A special family event is to be held in Highbridge to celebrate Somerset Day today (Saturday, May 11th).
The free event will be held at the Morland Hall Community Hub in Pearce Drive, Highbridge from 11am to 3pm.
“We look forward to welcoming local families for a day of fun, with games, music, food and drink and stalls,” says a spokesperson from organisers Morland Entertainment Group.
Somerset Day is the 11th May and is celebrated annually over the second weekend in May. It marks Alfred the Great’s call to arms and the gathering of ‘all the people of Somerset’ to march against the invading Viking army, and is now an annual opportunity to celebrate all that is ‘great’ about Somerset and its residents and communities.
Alfred is the only Monarch to have been called the Great and following his defeat of the Danes is regarded by many to be the first King of England. By the 890s Alfred’s charters and coinage were referring to him as ‘King of the English’. The date was chosen by an online poll in 2015 in which over 8,000 people voted.
