I always thought they should make a film about the battle of Sedgemoor, the last battle on English soil (so far). The ones they have made haven’t done it justice. ‘Captain Blood’ opens with the pointed mountain peaks of the Rockies where it was filmed and then the caption ‘Bridgwater 1685’ and of course the HTV kids’ series ‘Pretenders’ from the 1970s, but that basically put 2 children in the thick of the action of what amounted to bloody rebellion and reprisal by massacre. And now children, it’s Grotbags. Both of which, incidentally, are available at the Blake Museum which turned 100 this week.

Another person they should make a film about is Bridgwater inspiration Wayne Pope, the blind veteran whose life is shaping up very nicely for a movie epic with him being played by either Tom Hanks or Michael Sheen. In unconvincing West Country accents. Continue reading “Adapt and Overcome”

Sometimes you get really good news that you want to shout from the rooftops, brighten up people’s days with and spread the gospel of happiness, hope and have-a-go-itude that will inspire the people to get up, get down  and get on with it. And then sit back and wait to see how long it is for someone to start moaning about it.

The Labour Government’s ‘Pride in Place’ project is just that kind of dream bag of money left in the middle of a community for people to dig deep into and make real the ideas they’ve only dared to think about and then dismiss as ‘nah, that won’t happen’.

This is a £20million project over 10 years and the whole point of it is that it’s led by the community. That’s you, me, us and we. All together me and thee. That’s what we call a community.

And before this turns into a gangsta-rap lets just clamp down on the inevitable social media barrage of doom merchants. Because, you know what, something positive goes up on social media and a dozen miseries immediately knock it down. Continue reading “NOWS YOUR TIME!”

It can be good to take the occasional stroll down memory lane. Not least because you never know who you might meet coming the other way. More often than not it’s yourself. But it can be an opportunity to take stock, reflect and think…was that me? And it always was.

In April 1980 I was in Bridgwater’s popular ‘New Wave’ band The Dangerous Brothers and had just written the song ‘I’m a County Councillor’. We recorded it in the function room of the White Hart and mixed it down in a caravan parked in a garden on the Bridge estate. In true punk DIY spirit, we self-financed it, had it pressed independently and even glued the sleeves together ourselves. Released on Bridgwater’s ‘Sheep Worrying’ label -well, it was in fact ‘our’ Sheep Worrying label, we brought out a punk fanzine to promote it and did a series of tours around the country. Continue reading “Looking Back Over the Years”

It’s the year 2525 and man is still alive. The Bridgwater Town Council was meeting for its annual ‘Smile and Be Happy’ event. This year they were reviewing   the council minute books from March 2026. It was a time when we didn’t even have ‘Zimbobble’, the now widely practised ability to replace your head with that of someone else to instantly understand their point of view. A practice that meant we hadn’t seen a war since the ‘Highbridge Unpleasantness’ of 2312. Sadly, there are no squirrels left due to an AI malfunction.

In March 2026 there were apparently Italian students visiting from Bridgwater’s twin town Priverno. They were here to do ‘work experience” (great laughter as work had been abolished in 2432 and replaced with AI push button personal use household drones). Continue reading “In The Year 2525”

In many parts of Scandinavia when a Town Clerk departs they traditionally lay them in their longship with all their possessions and cast them out to sea. In Nepal they lay them on a mountainside open to the elements to be as one with the creatures of the wild . And in Morecambe they prop them up in bus shelters with Bingo tickets in their hands. Here in Bridgwater, we were debating whether a packet of Rolos and a copy of the Town Council Leaders early compilation album ‘Dark Side of the Sheep’ would suffice. We voted to put a bit more thought into it.

Continue reading “When You Got To Go….”