Isaac Newton graffiti discovered at the National Trust’s Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire © Chris Pickup

As part of a series of scientific investigations into the home of Britain’s most famous scientist, conservators using cutting-edge light technology have discovered a picture of a windmill next to the fireplace in the 17 Century manor’s downstairs Hall. The drawing is thought to have been inspired by the building of a mill nearby during Newton’s childhood.

The discovery adds a new layer of understanding to Newton’s life at Woolsthorpe, where he was born the son of a yeoman farmer in 1642, and where he returned in 1665 at the peak of his scientific studies. It was here that Newton undertook his ‘crucial experiment’ – splitting white light using a prism – and observed an apple fall from a tree, inspiring his law of universal gravitation.

Using Reflectance Transformation Imaging, a technique that uses light to capture the shape and colour of a surface not visible to the naked eye, conservator Chris Pickup - a PhD candidate in Nottingham Trent University's School of Arts and Humanities - was able to survey the walls of the manor in painstaking detail to discover this previously unseen wall drawing, believed to have been carved into the wall around 350 years ago.

Chris said: “It’s amazing to be using light, which Newton understood better than anyone before him, to discover more about his time at Woolsthorpe. I hope that by using this technique we’re able to find out more about Newton as man and boy and shine a light on how his extraordinary mind worked.”