This Friday St Bartholomew’s Day 24 August is the fortieth day after St Swithun’s Day.

Swithun is the saint of forty days sun or rain fame.

We have had forty days of sun but it was a little out of kilter starting too early and ending too early.

In Suffolk there has been 51 days without any rain according to Paul Simons in The Times.

Winchester Cathedral, home of St Swithun’s shrine, has a festal evensong for St Bartholomew on Friday sung by the choir of Wallingford Parish Church.

St Bartholomew’s Church at Hyde Abbey, the first stop on the Pilgrims’ Way out of Winchester, is observing its patronal festival on Sunday morning 26 August at 9.30am.