Damflask: The historic Yorkshire village with a tragic backstory which now hides beneath water

Others like Wharram Percy and Mowthorpe in the Yorkshire Wolds were deserted following outbreaks of the Black Death.

Some like West End in the Washburn Valley and Gate Up near Grassington were deliberately flooded to provide reservoirs for Leeds and Bradford.

But in the case of Damflask in South Yorkshire the village was obliterated by the bursting of a reservoir dam.

As many as 270 people and 700 animals are said to have been killed when around midnight on the 11th March 1864 the Dale Dyke dam burst and a tidal wave of 700 million imperial gallons of water swept down the Loxley Valley.

Immediately in the path of what became known as the Great Sheffield Flood lay the farming community of Damflask, where at least 46 residents died in the first few minutes.

Other victims lived further down the valley.

The Dale Dyke reservoir, built by the Sheffield Waterworks Company, was being filled for the first time.

Earlier in the day a crack had appeared in the 112ft (34m) high dam, and a water engineer who was sent to investigate managed to warn some villagers to move to higher ground.

When the village was inundated the water destroyed every house as well as a corn mill, paper mill and wire mill, a blacksmith’s, grocery shop and a pub called the Barrel Inn.

Today’s Damflask Reservoir (pictured) was built 30 years later and hides the remains of the village.

Its waters are used by three rowing clubs, a sailing club, and anglers fishing for bream, pike, roach and perch.

The western side is on the route of the 53-mile Sheffield Country Walk trail round the city’s boundaries.