Recover Time Machine Backup after Disk Utility Erase from External Drive

In January 2020 I used Time Machine to backup to an External Drive ("Elements").

Through sheer STUPIDITY and ignorance (I am transferring from Windows to Mac) I used Disk Utility Erase to clean the external disk in June 2020 and created a new Time Machine Bacup on the same external drive (now reformatted as "iMac Backup") which works 100%.

Subsequently, I realised that I require files from the original backup, which has now been erased:

"Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Elements”.

"The backup disk could not be found. Make sure the backup disk is connected or select a different backup disk."

Latest successful backup: 22 January 2020.")

Is there any method I can use to access "Elements" again?

I shall appreciate guidance and advice if there is a way around a problem I created.

Thank you kindly - from an old man at the southern tip of Africa.