Too Long A Winter : The Hannah Hauxwell Story

A brief, bio, documentary (courtesy of Yorkshire TV) and gallery of The Dales legend. The full video is available below and on the Substack App. Cheers.

Hannah Hauxwell was born on 1 August 1926 in Baldersdale, a remote side-valley of Teesdale in County Durham. She never married, never left the dale for any length of time until she was almost 50, and lived her entire life on the same small, marginal hill farm. Yet, it’s a fascinating glimpse into a quickly vanishing world.

Key chapters of her life

Childhood & early hardship

Her mother died when Hannah was 12, her father when she was 16. From that moment she and her elderly uncle Tom ran Low Birk Hatt Farm together. When he died in 1960 she was left completely alone, aged 34, with 80 acres of poor land, a handful of cows, and debts.

The 1960s–early 1970s: the years of deepest isolation

No electricity, no telephone, no indoor plumbing. Water carried in buckets from a beck 200 yards away. Coal and peat for the range. A single cow sold each year at Barnard Castle mart gave her an income that rarely exceeded £200–£300. She kept warm by sleeping in an old army greatcoat and eating mostly porridge, bread, and tea.

1972: discovery

Yorkshire Television came looking for “real Dales characters.” They found Hannah by accident. The resulting documentary *Too Long a Winter* (1973) stunned viewers with its unflinching portrait of her life. Overnight she became famous, yet she refused to leave the farm or change her ways.

1970s–1980s: reluctant celebrity

She appeared on talk shows, was invited to London, and met the Queen Mother. Every time she politely returned home to Low Birk Hatt. In 1988 the farm finally became impossible to keep; the buildings were collapsing and winters were too harsh on her failing health. She sold most of the land but kept the meadows, and at 62 moved into a tiny cottage in a nearby village.

Later years

With help from admirers and a small pension, she finally had electricity, a bathroom, and central heating. In the 1990s Yorkshire TV took her on her first holidays abroad (to France, Austria, and America), which became gentle, charming documentaries in themselves. She remained shy, softly spoken, and utterly without self-pity.

Death and legacy

She died on 30 January 2018 at the age of 91 in a nursing home near Cotherstone. She is buried with her parents in the little churchyard at Romaldkirk.

The 117-acre “Hannah’s Meadow” that was once Low Birk Hatt is now a Durham Wildlife Trust nature reserve, famous for its traditional hay-meadow flowers because she never used chemical fertiliser in her life. Walkers still leave flowers at the farm gate.

Low Birk Hatt: Durham Wildlife Trust nature reserve

In the end she said simply:

“I never felt lonely. I had the hills, the birds, and my cows for company.”