The True Story of Hannah Hauxwell
This is one of our Teesdale Tales, told not as folklore but as it truly happened. Hannah Hauxwell lived in Baldersdale for decades and her story has become part of the valley, remembered with warmth by people far beyond Teesdale.
If you walk into Hannah’s Meadow on a summer day the first thing you notice is how quiet it is. Long grass moves in the breeze. Birds call over the reservoir. The old stone barn stands just above the slope with its door open and tools on the walls. Inside are boards that tell the story of the woman who once worked these fields almost entirely on her own.
Her name was Hannah Hauxwell.
Hannah was born on 1 August 1926 at Sleetburn in Baldersdale in a family of hill farmers. When she was still a child her family moved to Low Birk Hatt, a remote farm high above the valley. The farm had no electricity, no mains water and no proper road for most of her life there. To reach the outside world she had to walk along a rough path that led up the edge of the meadow to the road above.
Her parents and uncle ran the farm together, but by the time Hannah was in her thirties they had all past away. At about 35 years old she found herself alone at Low Birk Hatt with around 80 acres to manage. There were a few cattle, a hay meadow to cut and a very small income that barely covered the basics.
For many years Hannah kept a single cow. Her main income came from selling one calf each year along with a little money from letting out some pasture to neighbouring farmers. There was very little left after feed, tools and repairs. She lived carefully and frugally. Water came from a spring or stream. Light came from oil lamps. Her clothes were patched many times and she often chose not to replace them because every pound mattered.
Getting supplies was far from easy. There was no driveway where a delivery van could stop. Groceries were left part way down the track where she collected them when she walked out to the road. In winter this often meant walking through deep snow and across frozen ground just to bring home bread or a bit of coal.
For decades hardly anyone outside Baldersdale knew about her. Then in 1970 a newspaper article described how she lived. Soon after, in 1972, a film crew arrived to make a documentary about life in the High Pennines. The producer had heard of a woman farming alone in near Victorian conditions. He had to park a long way off and walk across the fields to reach the farmhouse because there was still no real road in.
The documentary was called Too Long a Winter and it was first shown in 1973. Viewers saw Hannah leading her cow through drifting snow, breaking ice to reach water and speaking calmly about the harsh winters she faced every year. People across the country were moved by what they saw. Letters and donations poured in. A local factory raised money so she could finally have electricity installed at the farm.
Even with this new help Hannah did not change her way of life much. She remained careful with money, lived simply and continued to farm in the only way she knew. Later programmes followed her life. In one of them she said that in summer she lived and in winter she existed. It summed up perfectly the rhythm of life at Low Birk Hatt.
Hannah never married and had no children. Her ties were to the dale, to neighbours and later to people from the church and the many viewers who wrote to her after the television films.
By the late 1980s it became clear she could not keep farming alone forever. In 1988 she left Low Birk Hatt. Durham Wildlife Trust bought two of her meadows and the stone hay barn above the reservoir. The farmhouse itself and some other fields were sold separately. The meadows turned out to be among the richest wildflower hay fields in the region because she had never used artificial fertiliser or reseeded the land. They are now protected as part of a nature reserve called Hannah’s Meadow.
The barn has been restored as a small visitor shelter with displays about her life, her farming methods and the wildlife that depends on these old style hay meadows. Her traditional tools are shown on the walls and there is information about the flowers and animals that thrive there.
After leaving Low Birk Hatt Hannah moved to a cottage in Cotherstone, a quieter life with neighbours close by and a community she soon became part of. She attended the Methodist church, listened to her radio every day and continued to live modestly and simply.
In her later years she moved to a care home in Barnard Castle in 2016 and then to a nursing home in West Auckland in 2017. She died there on 30 January 2018 at the age of 91. Her funeral was held at Barnard Castle Methodist Church and she was buried at Romaldkirk cemetery, not far from the land that shaped her whole life.
Today visitors walk through Hannah’s Meadow on the marked path, stepping into the barn to read about her story before looking out across the wide open fields. The wildflowers that return every summer, the butterflies, the curlews and the quiet sweep of the landscape are all part of her legacy. She once said that this place was her life and her world. Now others can share a little of that world by standing in the meadow she cared for so patiently.
Hannah Hauxwell
If you would like to visit the meadows she cared for, our Hannah’s Meadow page explains where to park, how to find the path and what the walk is like.
Explore more in Teesdale
Part of our Discover Teesdale collection – explore the dale’s walks, waterfalls, history and folklore.
If you enjoyed this story, feel free to share it. It helps others discover Teesdale’s stories.