Cumbrian Rain 'Getting Wetter' Shock

In the course of an evening spent considering the future of the Cumbrian environment recently, I was shocked and astonished to learn that our wonderful Cumbrian rain has apparently got measurably wetter in the last 40 years. No, that doesn't mean there's more precipitation. Apparently back when-I-were-a-lad the rain was all misty and ethereal like a fine aerosol spray. Now it comes down in big splodging drops, poised to deliver a crushing payload of climatic change on our defenceless uplands. (Run-off and erosion, etc). No, I don't entirely believe this either, and a cursory search through the contents of Mr Berners-Lee's invention reveals nothing in the way of published evidence for this claim. If there are any climatologists reading this blog, would they care to comment?