11 members of the Footpaths Group assembled for a walking tour of Wells City centre, on a dry day with a cold breeze.

The official tour leaflet has the tour starting at the Market Place, but as the car park we used was a short way from the walk we started at that point. The first building of interest was an Almshouse, and as we quickly learned, there are several of these around the City, all dedicated to the housing of the 'poor and decayed' tradesmen and workers of various manual trades. Reaching the Market Place for the first time, we were just in time to hear the loud and cheerful voice of the Town Crier, as he told of several points of interest and events in the City, in verse, some of the rhyming words of which would have been of questionable taste had they not been substituted with better alternatives.

Passing through the "Bishop's Eye" we walked to the entrance of the Bishops' Palace and ventured through the gatehouse to the Croquet Lawn. Here we encountered the first of several clumps of Snowdrops. Having learned of the history of the Palace, our route took us around the moat to the back corner of the Palace grounds where we had a view of the weir that marked the area of the springs that give the city its name. A couple of local inhabitants were waiting here for the appearance of a Kingfisher reported to be in that area of the moat, but despite several of the group waiting for a while, it failed to put in an appearance.