When we got back today, I checked the Joust website to find that the second weekend of the Joust has also had to be cancelled.

It wasn’t surprising having seen some of the news this week. I think it was only yesterday or the day before that some parts of Gloucestershire had running water again and that wasn’t drinkable, even after boiling. 130,000 Gloucestershire homes are still without water and are surviving on bottled water and water bowsers.

It is a bit disappointing as I ordered the tickets months ago in February, but you can’t control the weather.

The year has been the wettest early summer (May, June, July) on record. Figures covering three months up to 23 July show more than 387mm (15.2in) of rain fell in England and Wales. That is more than double the average of 186mm (7.3in) for the period, resulting in two bouts of devastating floods in parts of England in June and July.

The previous biggest summer deluge since records started in 1766, came in 1789 when almost 350mm (13.8in) fell.