RIP this truly remarkable lady. Thanks for the inspiration, Hannah xx
Hannah Hauxwell spent nearly all of her life at Low Birk Hatt Farm, Baldersdale, high in the North Pennines of England. By the early 1960s her parents, and the uncle who lived with them, had all passed away, and she spent the next 30-odd years running the farm alone, in a constant struggle against grinding poverty (she somehow existed on less than £300 per year), bitter winters and abject loneliness.
However, a 1970s television documentary brought her to public attention and her gentle spirit and humility, seemingly from a bygone age, endeared her to the nation and beyond. Donations from well-wishers meant she was finally able to have electricity and running water installed at the farm, but as the years caught up with her she had to concede the battle at Low Birk Hatt, sold up, and retired to the village of Cotherstone, where she still resides to this day.
Hannah Hauxwell. A solitary hero. A daughter of The Dales.
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There once was a woman who lived on a farm
High on a hill over Baldersdale
She toiled alone on the moor every day
And her face was weathered and pale
Her family was gone and she knew nothing more
But working as one with the stubborn land
Her life was enslaved to the will of the soil
How many more years could she stand?
No power to bring her a light in the dark
No water could flow to her door
Invention had left her adrift in its wake
Forgotten no less and no more
But still she prevailed always steady and bold
80 acres to carry and call
No man or machine for to lighten her load
This desolate lady stood tall
Hannah you struggled so long
In your rags as you laboured the snow
Standing brave in the face of a life in the North Pennine gales
With your cattle to see you along
And the love of a world that you’d never know
You’re a solitary hero, a daughter of The Dales
And though she was bidden to cherish the fields
Of fathers before her long gone
The work and the winters had taken a toll
And now it was time to move on
And so she resides at the head of the dale
With neighbourly warmth and goodwill
But her heart it still yearns for those lonely old times
High up at the farm on the hill
Hannah you struggled so long
In your rags as you laboured the snow
Standing brave in the face of a life in the North Pennine gales
With your cattle to see you along
And the love of a world that you’d never know
You’re a solitary hero, a daughter of The Dales
Music Copyright Catton and Pollard, 2014.
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