Watch: Water levels at Widdop Reservoir in Yorkshire fall as heatwave continues

Images taken yesterday at the Yorkshire Water-managed site show 'beaches' that have appeared as the water recedes in the dry spell.

Widdop was constructed in the 1870s to supply Halifax with drinking water. Set in a crag-rimmed hollow among the peat moors, it was a favourite spot of poet Ted Hughes, who mentions it in his Remains of Elmet anthology.

During construction there was a navvy village on the site with accommodation for 200 men, and building materials for the dam were brought in on a horse-drawn tramway which ran from where the National Trust car park at Hardcastle Crags is today.

The listed valve house is of an unusual Egyptian design because the engineer, John Frederick Bateman, was inspired by attending the Suez Canal opening in 1869.

Widdop's twin reservoir, Gorple, was built later followed by the Walshaw Dean reservoirs between 1900 and 1913.

The remains of the tramway's tracks can still be traced in the landscape and evidence of the navvy huts is also still visible.