Restoring old notes

Hi, I was recently trying to get access to some old notes from when i was younger. I turned on my iPod (where i made the notes) and they were there despite me having deleted them on my newer iPhone. They were locked and i sadly couldn't remember the password. I closed the password popup thinking that i might have written it down elsewhere and then all my old notes deleted, as presumably the icloud refreshed.

Are they gone forever or is there some way that i can restore an old version of icloud to regain access? These notes mean a lot to me and I regret deleting them so much!