It’s St. Swithin’s Day today and we’re about to tell you something that’s really going to put a dampener on your day.
Or should we say the next 40 days.
St. Swithin isn’t exactly the most well-known of saints and that’s probably because he hasn’t got a lot of positive things to shout about. Yes, he was the Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester and subsequently the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral, which is all well and good, but his historical importance has been somewhat overshadowed by his reputation for “posthumous miracle-working”.
You might very well be thinking that “posthumous miracle-working” doesn’t sound like a negative at all. especially when you think about all the miraculous acts he could be pulling off, right?
Well, here’s what St. Swithin’s Day really means.
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According to ancient weather folklore, should it rain on St. Swithin’s feast day – 15th July – then it will continue to rain for the following 40 days, but on the flip-side, if it’s dry and ‘cracking flags’ out, then that fair weather will subsequently continue for the same time period.
Have you put two and two together yet? Yes, it’s unfortunately raining (or at least has been raining) across Greater Manchester and much of the UK today, and if this bit of folklore is anything to go by, it won’t be stopping any time soon.
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So much for summer.
Why is this the case though? Where did this tale of legend come from? What’s the history behind it?
To sum it up briefly, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, when St. Swithin passed away, he was buried at his request in the churchyard of Winchester Cathedral in a location where rain and the steps of passersby might fall on his grave.
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After his body was moved inside the cathedral on 15th July 971, a “great storm ensued”.
The first textual evidence for the weather prophecy appears to have come from a 13th/14th-century entry in a manuscript at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Although, as weather frequently changes around midsummer, it’s believed the tradition that this day can influence ensuing weather may stem from earlier, possibly pre-Christian, beliefs.
The British weather folklore proverb reads:
St Swithun’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain nae mare
Another well-known variant states – “If on St Swithun’s day it really pours, you’re better off to stay indoors.“
It’s not all simply folklore though, there is apparently some scientific basis to the weather pattern behind the legend of St Swithin’s Day.
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Around the middle of July, the jet stream settles into a pattern which, in the majority of years, holds reasonably steady until the end of August. When the jet stream lies north of the British Isles, then continental high pressure is able to move in, but when it lies across or south of the British Isles, Arctic air and Atlantic weather systems predominate.
So, there you have it.
Cheers St. Swithin – it’s a good job us Mancunians are used to it.
Trending
ITV to be bought out by Sky in transformational British broadcasting deal worth £1.6 billion
Danny Jones
In a watershed moment for British broadcasting, Sky has reached a transformational agreement worth more than £1.6 billion to buy out ITV in a landmark takeover deal.
With Sky already owned by US telecommunications corporation Comcast, this is set to be one of the biggest shakeups in TV and streaming for some time.
Talks actually started last November, but the process to complete a buyout like this has obviously taken a significant amount of time and money already.
It’s also worth noting that the deal is still pending full approval from the relevant regulators; nevertheless, it’s fair to say that it could change the face of the British media giants – who are based here in Greater Manchester over at MediaCity – but might signal a significant overhaul of our media landscape.
The Sky Group have assured there will be no immediate change to popular shows and will not be put behind a paywall at present (for now, anyway), with ITV still under a free-to-air service until 2034 as part of its public licensing contract.
Aquisitons/mergers of this size like this don’t come around very often, at least not across this side of the pond, with the growing Disney’s growing multinational monopolisation being one of the biggest examples of conglomerates mopping up major networks and huge brands over the past decade.
Writing in a statement, Sky said: “The UK media market is undergoing a profound and rapid transformation, and as competition for audiences intensifies, scale matters more than ever in order to compete with global streaming giants and YouTube in the UK.
“Viewers will continue to enjoy the shows they know and love, such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, This Morning, Loose Women, Lorraine and News at Ten – alongside major live sporting events.”
That lattermost example feels particularly poignant at the moment, as this also means that the likes of ITV’s impressive World Cup coverage will come under the Sky umbrella in the near future.
ITV agrees sale of media and entertainment business to Sky for up to £1.6bnhttps://t.co/UtgO9REejy
It’s being seen as an ambitious attempt to shake up traditional terrestrial telly and digital platforms, with the ‘old guard’, as it were, having to move forward and fast to keep up with the mercurial market becoming evermore dominated by streaming services.
Of course, there are plenty raising questions and concerns over yet another domestic institution becoming deeper and deeper entwined with big American business; on the other hand, former ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette, who still owns shares, says the deal was “essential” for its survival.
ITV will also receive £1.2bn in cash and Sky’s Love Productions business in return for ownership of their media and entertainment arm, whose shows include the Great British Bake Off.
Moving forward, ITV will also get a further £200m in 2028 if they meet revenue targets when it comes to advertising, with Sky promising to spend over £2.1bn on content from ITV Studios over a five-year period. You can read the full update from ITV right HERE.
Featured Images — James West (via Flickr)/Publicity picture
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Wayne Rooney ‘agrees’ to bizarre bet ahead of 2026 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals
Danny Jones
England and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has seemingly roped himself into a bizarre bet of his own making after yet more teams booked their place in the quarter-final stages of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
It’s not quite Gary Lineker doing Match of the Day in his underpants after Leicester won the league, level, but we’d still pay to see it.
However, after the bedlam following England booking their spot in the quarter-finals this morning (feels odd to say and we’re still not quite sure what day it is), you might be surprised to learn it has nothing to do with the Three Lions’ historic victory.
It does have to do with who they’ll be facing in their next game, though: Norway, as Rooney seemed confident enough in his prediction that the Scandinavian side wouldn’t make it into the final eight that he wagered he’d row down the River Mersey. Well, they did…
Yes, in case you missed it, the Norwegians did make it past Brazil with a 2-1 win – and, of course, more goals for Erling Haaland – before Thomas Tuchel’s side had barely even woken up for their very long day at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico.
While no one was quite sure why ‘Wazza’ was quite so confident that the ‘Seleção’ were going to go through, especially since Norway had shown just as much star power in spells in the opening four rounds, he still decided to throw down the gauntlet on himself.
As you can see in the clip above, he says he’s a “man of [his] word” and looks to have even roped in the likes of fellow former pros turned punditry colleagues on the night, Micah Richards and Joe Hart.
That being said, he did make the caveat that perhaps it would be better if the BBC could somehow sort them to sail down the Hudson River in New York instead, simply for the sake of ‘time’.
We’re not sure exactly how easy it is for the British broadcasters to simply secure permission to take a rowboat down one of the busiest and most famous waterways in the world, but you never know.
Here’s hoping they at least try to make something happen, anyway.
There’s been plenty of curious and comedic moments already this tournament, but for anyone who hasn’t yet watched Harry Kane’s post-match following the tense 3-2 thriller against Mexico, you really need to.
He was given the chance to chat to the media once again after his voice recovered, but let’s just say the memes that have already come from THAT interview are almost as memorable as the match itself.
Emily Sergeant -
15th July 2020 
