The new Mendip TUC banner was unveiled for the first time to the monthly meeting of delegates at the Portway Annexe in Wells.

It is a long-standing tradition for unions and their branches to commission banners to display at events to identify their trade union membership.

The banner depicts key Mendip landmarks: Cheddar Gorge, Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Tor, and carries a line from William Blakes’ stirring radical poem ‘Jerusalem’, which references the legend of Joseph of Arimathea’s journey to Somerset 2,000 years ago.

The Radstock and east Mendips are famous for their collieries so it depicts the legendary miners’ leader AJ Cook, who was born in Wookey in 1883 and became the leader of all the British Miners by the time of the 1926 General Strike.

Dave Chapple said at the meeting: “We wanted a traditional-style banner, and designer Dave Lockett stepped up to the task and produced this wonderful work of art for us, that will last for many years and support and inspire many of our campaigns to support working people in the whole Mendip area.”

Mendip Trades Union Council was inaugurated in 2018, and covers an area from Pensford and Peasedown in the north, to Street in the south, Wrington in the west, and Frome in the East. The council brings together delegates who are activists in their workplaces and their unions.

All trade unionists who live or work in the wider Mendip area are welcome to become delegates. For more information, please email the secretary, Dave Chapple: [email protected].