Secrets of England's buried history have been discovered by archaeologists following the heatwave.

Neolithic ceremonial monuments, Iron Age settlements, square burial mounds and a Roman farm have been spotted for the first time.

They have been seen in patterns in crops and grass by archaeologists surveying the countryside from the air.

Historic England said the dry summer had been particularly good for experts examining the landscape from the air as "cropmarks" form faster and are more obvious when the soil is very dry.

The differences in colour or height of crops and grass cause the layouts of buried ditches or walls, which once marked out settlements, field boundaries or funerary monuments, to become visible.


Image: This triple-ditched circular indicates the remains of a complicated structure of a Bronze Age burial mound

Experts found two Neolithic "cursus" monuments near Clifton Reynes, Milton Keynes. One of the monuments had been hidden away until this year under a medieval bank, which is gradually being ploughed away.

The monuments are long rectangles thought to be paths or processional ways, commonly dating from 3600 to 3000 BC.

Cornwall revealed many previously unknown sites with an Iron Age settlement at St Ives and and a prehistoric settlement with concentric ditches at Lansallos.

Also among the dozens of discoveries are Iron Age square burial mounds or barrows in Pocklington, Yorkshire, a settlement or cemetery at Stoke by Clare, Suffolk, and a Bronze Age burial mound and a ditch and series of pits that could mark a land boundary in Scropton, Derbyshire.

Image: The photo shows different phases of activity - the central enclosure may have contained farm buildings

In Bicton, Devon, a Roman farm was discovered under a field of grass. Prehistoric farms were also spotted in Stogumber, Somerset, while an ancient enclosure was found in nearby Churchstanton.

The drought revealed more details of the lost Elizabethan buildings and gardens linked with Tixall Hall, Staffordshire. Buried foundations of the 1555 hall and a new hall built during the First World War but later demolished could also been seen.

A circle of pits was also discovered among the prehistoric ceremonial landscape near Eynsham, Oxfordshire.

Historic England chief executive Duncan Wilson said the weather provided "perfect conditions" for the aerial archaeologists to "see beneath the soil" with cropmarks better defined when the soil is drier.

"The discovery of ancient farms, settlements and Neolithic cursus monuments is exciting," he said.

"The exceptional weather has opened up whole areas at once rather than just one or two fields and it has been fascinating to see so many traces of our past graphically revealed."

Image: This is a large, probably prehistoric enclosure on the Blackdown Hills

Helen Winton, Historic England aerial investigation and mapping manager said the hot weather was "very exciting" for archaeologists.

She said the last time they had seen an "exceptional year" was 2011, when they found more than 1,500 sites.

Historic England's aerial reconnaissance manager Damian Grady said: "This has been one of my busiest summers in 20 years of flying and it is has been very rewarding making discoveries in areas that do not normally reveal cropmarks."