The Great Polden Hills’ Mangelwurzel Day 2026 – Honestly what a Day!

The Great Polden Hills’ Mangelwurzel Day 2026 – Honestly what a Day!

There are some sentences you never imagine yourself saying when you agree to organise a village event.

“Have we got enough mangelwurzels?”

“Who is looking after the giant ones?”

“Can someone keep an eye on the vegetables?”

And, perhaps most importantly:

“I think I’m going to have to act as security for the mangelwurzels.”

But then again, this was never going to be an entirely ordinary village event.

On Sunday 20 September 2026, Edington welcomed the very first Great Polden Hills’ Mangelwurzel Day – a celebration of one of Somerset’s most gloriously unknown vegetables, and as it turned out, one of the most wonderfully bonkers community days we could possibly have imagined.

How did we get here?

What started as an idea became a plan, the plan became a programme, and before we really had time to question whether we had completely lost the plot, we were preparing to welcome growers, gardeners, families, children, competitors, visitors, sponsors, special guests and a frankly impressive number of people who had willingly devoted their Sunday to celebrating a rather enormous root vegetable.

The aim was always to make it about much more than mangelwurzels.

We wanted to bring people together, give families something fun to enjoy, showcase local talent and organisations, raise money for good causes, remind people that Somerset is great and create a day that people would remember.

There was going to be music, dancing, food, crafts, fancy dress, competitions, games, a raffle, vegetable throwing and, obviously, a considerable quantity of mangelwurzels.

What could possibly go wrong? Well… quite a lot, actually. But somehow, it didn’t.

And then the day arrived…

The morning before came around and suddenly the months of planning became very real.

The marquee is erected…..

The hall and surrounding area were transforming, the marquee went up, the stallholders were getting ready, the competitions were preparing to be judged, the food and drink was being organised, prizes were looking great and the mangelwurzels were arriving.

Lots and lots of mangelwurzels.

Very large mangelwurzels. Some looked a lot like someone I vaguely recognised from America. Some of them were frankly rather impressive. Others were… characterful.

And some appeared to have developed personalities of their own.

By 11am Sunday, people were arriving and the atmosphere was already fantastic and the day was officially underway.

After a short introduction to the day, we welcomed our compere Luke Knight… https://www.knighttales.co.uk/

We knew we needed someone who could entertain a crowd as I can’t, and somehow make sense of the strange and wonderful world we had created and Luke was absolutely brilliant. He was steeped in Somerset folklore, full of stories and armed with a microphone, he took everything in his stride and brought exactly the energy we hoped he would.

There are some people who simply seem to belong behind a microphone, and Luke was one of them, warm, funny, knowledgeable and completely embraced the ridiculousness of the occasion.

And frankly, when you're standing in front of a crowd talking about mangelwurzels, you need someone who can do that with confidence.

Luke could.

Luke doing his thing.

The mangelwurzel competitions

Of course, the star of the show had to be the mangelwurzel itself.

The competition entries were fantastic and the sheer variety of categories gave everyone the opportunity to get involved.

We had categories for everything from the heaviest and longest mangelwurzel, to girth, gnarliest, best legs, Mangel Monster, carrot, Junior Green Fingers and the brilliantly named “I Tried Hard”.

There were also some particularly memorable categories including “Donald Trump”, “girthiest” and “best conjoined twins”

MAGA - Mangelwurzels Are Great Again…..

Because apparently one cannot simply have a vegetable competition.

You need categories.

Lots of categories.

And then you need judges.

Fortunately, we had two very special people to take on that task.

Our wonderful judges

We were incredibly lucky to have Charles Dowding https://charlesdowding.co.uk/ and Lucy Hutchings https://shegrowsveg.com/ join us.

Charles Dowding, renowned for his no-dig approach to growing, and Lucy Hutchings of She Grows Veg, brought their knowledge and enthusiasm to the competition.

Having people of their experience and expertise take the time to come along and judge our slightly unusual collection of vegetables was a real honour.

And they threw themselves into it. There were some serious decisions to be made as we had 179 entrants!

After all, when you've got a field of mangelwurzels in front of you and a prize at stake, you can't just pick one because it looks nice.

This was serious business.

Serious deliberations were had…..

As we were helping keep the day moving and generally trying to make sure everything happened when it was supposed to, it seemed somehow we found ourselves taking on another important role.

Mangelwurzel security.

Yes. Really.

