Hannah Hauxwell
| Hannah Hauxwell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1 August 1926 Baldersdale, North Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
| Residence | Barnard Castle |
| Nationality | English |
| Known for | Documentary subject |
Hannah Hauxwell (born 1 August 1926) is a retired English farmer who has been the subject of several television documentaries on Yorkshire Television.
Hauxwell was living alone at Low Birk Hatt Farm in an isolated area of the North Riding of Yorkshire (now County Durham) when she came to public attention, first in a Yorkshire Post article published on 6 April 1970 entitled "How to be happy on £170 a year" and then, in 1973, in an ITV documentary, Too Long a Winter, made by Yorkshire Television and produced by Barry Cockcroft, which chronicled the almost unendurable conditions of farmers in the High Pennines in winter.
Then a 46-year-old spinster, she toiled alone in her family home, Low Birk Hatt Farm 54°33′40″N 2°06′00″W / 54.561°N 2.1°W a dilapidated 80-acre (32 ha) farm west of Cotherstone, that she had run by herself since the age of 35 following the deaths of her parents and uncle. With no electricity or running water and struggling to survive on £240-280 a year (at a time when the average annual salary in the UK was £2,000), life was a constant battle against poverty and hardship, especially in the harsh Pennine winters, when she had to work outside tending her few cattle in ragged clothes in temperatures well below freezing.
In the summer of 1972, Hauxwell was discovered by a friend of a researcher at Yorkshire Television while out walking in the Yorkshire Dales. The researcher contacted Barry Cockcroft, a producer at the company, who proposed to make a TV documentary tentatively entitled The Hard Life. After the documentary was first shown in 1972, Yorkshire TV's phone line was jammed for three days with viewers wanting to find out more and help her. A local factory raised money to fund getting electricity to Low Birk Hatt Farm, and she continued to receive thousands of letters and donations from well-wishers around the world.
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