From saving shower water to only heading out after sunset, life has taken a dramatic turn for Brits living in Britain’s driest village as weeks of scorching weather transform daily life
Residents of the driest village in Britain have been forced to adopt a “Mediterranean lifestyle” to cope with the scorching heat.
Life in Histon, north of Cambridge, has taken on a slower pace after weeks of hot, dry weather left grass scorched, ponds depleted and gardens struggling to survive. The village has recorded just 196.4mm of rainfall since January 1, making it the driest place in the UK, according to the Met Office.
By July 19, the total was less than half that recorded during the same period in 2024, while virtually no rain had fallen since June 26. A hosepipe ban has also been in force across the Cambridge Water region since July 9, forcing many residents to completely change their living routine.
For Jo Catterick, 62, that has meant taking inspiration from countries used to living with soaring temperatures. She said: “I’m living like a middle aged Greek woman – where you see them close the shutters at 11 o’clock and get all their jobs done first thing in the morning. They live their lives more in the evening, which I think people are doing much more now, it’s much less busy in the day.”
Others have been forced to find new ways to keep their gardens alive as the prolonged dry spell continues. Julie Dunn, 62, said the duck pond on the village green was at the “lowest level” she had ever seen.
“It’s a very beautiful area, and it’s very pretty, but it doesn’t look at it’s best – it’s just brown and burnt,” she said. Julie has resulted into using bath water in a bid to keep her plants alive.
She said: “The dry weather means I’m having to water and be very careful – we have a bucket in the shower, and we save all our grey water, and we use that for the garden. We always put a bucket in when we have a shower to get the excess – washing up water, we always put in the water butt to try and avoid filling our watering cans from the hose.”
She added: “I think we’re all going to have to look at different plants and things for our gardens – it’s going to change how peoples’ gardens look, they’re not going to cope with the degrees of heat that we’re getting and the lack of water.”
Not everyone has felt the impact in quite the same way. At the Rose and Crown pub, landlord Steven Snudden, 39, said the sunshine had encouraged more customers through the doors despite the fact it ruined his garden.
He said: “People are just as thirsty for beer, so that helps me, I guess. Customer-wise, we’ve been just as busy, if not busier recently. My garden was growing lovely, but it got trashed in a few days because of people walking on it. Not being able to water the lawns has had quite an impact for the pub. It’s brown with patches of mud.”
Just four miles away, Cambridge University Botanic Garden has recorded only 209.5mm of rainfall over the same period, a figure that would rank among the country’s lowest if included in the Met Office’s data. Head of horticulture Sally Petitt said the garden was increasingly looking towards plants better suited to the climate scientists expect Britain to experience in the years ahead.
She said: “We’re actually focusing some of our expeditions and plant-collecting trips on countries that have climates similar to that which we’re forecast to have in the future. We’ve always traditionally grown Mediterranean plants well because of our low rainfall and our local conditions, and well-drained soils, so it’s expanding those kind of collections, and thinking of those as being the norm, rather than the exception.”
The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), which recorded Histon’s rainfall total and has it’s main Cambridge site in the village, said the conditions were also helping researchers understand how crops could cope with future droughts. NIAB head of communications Ros Lloyd said: “Across UK agriculture, prolonged dry conditions can reduce crop yields, place pressure on water resources, affect livestock feed availability and increase the financial uncertainty faced by farmers.
“At Niab, drought tolerance and the impact of climate change on crop production are key areas of our work. The extreme conditions experienced this season offer a real-world backdrop in which to study how different crop varieties respond to water stress, identify traits associated with resilience, and develop strategies that can help farmers adapt to a changing climate.”
