Flash (lake)

[2] Another writer states the "Flash or Plash, deriving from splash, are small puddles left over after a thunderstorm".

In Cheshire especially, rock salt and brine extraction beneath the ground has had a profound effect on the surface, creating flashes even some time after the human involvement has ended.

[6] The industrial extraction of salt, or the abstraction of it by natural causes, has a greater effect on the depth of the flashes than those in former coal mining areas.

[13] One of the largest, Witton Flash in Northwich, was listed by Ordnance Survey mapping to have been created between 1890 and 1897, with a measurement of the surface water dated also.

[16] Brine and salt extraction in the Davenham area of Cheshire has also led to flashes being created on the Trent and Mersey Canal.

[24][note 2] Several flashes occur in Hellifield in North Yorkshire, but these are field ponds, which are the result of low-lying land filling with water.