Luftwaffe photograph reveals garden secrets
A World War II reconnaissance photograph taken by the Luftwaffe has revealed what might have been the original Tudor design for a National Trust garden in Northamptonshire.
The photograph of Lyveden New Bield, part of a series now held at the United States National Archive at Maryland in Baltimore, was taken in 1944 and shows an arrangement of 10 huge concentric circles within the garden, measuring approximately 120 metres across.
Lyveden's property manager Mark Bradshaw said it was probably one of the most important garden discoveries of recent times.
"We're still not clear exactly what these circles represent, but it's amazing that the outline can be clearly made out in an aerial photograph taken almost 350 years after the garden was created," he said.
