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?
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Well, here’s what St. Swithin’s Day really means.
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.
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Video of Chelsea fan claiming ‘Haaland will not live up to the expectation’ comes back to bite him
Danny Jones
A video of a Chelsea supporter expressing his doubts over whether Manchester City striker Erling Haaland will “live up to the expectation” is doing the rounds again and it’s absolutely priceless.
Blues fan and YouTuber Rory Jennings appeared on Sky Sport’s Saturday Social show back in August, just a couple of months after City signed the frightening forward from German side Borussia Dortmund.
Though it went viral at the time, with most fans finding his assumption that Haaland stood no chance of winning the golden boot laughable, it’s enjoying an even more hilarious half-life now the Norwegian has put up the kind of numbers he has.
Jennings said at the time that he was “so bored” of the discussion and excitement, insisting that the 22-year-old striker “isn’t the player everyone thinks he is” and to suggest he could win the personal accolade in his debut season was “outrageous”.
An often divisive commentator and content creator who regularly appears on ‘True Geordie’s watchalong show, The Kick Off (where he has also had numerous viral moments), he even went on to say that the mere notion was “disrespectful” to players like Harry Kane and Mo Salah.
Rubbishing the possibility as a “ridiculous achievement”, he simply declared that Haaland “isn’t going to do it”. Well, this is awkward…
Not only is City’s new number nine already the top scorer in the Premier League with 14 but he also has double the amount of the second highest-scorer in Harry Kane after just eight games. Ridiculous indeed, Rory.
Moreover, despite Jennings claiming that he is “wasteful” in front of goal at times and lacks the “build-up play” to play in Pep Guardiola’s side, Haaland has the most efficient strike rate of any player in Europe right now, averaging 1.89 goals per 90 minutes in the league alone.
Oh, and he’s also chipped in with three assists on top of that.
It’s safe to say that Rory received a fair bit of grief after his bold claim, to the point that even he had to hold his hands up and record an ‘apology’ video.
We can only applaud journalist and co-host Ade Oladipo for being less smug than we would have been in this situation.
To make things even more hilarious, Haaland had scored six when he made this video around two months ago. He is now one goal away from the YouTuber’s initial prediction of 15 in the league and has already netted 17 in all competitions. Yikes.
City are currently second in the league with a whopping goal difference of +20 — nearly three-quarters of you can basically credit to just Haaland.
Don’t think you’ll find anyone tipping Kane, Salah or Son for the golden boot now, do you?
Phil Foden’s bond with elderly City fan with dementia only gets more wholesome
Danny Jones
Among the City fans flying high after the Manchester derby, 84-year-old Barry Carr was undoubtedly one those most bowled over on the day, as he was once again invited to Phil Foden‘s box to watch the game.
Having gone viral earlier this year after attending the Sky Blue’s final game of last season – where he happened to meet Foden pitch-side – the elderly City fan who suffers from dementia was invited along to watch the 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest.
Better still, he and his grandson Charlie Gibson got to watch the game from the comfort of the 22-year-old’s private box.
Since then, the pair’s bond has only grown stronger and more wholesome, as the Stockport local decided to invite him and his Charlie back to watch City put six past another team: United.
As you can see, Barry was invited back to watch the derby and treated to a 6-3 blockbuster, where he got to spend more time with Foden as well as meet ex-player turned pundit, Micah Richards.
One of our favourite bits is him referring to Erling Haaland as “the big one”. You’re not wrong there, Barry!
The lifelong fan City fan was over the moon with the result and even more excited when he realised his favourite Foden had netted a hattrick against against their historic rivals.
Following the game, the two shared a lovely embrace and spoke about the game, with Foden describing his game as a “dream come true”. We dare say Barry felt the same.
Barry’s face when he realised Phil scored the openerA hug and a kiss after full-time
We’re not crying, you are…
While he struggles with his memory, most of his years spent watching City vs United would have been quite different, as the blue half of Manchester were long-considered ‘the noisy neighbours’. Safe to say things have changed significantly over the past decade.
As for him and Foden, the pair seem to have struck up a really strong connection — you only need to see his face when Phil turns up to say hello after the game.
Charlie has been chronicling various memories with his grandad over on his TikTok and each one seems to be more heartwarming than the last.
We’ll happily stay on this corner of the internet for the foreseeable.
Emily Sergeant -
15th July 2020 
