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Community Engagement at The Bishop's Palace

Community Engagement

The Palace Trust is a charity and community engagement is a key focus for us. We want to give a warm welcome to everyone and play our part in making Wells and the surrounding area a wonderful place to live and visit.

Below are a few examples of how we’re engaging with our community:

  • We have set up a Community Membership Scheme which encourages local not-for-profit groups and organisations to make the most of this unique heritage site at the heart of Wells. It is also a great way for The Bishop’s Palace to build stronger links with the community. You can purchase memberships and we also issue 50 complimentary passes each year for local groups who will benefit the most from them.

  • Each year we provide over 150 complimentary Bishop’s Palace Admission Tickets for local people who will benefit the most from them.

  • Each state primary and secondary school in Wells, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury and Street can apply to bring one class for free in 2026.

  • We work with many local organisations to benefit our community.

  • We provide opportunities for local people to return to work, gain work experience and pathways into employment.

  • We take part in national and regional forums to promote good practice and take part in research.

Please contact [email protected] for more information on any of these community initiatives.

Please contact us if you have any ideas, suggestions or proposals for ways that we could work with you or how you might like to get involved here.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race

The Bishop’s Palace hosted pancake races on Shrove Tuesday with their team competing against teams from the Cathedral and the Bishop’s Office. After lots of dashing about the teams enjoyed a well earned rest with tea and cake in the undercroft of the palace. Later on this year there will be an exhibition ‘Fun and Games at the Palace’ which will show some of the lighter side of life at The Bishop’s Palace, including a wrestling match in 1967, the televised ‘It’s a Knockout’ and of course the Moat Boat Race. If you have memories, photos, or video of any of these events, or any others you enjoyed at the Palace, that you would like to share, please contact Siobhan Goodwin, Community Engagement Manager by email [email protected]

An image of the staff at The Bishop's Palace and Wells Cathedral during the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race
A collage of the staff at The Bishop's Palace and Wells Cathedral during the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race

Wells Dementia Alliance

Wells Dementia Action Alliance (WDAA) held one of their Dementia Awareness sessions here at the Palace recently when our staff and volunteers were also joined by staff from Harris and Harris solicitors here in Wells.
 
Both teams found the information very helpful and thanks go to Claire Chettoe from the WDAA, who runs these sessions for all businesses and organisations, for sharing her knowledge.
An image of a Wells Dementia Alliance meeting taking place at The Bishop's Palace and Gardens.

Work Experience

We are pleased to offer work experience placements to people in our community. In January there were seven students here helping us and gaining valuable experience. Two of the students interviewed each other and then wrote a short piece to give you an idea of what they have been doing and what they have gained from their time here.

Daisy’s Experience

Daisy has come here from Frome College to spend a week here at the Bishop’s Palace; engaging in a wide range of activities such as helping in the café, to shadowing an employee in an office. The main reason why she came to complete her Work experience in Wells was to experience the different opportunities, resulting to an exponential increase in both her confidence and communication skills working with both a team and having conversations to the general public. This has had a huge effect on Daisy as prior to joining, she never had a part-time job – meaning she can use these soft skills in the wide world and adapt them to any sort of job.

Overall, she would hugely recommend this to anyone who hasn’t got a clear understanding of what they want to do in the future as the Bishop’s Palace offers a wide range of activities to engage in, whilst also learning crucial soft skills that can be used in any sort of circumstances.

Kai’s Experience

Kai goes to Yeovil College and is doing a T-Level in Management and Administration- a coursework-based qualification which means that he can spend every Friday in The Bishops Palace Finance Department and every afternoon helping in the admin side of things. Throughout the 3 months, he has been helping he says he has gained skills in communication and responsibility that will prepare him for future employment and having the opportunity to obtain professional references if need be.

Kai believes that working at The Bishops Palace is a great opportunity for young people because of the wide range of different experiences they offer, and the friendliness of the staff who are willing to accommodate any style of learning, meaning anyone can come and feel welcome and supported.

Please note we are now full for Year 10 work experience July 2026.

An image of a work Experience Placement at The Bishop's Palace
An image of a work Experience Placement at The Bishop's Palace

Christmas Eco Art Exhibition 2025

Schools and nurseries from across the area created some incredible exhibits on the theme of ‘Christmas Carols’ for the 2025 Christmas Eco Arts Exhibition. Hundreds of children, with some help from their dedicated teachers, created wonderful and imaginative exhibits interpreting the Christmas carol theme. Prizes were awarded for the cutest, the biggest, the best interpretation of the theme and the exhibit involving the most children.

If you missed the exhibition, you can see it in all its glory on our YouTube channel. The Bishop’s Palace would like to thank all of the children and nursery and school staff who worked so hard on their exhibits.

If your school would like to take part next year, please contact Gemma Palmer, Community Engagement Assistant, at [email protected].

Community Engagement Updates – November 2025

We continue to support people in our community with career opportunities and work experience, and in turn they bring a fresh perspective to our organisation. Here is a snapshot of what is going on right now behind the scenes. We currently have a full-time trainee gardener on placement for the next year through the Historic & Botanic Garden Training Scheme. The garden team also have someone doing an 8 week work experience placement through Wells Job Centre. Last month a student from Yeovil College also started an 18 month T level placement one day a week leading to a qualification in Business Management and Administration. A member of our catering team is currently doing an apprenticeship to qualify as a chef. Two school students are completing their Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteering placement with us. For the first time we have also had a young person who has just graduated getting some practical experience relevant to their Photography degree. This has included them taking photos at events, creating and editing video for our YouTube content and completing their online drone license. Last but not least, we have already got nine year 10 students lined up for work experience in 2026!

Here are some of the images taken by our photography placement student, Tomos, of the Playing Cards Competition awards evening and the Somerset Poppy display.

An image of the Photography Competition Awards Evening
An image of the Somerset Poppy Display