Dear Friends,

What an amazing month for warm sunny weather. Two probably three periods counting as heatwaves, following the one we had in June. The rainfall tells its own story with 11mm on the first day of July, with the next 2.5mm on the 26th. This is way below what’s needed for the village, our gardens, the Pit and for our farmers, who are now really suffering, with colourful looking fields of barley and wheat burned golden yellow with the intense sun, but of poor quality due to the lack of rainfall. I don’t think we’ve ever had crops of grain harvested so early. We’ve had so many dry and warm days with still or gentle winds, and temperatures peaking at around 32C with each day well above average. Overnight temperatures were well above normal making it difficult to sleep, and I noted that the temperature on the 11th was 26C at 8.00am. You can visibly see the water on the Pit evaporating, and the level hasn’t been like it is today, for at six years. It’s not yet anything like it was in the drought of 1976, but it is a worrying trend, after some amazing years of rainfall since 2000. Sadly, some vandalism has recently taken place, mainly youths throwing red sandstone blocks further into the Pit itself. What they don’t realise is those stones were placed around the edge of the Pit thirty years or so ago, to stop the banks eroding from the energy of the waves, blown naturally by the wind when it blows from a northerly direction. The Pit Group have spent hours recently, replacing some of the larger stones. Highlights from wildlife sightings this month have been, baby foxes and hedgehogs playing in gardens, and a young brown hare seen in Quarry Lane, coming from the direction of the old Quarry. A count of three swifts was seen over the village, and although numbers of swallows and house martins are well down in the village, I counted 150+ flying over the fields and farm buildings at Cotton Farm. Buzzard families are now off their nest sites and a party of four sometimes five birds can be seen most days circling over Rowton.

The pictures this month illustrate some of our Village activities, from the very successful Church Garden Party to the Christleton Cricket Club 2nd XI winning a match against Runcorn when two of our Christleton batsmen had a superb stand of over 130 runs, turning a troubling 34 for 3 wickets, into an excellent win by seven wickets.

The highlight of the month was the Village Show. This highly successful show started in the 1870’s by Rev. Canon Lionel Garnett, was revived by the Parish Council in 1992. A show where villagers can show off many exciting skills, in a whole variety of categories. The Committee is led by Dr Anna Pritchard, and with the adoption of colourful aprons this year, it gave the show a very professional appearance. The photographs illustrate some of the excellent exhibits from the children of the Christleton Pre and Primary schools to the highly skilled pieces of art, collage, pottery, floral art and flower arranging, photography, and not least to baking and produce, including wines and cordials, fruit and vegetables. The whole emphasis of the display is about excellence, and it was certainly seen in abundance. The Show was opened by our local M.P Aphra Brandreth, who set the scene, with some thoughtful comments not only about the importance of such events in the local calendar, but that this was a truly village event that followed a long tradition of excellence in creativity and hard work. At the end of the show, twenty six trophies were awarded to the winning competitors, and there were lots of happy visitors after a highly successful raffle. Congratulations to Anna and her team, for another excellent show. Also illustrated below are some of the winning entries in the Hanging Basket and Container Competition.