Many of Britain’s heritage buildings are cracking up due to extreme weather.
The National Trust has found that the ground beneath its properties has been shrinking and swelling more than usual, causing cracks in many, including the walls of a Roman villa that have stood for 2,000 years.
An 18th-century stone barn in the Yorkshire Dales and the walls of a Victorian garden in Cambridgeshire have collapsed.
“There are some really obvious and direct impacts around things like land heave – that’s effectively subsidence,” NT outdoor director Patrick Begg said. “A lot of our properties, some of our vernacular buildings, are finding themselves in the teeth of that kind of risk.”
The trust has said it is just one of the ways climate change was threatening its estate.