At some point during the day it seemed we effectively needed to be acting as security for the mangelwurzels.

Not entirely sure this was included in the original event plan. But there we were.

There is something wonderfully ridiculous about having spent months organising an event and then finding yourself standing guard over a collection of enormous root vegetables.

I suspect it's a sentence that very few village hall chairs will ever have to say.

But it was all part of the fun.

Music, dancing and a whole lot of Somerset spirit

From midday, Secret Seven https://www.facebook.com/p/Secret-Seven-61573970167821/ provided live music and created a fantastic atmosphere.

Secret Seven performing live…..

They returned for a second set later in the afternoon, keeping the music going while people wandered around, chatted, ate, drank and generally enjoyed themselves.

The Savage Sisters https://www.facebook.com/SavageSistersMorris/ and Glastonbury Border Morris https://www.facebook.com/glastonburymorris gave us a very special performance in honour of the mangelwurzel.

Where else would you get Morris dancers performing in celebration of a root vegetable?

Exactly.

ONLY in Edington at the The Great Polden Hills Mangelwurzel day, that’s where! It was brilliant.

Savage Sisters and Glastonbury Border Morris entertaining the crowds…..

Mangelwurzel hurling

And then there was the Mangelwurzel Hurling.

Because obviously there was.

The Polden Hills Young Farmers https://www.facebook.com/PoldenHillsYFC/ were absolutely fantastic in helping with this and, as always, were willing to get stuck in and support the event.

They have been such a brilliant part of the village hall community and we're incredibly proud to house and support them. They brought energy, enthusiasm and, importantly, the ability to deal with flying vegetables.

The Polden Hills young farmers lending a hand…..

I'm not sure there is a better definition of community spirit than that.

Food, crafts, games and everything in between

There was plenty going on throughout the day.

Mangelwurzel chutney anyone?…..

Food and drink were available throughout, including mangelwurzel chutney kindly provided by Lindy Gibbon, with recipe cards available for anyone who wanted to take the experience home with them.

The children had their own Crafty Corner with Sue, while the Guess the Number jars provided another chance to win a prize.

Sue and her crafty corner…..

There was the Face-in-the-Hole board, which provided plenty of opportunities for photographs, and of course the raffle, which had some fantastic prizes.

At this point, I think it was safe to say that the event had gone well beyond being a vegetable competition.

It had become a proper community celebration.

Sir Mangelsworth and Lady Wurzelton

And we couldn't possibly forget our two very special guests.

These wonderful scarecrow characters were made for us by the Polden Hills Craft Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/625147992096033/ who also created crochet mangelwurzels for the event.

The names came from suggestions in the Mangelwurzel Facebook group, with our committee eventually choosing Sir Mangelsworth and Lady Wurzelton that had been suggested by Erica Smith.

Sir Mangelsworth and Lady Wurzelton topping the post box at Edington…..

They were a wonderful addition to the day and perfectly captured the slightly eccentric spirit of the whole event.

The Polden Hills Craft Group are such an asset to our community, and the time, creativity and hard work that went into making them deserves a huge thank you.

Behind every great event…

Of course, events like this don't simply happen.

While people see the finished day, they don't necessarily see all the conversations, emails, lists, phone calls, shopping trips, printing, designing, lifting, carrying, setting up, tidying, worrying and problem-solving that happen beforehand.

There were countless people who helped.

People who donated prizes, baked, cooked, grew mangelwurzels, made things,  sponsored us,  set up,  moved tables, carried vegetables, sold programmes and raffle tickets, provided parking, made the food and drink, people who turned up early and stayed late and people who simply said: “Yes, I'll help with that.”

We genuinely could not have done it without you.

Our brilliant core team

The people in particular who deserve a huge mention because they were at the heart of turning this crazy idea into an actual event:

Sam Charlesworth, Beverly Finnegan, Sue Burne, Sandra Pearson, David Strickland, Jeremy Welch, Jane Whyte and Joe Whyte.

From the very beginning, they put in an enormous amount of time, energy, ideas and hard work. There were almost certainly moments when all of us wondered whether we had completely lost our minds.

But we kept going.

And what started as an idea became a real event.

A real event with hundreds of people, music, dancing, competitions, food, crafts, fancy dress, raffles and flying mangelwurzels.

Not bad.

A huge thank you to our supporters

We also owe a massive thank you to everyone who supported the event behind the scenes.

