Saturday At The Regal

A Memory of Wells.

I'm surprised there are so few memories of Wells. In the late '60's to '70's I lived in nearby Shepton Mallet as a schoolboy & later worked on a farm there.

At weekends my elder brother, Colin, would arrive on the coach from Bournemouth, where he worked for the MoD. This was usually on a Friday night, & he would bring fish & chips - a great treat, picked up from the Shepton chippy.
Saturday we would walk cross country to Wells & catch the afternoon matinee. Films that I remember seeing - .Battle of Britain, The Longest Day, Bridge over Remargen, most of the 'Dollar spaghetti westerns, Ice Station Zebra, When 8 Bells Toll & many others. It is now the Kudos nightclub, as per the 2004 photo.

The Bishops Palace pictures brought back memories too - Yearly it would have an open day, & I had great fun running up & down the turrets. Once they held 'It's a Knock Out' there, & many from our school went to cheer on our games teacher - although some of us were secretly pleased to see him come a cropper in his race! I also got sworn at by a (in)famous TV presenter - I'd accidentally wandered into the commentary box on the battlements.

Another memory - we had done a sponsored cross country walk from Shepton to raise funds for Whitstone School, & on arriving in Wells by the Palace we got into a slanging match with local lads - we hastily left as they were rumoured to be carrying sharpened coins - a favourite throwing weapon of football hooligans at the time.

Another big event was carnival night, the huge illuminated floats had great trouble negotiating the narrow streets.

The town itself always seemed busy. There were many household names Woolworth's, Timothy Whites, Radio Rentals, & others. It had a wonderful model shop, but as I got older I graduated to looking at the motorcycles in Fran Ridewoods shop. Dreaming of the day I would own a Suzuki 250 or Norton Commando - which I later did! There was also a record shop - I remember having to ask for the Sex Pistols first LP, & being sold it in a brown paper bag, so as not to cause offence.

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