Andrew Robinson
WITH her shock of white hair and work-worn hands, the woman heading to the water well could be mistaken for Hannah Hauxwell.
But Sue Woodcock isn't a native Daleswoman, and until she moved into a run-down farmhouse on the moors near Grassington in North Yorkshire she had enjoyed a lifetime of mod cons and the usual luxuries.
After 30 years as a police officer in Hampshire she was looking forward to a change of scenery with enough space to indulge her passions for writing, keeping sheep, spinning wool and having friends to stay.
However, 18 months after she moved in, her dream of escaping the rat race is looking as rickety as Mire House, the building she has made her home.
She has been given until the end of the month to leave the house by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which says that to convert it would break all its development guidelines.
Mrs Woodcock said yesterday: "They can think of 1,000 reasons for me not to leave here and not one reason why I should. But I am staying here because I haven't got anywhere else to go."
The two years since she bought the property and 10 hectares of land for £130,000 have been taken up with making the house weather-proof, blocking windows with Perspex, putting in a wood-burning fire and a stove and filling it with her many possessions.
Mrs Woodcock, who lives alone, has repaired the "lounge" ceiling, put up roof tiles and cleared vegetation to reveal period features which date back 170 years to when the property was built.
Mire House, she says, is now a working farm, with chickens, rare-breed sheep, a turkey, sheepdogs, geese, ducks and some hedgehogs she rescued and reared from young. Soon she will add alpacas to her livestock.
She even pays council tax to Craven Council, whose dustmen empty her bins.
But the lack of running water, electricity and gas puts her lifestyle firmly in Hannah Hauxwell territory and she already knows how hard the coming winter is going to be.
She said: "I want this to be a working farm from the 1930s. Hannah (Hauxwell) is one of my heroines. I have the strength, skills and knowledge to do this.
"This is a dream for me and why shouldn't I have a dream? I have a bit of land and want to live a simple, albeit very tough, existence. I want to write my books, do my own crafts and look after the animals. I'm part of the community now – I have joined the choir and go to the church."
She admitted being eccentric, but added: "I'm not mad but who in their right senses would take this on at 57 years old? Anyway, England needs its eccentrics."
She said: "I am not going to spend another penny on this place until I have got planning permission. I don't like living like this."
But her hard work in turning the decrepit Mire House into something resembling a home looks likely to be time wasted.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has already rejected two applications to restore the farmhouse, which sits on bleak moorland 1,000ft above sea level.
A park authority spokesman said the property had not been lived in since at least 1958 and therefore had "no lawful planning use".
"Effectively, it is considered to be similar in planning law to an application for a barn conversion in the open countryside," the spokesman added.
"The building is one of a number lying in a random pattern throughout a landscape characterised by tightly-knit settlements separated by open countryside.
"The authority considers that this proposal represents the creation of a new dwelling and therefore would, by debasing the character of the area, conflict with our primary objective of conserving and enhancing this landscape," he said.
Mrs Woodcock can appeal to the Secretary of State and if she refuses to move out the matter will be passed to a committee of authority members who will decide whether to enforce the decision.
Last night she remained determined to sit it out, regardless of the authority and she already has plans to employ a barrister to fight her corner.
She commented: "No one around here has a good word to say about the park authority. They need to listen to local people.
"I am not going to leave here, it is my house. I intend being carried out in a box."
andrew.robinson@ypn.co.uk

YOUR VIEWS:

Liz Kettle, Whitby: "Oh dear I do feel sorry for Sue Woodcock but... buyer beware! If she paid £130K for this derelict building and 10 hec. of land presumably she had legal advice? One does wonder, therefore, what her lawyer was thinking about in not checking out first the planning status with regard to this 'residence'. It appears that what has happened here is that the National Park considers the property has long been been abandoned as a house and therefore in living there she is breaking the Town & Country plannng law of this land. (As a former police officer she knows about not breaking the law). Whilst most of us sympathise with the role of the eccentric, there is little scope in planning law to make an exception under personal circumstances, no matter how committed to the project the applicant may be."

Ray and Anita Potter, Grassington: "We are writing in support of Sue Woodcock of Mire House in Grassington. We and a lot more like-minded local people think it is grossly unfair of the National Parks to deny her the right to do up her house giving her basic living conditions and to be able to live in this community. The house was prevously lived in and allowed to fall into disrepair. The NP deem it better left and open to vandalism than for a decent member of society to live there and fulfil her dream of raising rare breeds of sheep, spinning the wool, looking after orphaned hedgehogs etc. She is also a novelist and sings in the church choir amongst other things.
"How can it be that not a mile away towards Hebden the NP allowed a similar building to be done up and even a new road laid to it, they also allowed nearb mobile phone mast buildings to be constructed of artificial stone. It almost appears that they have a vendetta towards local people wanting to live and work in their local community forcing them out of the area. To deny Sue the chance of living her "good life" is extremely hard-hearted and we had hoped that her appealing to the Secretary of State might help her but it seems they are guided by the views of the NP so it seems the lady doesn't stand a chance. Haven't they ever heard of someone being given a break!!"


Steve Kirton, Birkenshaw: "I read with disgust your article on the heavy handed treatment of Sue Woodcock by The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. I`m all for preserving the Dales way of life and the beautiful scenery in the park but to my understanding all she wants to do is renovate the inside of the building, not add to its appearance. Surely this is better than letting the building decline until it becomes a ruin as this would benefit no one. I hope YDNPA abandons this course of action and lets Sue Woodcock live in peace, after all i thought this is what the building was designed for in the first place!"