Julia for creating an un-imaginably on theme and delicious array of foods.

To SDS, who printed our programmes and were, as always, incredibly supportive of the community and so helpful in getting everything looking just right.

To Matt, who created not only the digital life of the event – including posters, leaflets, the programme and website – but also all of the Village Hall's event posters and promotional material.

To the Polden Hills Young Farmers, who were once again wonderful in supporting a village hall event.

To the Polden Hills Craft Group, whose creativity added so much character.

To all of our sponsors and everyone who donated prizes.

To Seed of Hope CIC, who were part of the day and helped give the event a wider purpose.

To West Country Development for giving us a home for everyone’s cars on the day!

To our judges, stalls, supporters and guests.

And to every volunteer who helped before, during and after the event.

You may not all have had your names announced from the stage, but every single contribution mattered.

And then there was the media…

One thing none of us quite expected was the amount of attention the Great Polden Hills’ Mangelwurzel Day would receive. The media interest has been quite extraordinary.

What started as a village idea somehow caught people's attention well beyond Edington and the Polden villages and suddenly, everyone seemed to want to know about mangelwurzels (and so they should!)

Beverly Finnegan featuring on BBC Breakfast!…..

Sam Charlesworth featuring on ITV news…..

A vegetable that most people probably hadn't thought about for years – if ever – was suddenly getting attention. And I think that's rather wonderful.

Because it says something about the appeal of the whole thing. It was quirky. It was local. It made people smile.

In a world where so much of the news can feel heavy, complicated or divided, there was something rather lovely about people coming together to celebrate something completely harmless, completely ridiculous and completely Somerset (you have to love Somerset)

And  after all that, somehow… it all went off without a hitch

For an event with this many moving parts, there were plenty of opportunities for something to go spectacularly wrong. But somehow, it didn't.

The day went off without a hitch. People arrived, the competitions happened, the music played, Morris dancers danced, children crafted, raffle tickets were pulled (don’t even get me started on the incredible prizes we got) the fancy dress was judged, The Young Farmers launched mangelwurzels through the air, the judges judged, Luke entertained, the food and drink flowed and remarkably, the mangelwurzels survived.

Well, most of them as after the event any that were left over were taken to a local farm to be re-purposed into cattle fodder!

Off to a new home at the end of the day…..

Mmmm…..

By the time we reached the closing speech, there was that lovely mixture of tiredness, relief and satisfaction that comes at the end of something you've poured months of effort into.

What was it really about?

Of course, the obvious answer is that it was about mangelwurzels.

Partially.

It was also about families, neighbours, growers, gardeners, community groups, volunteers, businesses, musicians, dancers, craftspeople, farmers and visitors all coming together and having a good time.

It was about celebrating the slightly eccentric things that make Somerset special.

It was about giving people a reason to laugh.

It was about creating something that didn't take itself too seriously.

And it was about showing what can happen when a group of people have an idea that is just daft enough to be brilliant – and then decide to actually do it.

Thank you

So, to everyone who came along – thank you. Thank you for growing your mangelwurzels. Thank you for entering the competitions. Thank you for dressing up.

Thank you for eating them, throwing them, admiring them and judging them.

Thank you for buying raffle tickets, eating the food, listening to the music, watching the dancing and getting involved.

Thank you for volunteering. Thank you for supporting the hall. And thank you for believing that celebrating a giant root vegetable was a perfectly reasonable way to spend a Sunday.

A very special thank you must go to Charles Dowding, Lucy Hutchings and Luke Knight for giving their time, sharing their knowledge and talents, and throwing themselves so enthusiastically into our slightly bonkers festival.

And finally, thank you to the entire team who made this possible.

We couldn't have done it without you.

When I stood up at the end of the day, I said that I thought we could safely say that the humble mangelwurzel had had its moment…for this year anyway.

And I stand by that.

Although, after the response we've had, the media attention, the incredible community support and the sheer amount of fun we've had…

I'm beginning to wonder whether we've created a monster.

A very large, slightly lumpy, root vegetable-shaped monster.

But for now, we'll just say thank you.

Thank you to Edington. Thank you to the Polden villages. Thank you to everyone who travelled to join us. Thank you to the media who championed us.

And thank you to the mighty mangelwurzel.

That leaves me with nothing else to share other than pride in everything we did as a team, other than to say…

WHAT A DAY.

And perhaps, just perhaps…we'll see you next year, right?! Sunday 19th September 2027!