Dry ground exposes hidden history of ancient buildings

With sweltering temperatures and four heatwaves, this year's summer season is set to go down as one of the hottest on record.

- ALEX ROSS

But aside from family days on the beach and evening gatherings around the barbecue, the warm weather has brought, perhaps, a surprise benefit. At two National Trust estates, the dry conditions are revealing parch marks in the lawns and parkland that show up tantalising maps of previously lost underground structures.

As the grass over buried walls dries quicker than the surrounding areas, it exposes the remains of historic building going back centuries.

At the former Augustinian Priory of Mottisfont, near Romsey in Hampshire, archaeologists can now see the remains of lost monastery buildings that were abandoned during a remodelling of the site in the 1700s.

The structures, that include a cloister, date between the 13th and 16th century.