Friday, June 20th, 2025
Respite Care Home Spared | Rod Stewart Partying in Bath | Rugby Champions' Joy
🏥 In a reversal, respite care home Newton House - the only local facility providing breaks for carers looking after young people with learning disabilities and autism - is set to remain open until September next year, reports the BBC.
🗣️ A new regional Citizen’s Assembly launches this week to shape the future of arts and culture in the west of England, reports Somerset Live. From Monday, invitations will be sent to 15,000 randomly chosen households to find 52 participants for Citizens for Culture.
👷♀️ Work has begun on Bath’s iconic Jolly's department store, reports Somerset Live. The store will host a grand opening in October 2026 and feature a “heritage space” to showcase its history.
↳Here’s Jolly’s history, as reported by Somerset Live’s Phoebe Hobbs.
🎹 Glastonbury 2025 kicks off this week! Here’s the incredible line-up.
🎙️ Rod Stewart will be partying in Bath the night before his performance, he tells the Radio Times.
📺 Not going - but still want to see it? Watch on the BBC here.
🧘🏻♀️Glasto not your speed? There’s a new yoga + live music fest coming to Somerset, reports the BBC.
Weather
🥵 Hot hot hot this weekend! Highs near 30 forecast.
🧗♀️ Check out Bath’s new indoor bouldering gym - Luma, at 14 Ferry Lane. There’s a profile in Somerset Live.
🚢 Sunday 22 June is Windrush Day.
👩🏽⚕️ Watch this gorgeous film about RUH Windrush nurses: how they came to Britain, what they thought of Bath, where they worked and what they’ve contributed. Dare you not to tear up!
📅 Windrush Caribbean Film Fest
📍Arnolfini, Bristol
🦊 Somerset Wildlife Trust says The Big Count 2025 needs as many volunteers as possible to record animals in gardens, parks and community green spaces, reports the BBC.
⛺️ It’s also Refugee Week. Watch these films online.
📌 Bath Bee Community Noticeboard
📌 The new Fashion Museum is holding in-person events this weekend. Come have your say. Everyone is welcome, with no pre-registration required.
The Old Post Office, 26 New Bond Street, Bath / 19th – 22nd June, midday – 6pm
Bath Central Library / 27th June, 10am – 4pm
📌 Bath City Farm will celebrate 30 years in July with a music festival, says the Bath & Wiltshire Parent.
Rugby Champions
🏉 Bath's streets turned blue, black and white as fans celebrated the Premiership Rugby final win - Bath’s first league title in 29 years. Somerset Live had this report.
📸 Our thanks to the Burns family in Bath for sharing this video from the celebrations!
📻 You can also hear how Bath Rugby rebuilt itself in this BBC Podcast.
😡 Not everyone is happy. Outside of rugby season, the club is meant to take down the east stand so residents can enjoy the view of Bathwick Hill. But it costs £1 million a year, so the Club has gained permission to keep the stands up, despite protests from neighbours who hold parties every year to celebrate the return of their view, reports the LDRS in the Bath Echo.
City
🧪 Scientists at the University of Bath have found that despite fewer antibiotics used during lockdown, antimicrobial resistance persisted.
🥇A Bath trauma recovery pioneer has been honoured with an MBE for her work in child mental health, reports Somerset Live.
🗳️ A police officer dismissed for a row over a basketball in Sports Direct is now standing as a Reform UK candidate for BANES council, Mendip Ward. Somerset Live has the story.
Transport
🚲 Twenty new cycle hangars pop up in Bath at a cost of £200k. It’s Bath, so people have strong views on these so-called “metal monstrosities,” says the Bath Echo.
💚 They can’t be THAT bad: all the ones we looked at are already fully booked - you have to apply to a waitlist to secure the £42/year bike parking spaces.
🚴♂️ A new cycle path and crossings could soon lead to the controversial Sydney Road liveable neighbourhood to make it more attractive for pedestrians and cyclists, reports the Bath Echo.
Crime
🚨 Avon & Somerset Police are appealing for help from the public to identify a man in connection with an assault at Flan O’Briens pub in Westgate Street, reports the Bath Echo.
💰 A Bath man who stole two Barnardo’s charity pots from a supermarket has received a suspended prison sentence, reports the Bath Echo.
👂🏽A University of Bath student who bit another man’s ear so badly that he needed an operation has been spared jail, reports the Bath Echo.
Sweet stuff 🍯
🎪 This Somerset tightrope walker helps others overcome their anxiety, reports the BBC. Talk about highly generous!
🦦 A Somerset wildlife photographer has caught a rare image: a swimming mole, reports the BBC.
🐛 One of our favourite Bath gardens - St Stephen’s Millennium Green, a hidden gem - marked 25 years by raiseing £4,000.
🕺🏻We’ll leave you with this iconic image from last week’s Robbie Williams extravaganza - and news that we caught sight of him entering the back of the Royal Crescent Hotel from our kitchen window!
