Weatherwatch: how hot weather caused UK's wettest ever day

On 18 July 1955 in Martinstown, Dorset, nearly 11 inches of rain fell - most of it in just nine hours

July 1955 was a very warm, dry and sunny month. Large areas of south-east England had very little rain, while Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk did not see a single drop.

And yet in any table of Met Office UK weather records, one figure stands out: the wettest day - or to be precise, the heaviest rainfall recorded during a 24-hour period (9am-9am). It happened in the village of Martinstown - also known as Winterborne St Martin - in the Dorset countryside three miles (5km) south-west of the county town of Dorchester (Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge).