FARMERS in Swindon are fearing an impending crisis after the wettest June for a century.

The town, along with most of England and Wales, has been hit by regular downpours in the dampest period on record.

The rain has wreaked havoc on crops, caused issues for livestock and seen several popular events, such as Badminton and most recently the Gatcombe horse trials, cancelled.

The Met Office confirmed its provisional figures for June showed double the average amount of rain had fallen, making it the wettest June since records began in 1910.

June was also the second record breaking month of rainfall this year, with April also topping the rankings.

And the period from April to June is the wettest ever recorded for the UK.

Farmer Tim Handy, of the Pry in Purton, said the farming community had been hit hard by the weather and warned of food shortages.

The 52-year-old, who has worked on the farm since he was 11, said: “It’s a huge storm waiting to come.

“We have got hardly any winter food and with the ground being so wet you cannot get the machines on to it.

“If it does not change in the next week to 10 days we could have a huge crisis.

“I’ve got a neighbour who has to keep his cows in the shed and only has enough food for them for three days.

“I’ve not sold any sheep when at this time probably half of the lambs should have been sold.

“It’s like this everywhere, from Devon all the way up to the north – you ask any farm in the country and they will say the same.

“I’ve never seen it like this. We are all looking at the weather and thinking it has got to change some time.”

Green-fingered gardeners have also been suffering with the rain, even though the hosepipe ban has been lifted, with many plants and produce failing to grow.

Vieve Forward, who keeps a plot on the allotment in Rayfield Grove, said: “We are all having problems. My strawberries have all got botrytis and are covered in grey mould, and from three plants I got six small potatoes.

“I’ve been doing it for five years and I’ve never seen it like this.

“Often I have to hide in the shed and wait for it to stop.”

Local summer fixtures have also been hit by the rain, including the Wroughton Carnival, which had to cancel the festivities on Weir Field due to waterlogging.

The Met Office has forecast more rain to come this week.

But it is not all doom and gloom: town centre retailers have been feeling the benefit with footfall in the Brunel Centre and the Parade rising three per cent compared with June last year.

The soggy three-month period has done nothing to dampen shoppers’ enthusiasm either as footfall year to date up to the end of June 2012 was 6,766,910 compared to 6,462,764 – a rise on nearly five per cent – the year before.