What a innocent soul she was , I remember watching the documentary many years ago and like many people was moved to tears by the humility and kindness of this woman. When you see people today , their quick speech , gossiping , critical restless minds , never happy , never content , and you see a person like Hannah Hauxwell , even royalty were respectful in her presence, that level of purity demands it .
Hannah Hauxwell, who has died aged 91, was living a harsh existence as a hill farmer in the Yorkshire Dales, without electricity or running water, when the 1973 television documentary Too Long a Winter turned her into a national celebrity. She was first seen leading her cow into its shed as a blizzard raged at Low Birk Hatt farm, 1,000ft up in Baldersdale. Hauxwell was an only child, born in the North Riding of Yorkshire at Sleetburn, Baldersdale, where her parents, William and Lydia (nee Tallentire), rented a farm. Three years later they bought Low Birk Hatt. The family suffered hard times during the Depression. When Hannah was six, her father died and her Uncle Tommy took over the running of the farm. She attended Baldersdale school up to the age of 14 and when her uncle died - three years after the death of her mother - she was left to farm alone. After settling in Cotherstone, she became a part of the community, attending the Methodist chapel and joining an over-60s club. She moved to a care home in Barnard Castle in 2016, and to a nursing home in West Auckland, Co Durham, last year. • Hannah Bayles Tallentire Hauxwell, farmer, born 1 August 1926; died 30 January 2018. God bless you Nannah, I hope youve returned to your family.
Thank goodness there are local and federal Trusts to save some of the soul of a nation. Hannah.'s farm and meadow give visitors the chance to time travel back a century. So glad it is being preserved, and that her spirit can walk beside the river, like she said she would.
I found a book about Hannah many years ago and was so taken by her life. I live in Whistler, BC and hike the long distance paths in the UK every summer. This year I'll be walking the Bracken Way in the Yorkshire Dales but will take a detour and visit Hannah's Meadow to pay my respects. Yes, rest in peace, dear Hannah. >
Hannah, you gave this world so much. Your story will never end. You can finally rest in peace and be reunited with your family that you loved and missed for so long. May God rest you.
I never forgot watching the documentary over 30 years ago when it was shown on TV .....it has stayed with me all my life, and the likes of Miss Hauxwell we shall not see again..... god bless you, you were an inspiration.
I remember watching over 30 years ago it brought many memories of some of my people honest honourable humble and pure it is people like henna that teach us about what s really important care for the land animals. And a profound respect for people one of godsspecial chosen
@@SuzLa1 it wasn’t a tv producer. It was a friend of one that came across her while out walking one day. He contacted his friend Barry Cockcroft who went out to find her for a documentary he was planning.
Fabulous photographs/"Lark Ascending"by Vaughn Williams(my favourite classical music piece)+Hannah Hauxwell/Low Birk Hatt Farm-forever beautiful and blessed for all time.xxx
What a beautiful lady Hannah was, Rest in peace Hannah, you may not have realized when you were alive the good your were doing, generations to come will benefit from you hardship
you just know her spirit returns now and then to check on the old place and to stroll the path down to her little Mississippi as she called it rest in peace you lovely kind hearted angel .
Thank-you for the wonderful footage. So, nice to see the wild flowers growing so fortunate that Hanaah's family didn't use fertilizers. And we get to see Yorkshire's untouched beauty.
How lovely to see the transformation , that someone is living there and enjoying the beautiful surroundings, I’m sure Hanna is still wandering down the lane with one of her beloved dogs , she had such a strong spirit she will always remain . The haunting music was perfect and evoked such a feeling of her .
Absolutely loved Hannah, She was the soul of a bygone humanity that is forever forgotten. When I was a young man watching this woman working so hard during those cruel blizzards I wanted to move in with her just to help her during those winters, bless her soul.
REALLY thought the music captured the MOOD of the place really well etc. you could see hannah walking around the place..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A good choice of music. I always recall Hannah talking about her shade returning to Low Birk Hatt and I do hope she was laid to rest there....the moonlight on the water.
Hannah's spirit is there, watching over her beloved hill farm she called home. A true lady of Yorkshire. It was hers like it will never be anybody's else's. God bless you Hannah. Sleep peacefully among you're meadow..❤
A beautiful way of life not seen since before the First World War. She was not of this time. I also remember watching the documentary when at school. It broke my heart then and still does. I wish I had been born in those times, life meant something then and was not spoiled by commercialism and hatred.
Thank you for sharing your photos. I wish they would do something with that ghastly sign though, something more befitting of the environment. Especially now Hannah has gone, it would be lovely to honour her memory in a less artificial way.
Wheñ you see England now,you could cry,hannah represented the spirit and soul of the English people, i hope they rediscover their great national heritage. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Great to see it went to a trust. But also sad that Hannah has gone from 'her land of life'. Remembering the hard work she single handedly put into that farm in the harsh winters, and the love she had for her home and animals. Such a wonderful human. Hopefully her soul and spirit still walk those meadows that she was raised on. Lets hope that those who live there now respect it's 'personal' history and the 'great lady' who once owned it. R.I.P Miss Hannah Hauxwell.
So sad that she never felt able to return and visit her home place. One would like to think she would have appreciated the love with which it was cared for and improved, and wouldn't it have been lovely to see her walk through her meadow!
HI Too hard for her emotionally, as no one but her family ever lived there. That's why she hung on to it til it became impossible. Shalom to you in Christ Yeshua.
