SECRETS FROM THE HEATWAVE

The scorched summer revealed some lost scenes from the British landscape…

From Roman forts to drowned villages: the parched conditions of the July heatwave revealed some extraordinary sights in Britain’s fields and hills. The big surprises came in the form of

cropmarks, which appear when the land is dry enough to affect the growth patterns of crops, revealing the outlines of long-lost earthworks even though they’ve been ploughed, seeded and harvested many thousands of times. Dr Toby Driver, aerial investigator for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, took to the skies to see what was being revealed, while photographers sought out a lost village as Cumbria’s reservoirs receded. For more about the Royal Commission, visit www.rcahmw.gov.uk. You can also visit their database of historic sites at www.coflein.gov.uk

ROMAN FORT

The outline of a previously undiscovered Roman fortlet (as betrayed by the playingcard shape and rounded corners) appeared among ripening crops near Magor, Monmouthshire. Dr Driver says the find opens up a whole new area of research.

IRON AGE ENCLOSURE

This ghostly imprint reappeared at a fieldboundary near the seaside resort of Tywyn on the Snowdonia coast. It’s a typical example of an Iron Age settlement, with an outer circuit ditch enclosing a small farmstead.

MEDIEVAL CASTLE

Castell Llwyn Gwinau is a circular mound, some 33m in diameter and 1.6m high, set upon the summit of an isolated hill north of Tregaron, Ceredigion. Its existence was already known, but it has never been seen in this level of detail.

DROWNED VILLAGE

Meanwhile in the Lake District, the water level in Haweswater dropped low enough to reveal the stone-walled lanes of Mardale Green, the village which was demolished and submerged by the creation of the reservoir in 1929.