The record-breaking heatwave in England may be over, but serious drought conditions remain. Reservoirs are running dangerously low, forcing emergency measures to reduce water usage such as banning the use of hosepipes to water gardens or wash cars.

But the receding waters of some reservoirs are starting to reveal long-lost structures and buildings submerged for decades.

Baitings Reservoir, set amongst the rolling hills of West Yorkshire some 350 kilometers north of London, has become a popular tourist spot in recent weeks.

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The drought has reduced the River Ryburn to little more than a trickle, leaving the reservoir's water levels at an all-time low. It has exposed an old bridge submerged when the reservoir was built in the 1950s.

Local legend has it that this was an ancient medieval packhorse bridge dating back to when goods were transported on horseback.

Now locals and visitors alike are taking this rare opportunity to follow an old exposed path and walk across the bridge.

'We've got to be careful with our water'

Rebecca Staples is a head teacher, who had traveled for the day from South Yorkshire to see not just the bridge but the extent of the drought.

"I'm really shocked," she told CGTN. "I've come today because I've seen it on the television but nothing prepared me for what it's really like once you get here.

"It's not just seeing the bridge," she added. "It's such a tiny trickle of a stream behind it and it really brings home just how much this is a drought that we are in the midst of and how careful we have got to be with our water."

The bridge, though, is not as old as first thought.

Alex Greenwood is a local historian and member of the Parish Council at nearby Ripponden.

"It is very interesting for a local historian because we can actually see the foundations of the bridge and the structure of it, which hasn't been revealed for quite a number of years," she explained. "For example, you can tell very distinctly that it is a 19th-century industrial build."

During a previous dry spell, there was a more gruesome discovery – the possible victim of a gangland killing.

"In 1989, they found the body of a 23-year-old man," Greenwood explained. "He'd been shot in the head and his body weighed down by a pickaxe – and sadly the case has never been solved."

Many other depleted reservoirs across the country are also revealing long-lost structures, providing a rare opportunity for history enthusiasts. 

But the drought has also led to questions over the water companies not having invested enough to modernize the system.

Water companies in England and Wales were privatized in the late 1980s. Since then no major new reservoirs have been built while water leaks and sewage discharges into rivers and the sea remain major problems.

Critics accuse the water companies of prioritizing shareholder dividends over investment.

'We've taken water for granted'

The industry regulator Ofwat has defended the companies, saying that no new reservoirs were built as water usage went down during the period and that they are meeting government-set targets to tackle leaks and sewage discharges.

"We definitely need to work with the infrastructure we have much more effectively," said Christine Colvin, Director of Advocacy for the Rivers Trust, a conservation group campaigning for better water conditions. "We need to bring down the level of leaks and significantly reduce the amount of raw sewage that's still getting into our rivers."

But she also believes that everyone needs to play their part.

"We are going to have these long hot dry summers much more regularly. So we really need to value water in a way we haven't done in the past, we've taken it for granted," she added.

The area around Baitings Reservoir is normally considered one of the wettest parts of the country. A recent study found that one of the nearby towns, Huddersfield, had the third-highest annual rainfall of major UK towns, after Cardiff and Glasgow.

Last week, Britain's Environment Agency declared that Yorkshire, along with several other regions, was now officially suffering a drought. This gave Yorkshire Water the power to reduce consumption by banning the use of hosepipes to water gardens or wash cars.

There are already such restrictions in parts of southern England, which have suffered the lowest levels of rainfall since records began. In London, a hosepipe ban is taking effect on August 24.