A SUMMER of bad weather has caused havoc with a host of events across the town and left farmers scratching their heads.

According to an investigation by BBC One’s Countryfile, the wet weather has cost rural Britain at least £1bn in lost trade and Swindon has not escaped.

Dismal downpours have seen the cancellation of the Badminton Horse Trials, the Cricklade show and the Wroughton Carnival, and saw visitor numbers down at The Big Arts Day and the Swindon Mela .

The cancellation of the Badminton Horse Trials cost the local economy up to £2m in lost turnover.

Businesses across Swindon, including hotels, bed and breakfasts, pubs and traders, all suffered after the four-star international event, which each year attracts 250,000 people to the area, was cancelled because the course was waterlogged.

Other 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 and the Cricklade Show was abandoned.

Mark Clarke, chairman of the Cricklade Show Committee, said: “It was a difficult decision but it was forced upon us by the quite dreadful weather conditions we have been faced with this summer.

“The decision to cancel will create a financial deficit this year.”

Other events went on despite the weather including the Swindon Mela and the Big Arts day, but both experienced below average numbers.

Developments across the town have also been delayed due to the wet weather, with construction work for the Croft School forecast to cost Swindon Council £700,000 more than originally hoped.

The primary school for up to 420 children next to Croft Sports Centre, off Marlborough Lane, opened at the beginning of the week, but a council spokesman said most of this additional cost was attributable to groundworks problems caused by the wet summer.

Farmers in Swindon are fearing an impending crisis after the wettest summer for a century, with many concerned about food shortages for the winter.

Farmer Tim Handy, of the Pry in Purton , said: “We have got hardly any winter food and with the ground being so wet you cannot get the machines on to it.

“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.”

Even artwork in the town has not escaped a battering from the bad weather with a mosaic created to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee in Cricklade being ruined by the weather just three months after it was unveiled.

Town clerk Shelley Parker said: “It is just absolutely heartbreaking and we are all very sad.

“The extreme rainfall from March to July has lifted the tiles.

“We have had various tests done and have spoken to various professionals since it was discovered in July and they are satisfied that the damage has been caused by the weather.”