings people together and is great fun for the village.

Mary Berry chatted with the crowd, and after that it was business as usual at the Cafe, serving drinks and meals to a steady stream of customers.  As well as a changing menu of breakfast, light lunches and cream teas to eat in or take out, the Café offers a range of locally made gifts, such as the distinctive earthenware pottery from Phillip Wood of Whatley; kiln-fired glass from Emma Wells and the Mells Mug designed for the village by Steven Jenkins, potter and calligrapher based at the Black Swan in Frome.

If you have time to spare and would like to volunteer a few hours of your time every week or month, perhaps in conjunction with a friend, please contact Liz O’Sullivan on 01373 812 201 osullivanmells@gmail.com.  The 30 or so volunteers who already help out in the Shop or Cafe enjoy meeting lots of new people and making a positive contribution to the community.

Here is Frome TV's video of the Cafe Opening :

Mary Berry opens Mell's community cafe from Frome.tv on Vimeo.

MARY BERRY TO OPEN MELLS CAFÉ

TV chef Mary Berry, judge on BBC’s Great British Bake Off and author of the indispensible Aga Cook Book, will open newly-built Mells Café at 12 noon on Easter Saturday, 23 April – the culmination of the community’s campaign to secure amenities and a social hub for Mells and the surrounding villages.

Mells Village Shop has gone from strength to strength with a full range of basic groceries and household goods as well as fresh produce and delicatessen items.  Its aim as a community shop is to provide what its customers want and to source it locally if possible.
And now the villagers’ dream of a café has become a reality, providing a much needed focal point for the local community and facilities for walkers, cyclists and tourists. Thanks to  generous grants from local funding bodies including the RDPE’s Community and Social Enterprise Fund, a doorway in the Shop leads into the stylish beamed café serving delicious local food. The space will be available to local people out of hours for clubs, meetings and small parties – contact Manager Mike Phypers on 812 251 or mvshop@btconnect.com for details.

Mary Berry

MELLS COFFEE SHOP UNVEILED

Scaffolding came down in mid February from the new Mells Coffee Shop to reveal its oak and stone structure to the outside world for the first time – the first new building at the eastern end of Mells’s historic Selwood Street for at least 2 centuries!

The moment was marked by topping out the annexe with an evergreen oak bough.  MVS Chairman, Bobby Hanscomb expressed the Management Team’s appreciation of architect Martin Llewellyn ‘s much admired design and of the hard work put in by Dave Fishlock and his workforce who are set to finish construction on schedule.

The new 20-seater Coffee Shop is scheduled to open to the public on Easter Saturday with an all-day menu serving high-quality coffee, cream teas and locally-made food, including soups, snacks, salads and sandwiches.  A small terrace with seating will look out over the Lutyens designed Horner memorial shelter next to the duck pond opposite, where more benches for sitting out are to be found.  Further retail space in the Coffee Shop will offer guides, maps, local history books and locally sourced souvenirs.

MVS Chairman Bobby Hanscomb topping out Mells new Coffee Shop while architect Martin Llewellyn, builder Dave Fishlock and the Team look on.

RDPE’S FIRST SOMERSET GRANT AWARD GIVES GO AHEAD TO MELLS COFFEE SHOP

The construction of Mells Coffee Shop is now underway thanks to a grant of £48,000’s worth of funding from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Community and Social Enterprise Fund.  This is the first project in Somerset to be funded by this grant.  A coffee shop was high on the community wish list when plans for refurbishment were first mooted and its construction was taken into consideration when the Shop layout was reconfigured.

Like the Shop through which it will be accessed, Mells Coffee Shop will be staffed by a mix of paid employees and volunteers, offering a simple range of basic, reasonably priced hot and cold food and drink for up to 20 people at a time.  It will be a venue for locals to get together, a lunch base for business people and will provide refreshments for the many passing walkers and cyclists. The room will be also be available as an informal meeting room for clubs and small parties.

A disabled WC, which will be accessed from the Coffee Shop, was completed last year, thanks to a grant of £1,000 from Mendip Housing (now Flourish Homes) and funding of £12,000 towards the project has also recently been granted by the Somerset County Council Rural Services Fund.   In addition the Mells & Vobster Trust has given a further grant of £10,000 towards the project.

A design in stone, oak and glass has been chosen to complement Lutyens’ memorial shelter opposite and the adjacent old stone buildings.  The tented scaffolding surrounding the site should enable work to continue throughout the winter and it is expected that the Coffee Shop will open for its first customers in the spring.

Below is a view of the area to the side of the shop where the coffee Shop will be located, and a front elevation from the plans.


by June Costelloe

'MEN OF IRON - The Fussells of Mells' by Robin Thornes

 
'The impact of the Fussells on the East Mendips was such that even in their own lifetime they and the edge-tools that they made took on a mythical quality. Their businesses lasted for more than 150 years, spanning the period of the Industrial Revolution. They made their appearance in the historic record in the time of water-powered craft industry and their exit in the age of steam-powered mass production. In that same period the Fussells made the transition from village craftmen to gentlemen with country estates and mansions. Although best known as makers of agricultural edge-tools, they also had interests in the woollen industry, coal mines, railways and canals'.
            This is part of the introduction on the back cover of the newly published book by Robin Thornes. It is a fascinating account of the area and the people living and working locally. Names and places are easily recognizable.
          'MEN of IRON - An illustrated talk' will be held in Mells Barn on Friday 19th November at 7.00pm. Tickets £5.00 can be obtained from Mells Village Shop and Robin is very generously donating all proceeds to the shop fund.
Doors will open at 6.30. Wine will be served included in the ticket price. There will be an interval during which refreshments will be available and also the opportunity to purchase a copy of this excellent book. 

MELLS LITERARY LADIES PRESENT COLERIDGE AND THE WORDSWORTHS IN SOMERSET

Susan Date and Helen Wynter’s literary performances have acquired a devoted following over the past 6 years and Mells is delighted to welcome them to their home territory in Mells Barn on Saturday 16 October for An evening with Coleridge and the Wordsworths in Somerset, July 1797 – September 1798. 

Some of the finest work of Coleridge and Wordsworth was produced during the short period they lived in Somerset.  Drawing on published and unpublished work of the period and letters and reports made by later generations, extracts will include prose and a selection of their poems.

Helen Wynter trained and worked at the Central School of Speech and Drama, retiring as Senior Lecturer.  Susan Date’s background is theatre, television, radio and film.  She was Assistant Principal and Voice Coordinator at Guildford School of Acting.

The programme will begin at 7.00 p.m. and lasts about 2 hours, including an interval.  Doors and bar will be open from 6.30 p.m.  Tickets, priced £6 (to include a glass of wine), are on sale at Mells Village Shop, to which all proceeds will be given.


For further information please contact June Costelloe junecostelloe@yahoo.co.uk   01373 812 199