News, Social & Events

Latest News

23 January 2026

Dear Volunteer,

Hope you are well. With so much rain in the gardens recently, it’s certainly been a soggy start to the year! I hope you’ve all managed to avoid the worst of the puddles.. 🌧️

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the WCN Community Day at the Cathedral last Saturday. It was certainly a fun and lively event, and it was lovely to see so many people in Wells working so hard to do wonderful things for the community.

A special thank you to all our volunteers who helped on our stand. You were fantastic ambassadors for the Palace and did a wonderful job running the stand and engaging with visitors.

🌟 Volunteer Training 2026
We still have places available on our 2026 Volunteer Training Programme.

Please see the attached list of talks and email me if you would like to book onto any sessions, or if there are others you’d be interested in.

☕ Coffee Meet-Ups
Come along to any of our Coffee Meet-Ups which are happening every month in the Laundry Room. (Dates listed on the attached 2026 Volunteer Training Programme) There’s no need to book on these. Just turn up, have a chat, and get to know other volunteers. Drop in anytime. Lasts 1hr.

The Laundry Room can be found by walking through the on site car park, through the archway and it is on the left hand side, blue door, up the stairs. 

🌿 Making Space for Ponds Workshop – Monday 26 January

We’ve been given details of an interesting Ponds Workshop taking place on Monday 26 Jan at:
⏰ 7.00 pm
📍 Wells Town Hall

This may be of particular interest to all Garden volunteers. Speakers include:

• Guy Graga – SWT Team Wilder
  • Rosie Lee Carter – Kingfisher Common Project

Please see the attached flyer for full details.

🎟️ Bring a Friend for Free – 17 February
On Monday 17 February, Friends of the Palace can bring two friends for free!

Don’t forget that your Volunteer Lanyard acts like a Friends membership, giving you all the same benefits. This means you can bring up to two guests with you on this date. A lovely opportunity to share the Palace with friends or family!

🎫 New Volunteer Lanyards
If you haven’t already done so, please collect your new volunteer lanyard from the Ticket Shop. These include a barcode, so it’s important that everyone returns their old one and has the updated version.

🌧️ Gardeners’ Mess Room Update
Finally, our apologies for the delay with the Gardeners’ Mess Room project. This is taking longer than planned, partly due to the recent atrocious weather, which has delayed other work.

Thank you very much for your patience. We hope it won’t be much longer now.

Thank you, as always, for everything you do. Have a lovely weekend.

Warm wishes,

Gemma

Siobhan Goodwin

Pictures of the Month – December

Here are some wonderful pictures of the Sparkle event with a lovely full moon taken by Liz Pedley – A volunteer Guide