Big place that Yorkshire ( that place is now in County Durham, btw ) - but please go to Wensleydale, Malhamdale and the small town of Grassington, set amidst the beauty of Wharfedale to get a softer, greener and more picturesque view. For 'toughness' go above the town of Grassington itself, to look at the extensive Lead Mine workings on the Moor. But take care - therin Danger lurks for the unwary.
I hope her cows were looked after ? And there should be a plaque on her farm house ? A beautiful and an amazing lady with inner strength that we all could learn from .
this is not a tourist attraction it is a place of respect and the last strong hold of a lifestyle long since dead in our green and pleasent land. Quiet a woman old annie, she was a Dent of course.
Oh Hannah dear lass every time is see a video on your life i am driven to tears ,i will never forget those winter scenes of pure hell on earth no heat no light no running water and worst of all no one in the council giving a shit about you ,God love you dear Lady i pray you are with God in great comfort in heaven,Rest in peace dear Lady.PD.
What's the council got to do with it? Hannah was fiercely independent and not unhappy with her way of life. She had neighbours who helped her out with shopping etc. I grew up her to where she lived and we didn't have heating. Carrying hay into the fields in snowstorms was quite normal!!! Doubt that I could cope with it now though.
Glad to see lovely wild flowers growing, we need more places like this and not building all these stupid houses everywhere, the human population should be controlled
Lovely woman who loved her land...so disappointed to see her very very small monument in the cemetery...really an insult. To a woman who cared for land so many people prospered from...so sad...she deserves much better dont you think?
And Hannahs resting place, im so glad you didn't show it as this so sad enough (45 year old male) ....yes god bless Hannah and all like her xx Loverly music
Beautiful, thank you for sharing this, was feeling quite stressed for various reasons, now I am feeling very peaceful! Hope to go myself now......one day!! A wonderful lady.
Durham Wildlife Trust have got the sign wrong. It should be: 'Hannah's Meadow' (not Hannahs). Don't they know about apostrophes, forming the possessive?
I'm sure the public will forgive this minor error, I'm sure the vast majority will not even notice, after all the most important observation will be Hannah's meadow and beautiful countryside it's set in.
I found the whole thing very sad. I'm in two minds - Yes its fascinating to see someone live out an old-fashioned life, and the hardship, and perhaps the attention was a good thing, and help, and maybe moving added years to her life - but another part of me was saddened that she sometimes looked like an innocent test subject, a fading relic, an exhibit to gawp at - and I can't help but feel she was pressured to leave her home place, I'm sure with the kindest of intentions, but coaxed to leave none the less, watching her say goodbye to her cattle, and looking on as her life's belongings were being auctioned from under her, was heartbreaking, and made me very uncomfortable... cameras there for 'my' benefit watching an old womans life been taken from her. Could I be as bold to say she might have died happily up on that farm?? I don't know, I just think some things are best left alone..... It reminds me of in the early 1980s I was with my Granda's brother, when on the telly came a 'first contact' with a tribe who had never seen white people or the modern world beore, and among all the "isn't this amazing" of everyone, my grand uncle sadly said "Thats them f*****d now, we'll see them in Coca Cola T shirts next week" and he was right, their lives were irreversibly changed forever, if they are even still around at all.......
Having watched the second documentary about her life, “A Winter Too Many” I wouldn’t have been surprised had she died on the hillside in the next winter. Instead she lived another 29 years in her house in the village. She travelled across Europe and to the USA. She made several more documentaries about her travels beyond the Dales. I think she enjoyed the final third of her life. She was only five miles from her family home and I have no doubt she returned occasionally in the summers to walk by the water. It is all very well being romantic about old-fashioned ways of life, but there is little romance in a snow drift and a frozen well.
Aye, they might have found her one morning, in her farmhouse- but only in her sixties ( she did live on, hopefully happily, for until her nineties ) - just 'gone for her Big Sleep' . She had to move on to pastures new to do more than just survive - no pony, pushbike or donkey to get anywhere, and sharing her house with mice and even the occasional bigger rodent. She had her doggie, but no pussycat.
So I'm wondering who got the money from the sale of Ms. Hanna's home ? I would have loved to have been able to have met this true hard working lady .She should be an inspiration to all she is to me when I think about there's something I can't do I always think about this Lady & then I know I can do anything I set my mind to .
@@jackyblue67same10 she did move into a cottage in a nearby village and there were follow up documentaries of her travelling abroad, she did a lot of travelling in later years
@@241457922 I realise the trust is maintaining the meadows of the farm so was the house not included in this and if not is the house now under private ownership ????
@@td6369 Hi, Hannah's original farm house has been renovated and is privately owned by a sheep farmer and his family. You can still walk passed the farm on a public footpath so long as you respect the privacy of the present owners.
Hi She did when all those documentaries were made of her over a span of some 20 odd years, which became such an inspiration to people all over the world where they were broadcast. Old age forced her to sell it and go first to a nearby cottage and then , into residential care.Shalom to you in Christ Yeshua.
and there we are trying to savour and remember a piece of English countryside...as was......and here ı am in Turkey,which, trust me is very beautiful, fluoriforous, mountainous in parts, beeoootiful lakes, forests and almost desert in parts ......and they don't give a fig......as we didn't.........and now we are reduced to putting a meadow in the hands of the NT.
She was badly used by certain people, Ask the Bainbridge family? Their is nothing glamorous about shepherding its a hard life. I can vouch for that, nothing romantic
