The Wherry has Bro9ken.

 When I first came to what was then a very agricultural village half a century ago, one of the eagerly awaited events of the year was the breaking of the Wherry, when our chalk stream started to flow again after drying up in the summer months, and its waters became available for livestock. Our stream is one of very few in the world that are Winterbornes and is thus of international importance. "borne" means "stream", (The Scottish "burn" is more familiar). Its flow closely follows the ground water level which has been falling thoughout the summer. Yesterday the Ashton borehole, after a couple of weeks at its lowest seasonal level suddenly started to rise. and sure enough the stream in the village suddenly started to flow again after several weeks of more or less stagnant water around small muddy islands. Though the stream used to dry up completely in the summer it doesn't always do so now, perhaps due to the activities of Wessex Water and climate change might be having an effect.