The remains of a sunken village have reappeared after the current heatwave dropped water levels in a Yorkshire reservoir.

The hamlet of Baitings was flooded by what’s known as the Baitings Reservoir in the West Yorkshire Pennines in the ’50s.

The tiny village, which includes a centuries-old packhorse bridge, has origins dating back to the Viking occupation of Britain in the Middle Ages.

It became a packhorse route through the Pennines that linked Yorkshire and Lancashire.

In 1956, the reservoir was created to supply Wakefield with water. Owned by Yorkshire Water – which has this morning announced a hosepipe ban – the water has receded far enough to reveal the ancient bridge.

According to the Yorkshire Post, the village also has a pretty macabre history.

Back in 1989, the body of a man with a gunshot wound to his head was found on the bed of the reservoir during a drought.

He had been weighted down with a pickaxe.

Investigators identified the man as 23-year-old Laurence Winstanley, who was last seen leaving a pub in Oldham the previous year. His murder has never been solved.

That year, the water levels were 12 metres lower than normal.

Today, Yorkshire Water says reservoir levels have fallen below 50% and is introducing its first hosepipe ban in 27 years.

It will be the company’s first hosepipe ban in 27 years, and those caught flouting it risk fines of up to £1,000.

‘The hot, dry, weather means that Yorkshire’s rivers are running low and our reservoirs are around 20% lower than we would expect for this time of year,’ Yorkshire Water’s director of water Neil Dewis said.

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