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| Hannah with Rosa |
Hannah Hauxwell was an accidental media star and national treasure. She was "discovered" by a walker who strolled past her remote farm in North Yorkshire some time in the summer of 1972. Hannah happened to be out and about in one of her fields and soon found herself in friendly conversation with this passing stranger.
It was a meeting that would change Hannah's life because when that walker got back to Leeds he told a friend about the ragged woman he had met. That friend happened to work for Yorkshire Television and as they say - the rest is history.
On the day that the walker passed by, Hannah was living in dire rural poverty. She had land and she had a farm with outbuildings but she had very little else. The farm had no electricity and no water supply. She relied upon a nearby spring for water and a meagre supply of coal for her kitchen range. Her weekly income was around £5.
The rest of her family had gradually passed away years before and so she was left with Low Birk Hatt Farm in Baldersdale and all the responsibilities associated with running such a farm. She was more of a dreamer than a farmer and really struggled to make the place pay. She dressed in ragged clothes and ate frugal meals. For a long time she couldn't even afford to own a farm dog because of the food it would need.
Though materially she had very little, she possessed a beautiful and radiant personality that for the next thirty years would disarm almost anybody who met her. She was honest, contented and not in the least bit resentful. She accepted her lot and was happy with it. She found pleasure in simple things.
A Yorkshire Television producer built two documentary films about life in the high Pennines around Hannah Hauxwell and quite quickly she became an unlikely media star. Viewers and readers admired her spirit and her kind heart. She seemed to represent precious and timeless values in a world that was already becoming technological, interconnected and chaotic. Modern people were already starting to lose touch with fundamental realities that were embodied in Hannah.
I know all of the above because I have just finished reading "Hannah: The Complete Story" though I can also recall seeing one of those black and white TV documentaries in the early seventies. The memory of it stuck with me and that's why I bought my secondhand copy of the book when I spotted it at a Sunday morning car boot sale in Suffolk in September.
Hannah died in January of this year having reached the ripe old age of 91. She sold the old farm when she was seventy two and moved to a little cottage in a nearby village. She never returned to Low Birk Hatt believing that such a return visit would "unsettle" her.
YouTube version of "Too Long A Winter" Hannah comes into the documentary just after the 16 minute mark. This is how she was first introduced to the British public.
I have read comments on blogs about Hannah quite a few times now and always interested....I should watch the doco or read the book.
ReplyDeleteAside from that, I watched a couple of minutes of the youtube link and I can hardly imagine that we used to watch tv of that quality and love it!
Sorry Kylie. The quality of the YouTube link is poor I know. I don't think Yorkshire Television have put the original out on line.
DeleteGreat story and should have been a good mentor. I will have to look for the book.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that some copies will have found their way to Canada.
DeleteThank you! This sounds like the perfect book to give my mother-in-law for Christmas. And I am definitely going to read it myself, and watch both documentaries, if I can find them in reasonable quality online.
ReplyDeleteI would send you my copy but Shirley says she might read it.
DeleteShe was a lovely person, an anachronism of course in her time, but her soul was beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThough she wasn't particular;y religious, somehow she could seem like a nun - filled with a holy spirit. That is suggested in the book.
DeleteI was 11 in 1972 and saw this tv programme. It had a striking affect on me. I have no idea why.
ReplyDeleteI have read a couple of books of hers and loved her travels in Italy looking at art.
My Aunty who was the same age as her and who died in 2016 had a similar life.
She moved out of the family home in her late twenties, bought a one up, one down cottage with only a cold tap and electricity. It had an outside "tippler" toile(i got told off many times as a child for forgetting to close the door, allowing the poultry to get in and roost)
In 1974 the row of 5 cottages were modernised. A large continuous extension across the back, giving the cottages a kitchen downstairs and a bathroom up.
She only had a small electric fire for heat and an immersion heater for hot water.
She was a tough old girl, never complained, never expected life to be any more than it was. She never married, never had children. I was her only niece. She was a bugger to deal with as she got older though. Very independent!
I nursed her here in my home for the last few months as she was dying from cancer. She did mellow in those last weeks, even saying thank you for the first time ever.
I think that generation was a strong one. They just got on with it.
Thanks for this post, Mr pudding. Sorry it's turned into a diatribe.......
No need to apologise Christina. It was a fascinating and unexpected comment. You must have been the closest thing to a daughter she ever had. What was your aunt's first name?
DeleteMuriel.
DeleteShe was the eldest of 3 daughters. My mother was next, 2years her junior and then another daughter 14 years later, referred to as the "menopause" daughter. 😂
My grandma said she used to dread answeringvtye door when Muriel was a child as it would invariably be a parent complaining about Muriel behaviour towards their child. She was very feisty.
Yes, I was her surrogate daughter. The only child between the two sisters.
Thanks for coming back and adding.
DeleteI remember the TV programme.....she was an amazing lady. I was so pleased when I heard that she had moved and would be more comfortable in her old age!
ReplyDeleteThough she had lived in splendid isolation she loved the company of other people and living in the village of Cotherstone really fed that need.
DeleteLife for some...for many so often is so hard...so difficult, but not so hard that it breaks their spirit. Such people are to be admired, and deserve recognition.
ReplyDeleteIf that walker had not encountered her she would have died in obscurity and poverty. There are many other heroes out there but we just don't know about them.
DeleteI've never heard of her. Not that I can remember, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI will keep my eye out for a book. As so often happens, once one encounters a subject, it tends to pop up again.
The honest way in which you write makes me think that you would have got on famously with Hannah Hauxwell.
DeleteHow cool! I'll watch the YouTube vid when I get home. I love stories like this, with interesting characters of yore.
ReplyDeleteThe quality of the video is poor compared with modern day standards but even so I hope you like it.
DeleteI remember the television documentaries. A fascinating lady.
ReplyDeletePerhaps one day a TV producer will walk past your garden Sue.
DeleteWhat an amazing lady to cope with such a difficult life on next to no money. They don't make them like that any more. Her rise to fame reminds me of that little old lady (Annie Mizen) who used to feature on the BBC's That's Life programme.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I don't remember her ADDY.
DeleteYes YP I too saw the documentary on her all those years ago and she was fascinating....you don't get many like her.
ReplyDeleteWith her family all gone she was stranded and alone but she never felt sorry for herself.
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