Eighty-four days of rain but no record for village
FOR the uninitiated, the Welsh village of Eglwyswrw sounds rather like Dylan Thomas’s fictional Llareggub in his famous play Under Milk Wood. Set in Pembrokeshire near Cardigan, it is a place of just a few hundred souls where not all that much ever seems to occur.
There is a church, a village school and the remains of a small Norman motte and bailey castle. But beyond those mainstays little else to distract the visitor.
This week, however, Eglwyswrw was in touching distance of changing all of that and establishing a name for itself in the record books – as the soggiest place in Britain.
Since October 26 the rain has lashed down without respite or remorse for 84 days in a row.
The downpours have proved so depressing that one local councillor, John Davies, said people were being ground down “both physically and psychologically”. Others have described the rains as of “biblical proportions”.
If only the deluge had continued until today, Eglwyswrw would have surpassed the British record set in Scotland in 1923 of 89 consecutive days.
Instead, the village fell at the final hurdle. On the 85th day, residents awoke to skies of cobalt blue and the knowledge that fame had eluded them.
Sod’s law is seemingly wellentrenched in Pembrokeshire for no sooner had the chance of breaking the record elapsed than the heavens opened again. Rain is forecast in the village into next week. It will be the same for many in the coming days; wet and windy, in particular in the north and west of Britain.
They are a poor lot in Eglwyswrw. Although by my (unscientific) calculations if it persists until next Friday that will be five days of rain in a row. Only 85 more for the record.