Stuart Grindle, an 83-year-old retired joiner from Tickhill, Doncaster, has kept his prize-winning lawn vividly green throughout the current heatwave, standing out starkly against the scorched gardens and dried-out fields around him. His dedication has made him something of a national curiosity: nine years after winning a competition to find Britain's best lawn, he still tends it with extraordinary care, despite the physical toll of ageing, six hip replacements, and the recent loss of his wife Anne after 50 years of marriage.

Stuart attributes his lawn's resilience to careful, sparing watering rather than excess, using four water butts and running his 360-degree sprinkler for just ten to fifteen minutes at a time, arguing that grass needs to be damp rather than soaked. He is not currently under a hosepipe ban and pays a fixed £1,200 a year for his water, a point he has defended robustly to Yorkshire Water. His garden, which he has spent up to 16 hours a day and tens of thousands of pounds maintaining over the years, has previously drawn attention from Gardener's World, ITV, German journalists and even a bride who held her wedding photos there barefoot.