Shepherdess who captured nation’s heart
CARING for nine children and 1,000 sheep in the most unforgiving Yorkshire wilderness can’t be easy by any standard.
But celebrity shepherdess Amanda Owen, who returned to our screens last week on Our Yorkshire Farm, has some semblance of a modern existence with electricity and running water. She also has her husband, Clive, and some of her children to help.
Hannah Hauxwell, who lived 12 miles north of the Owen family home of Ravenseat Farm, had none of those things.
Following the death of her parents and uncle, Hauxwell alone managed a dilapidated cattle farm, devoid of modern conveniences.
Her archaic lifestyle, coupled with her sheer determination to survive, made Hauxwell a national celebrity.
Here is her incredible story. Hannah Hauxwell was born in 1926, an only child to William and Lydia, at Sleetburn Farm, Baldersdale, in the northeastern corner of the old North Riding of Yorkshire, which is today in County Durham.
When she was three, the family moved next door to Low Birk Hatt Farm, which her father bought.
Hannah’s father died during the Great Depression when she was six, and her uncle Tommy took over the farm.
Her mother died in 1958, followed by her uncle in 1961, leaving single Hannah alone to manage the 80-acre farm. After an initial appearance in the Yorkshire Post in 1970, Hannah became a subject of the 1972 Yorkshire TV documentary, Too Long a Winter. The programme features several farmers battling to survive against poverty and unforgiving weather.
But it was Hauxwell – first seen on TV struggling to lead a bullock to market – who captured the nation’s hearts.
She survived on about £260 (£3,500 in today’s money) a year and could barely afford to eat or heat her farmhouse.
Viewers were shocked but they were also entranced by Hauxwell’s gentle manner and poetic way of speaking. Shortly afterwards Yorkshire TV was inundated with money and gifts for Hauxwell.
In the late 1980s, the same film crew returned to produce followup A Winter Too Many. While Hauxwell had a little more money and a few more cows, her health was beginning to deteriorate and concerns grew as to whether she would survive another winter on the farm.
The programme showed her final departure from Low Birk Hatt Farm for a cottage in the nearby village of Cotherstone. She moved to a care home in Barnard Castle in 2016 and a nursing home in West Auckland the following year.
She died on January 30, 2018, aged 91.