Hawes: The 'deeply rural and remote' Yorkshire market town which is small but mighty

It is thought Hawes’ name may derive from Middle English “hauls”, meaning a neck of land between hills and mountain pass.

With the nearest market town, Leyburn, some 17 miles along Wensleydale, children from Hawes complete the journey ten times a week to attend secondary school.

Other routes into Hawes, which sits at 850 feet above ses level, require passing steep sloped mountains or expanses of moors.

According to one meteorologist, Hawes sees an average of eight “snow days” in both January and February and almost six more in March.

As such, with the surrounding spectacular scenery of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Hawes has for hundreds of years both attracted toursts and served as a watering hole for weary travellers.

The Hawes section of the Pennine Way takes is probably the most bustling thoroughfare on the 268-mile route and is as popular a stop-off for those tackling the long distance hike as it has become for cyclists since the Tour de France Grand Depart passed en route to the nearby Buttertubs Pass.

Far-reaching views at the junction of the main thoroughfare and Gayle Lane to the surrounding high fells give Hawes a strong sense of place.

The slab-top summits of Wether Fell and Dodd Fell to the south and Sandy Hill to the west are particularly distinctive of the vast agricultural area surrounding Hawes, served by an auction mart on Burtersett Road renowned for its weekly prime sheep and autumn breeding sheep sales.

Closer views from Hawes feature rounded drumlins and post-glacial landforms dotted along the River Ure floodplain which attracted 12th century Cistercian monks to establish a monastery nearby and start producing what the town has become best known for – Wensleydale cheese.

While a Hawes corn and merchant of Hawes began buying milk from nearby farms to increase production of Wensleydale cheese in the late Victorian era, when the dairy that had been established was threatened during the 1930s depression local farmer Kit Calvert called a meeting in the Town Hall and gathered enough support to rescue the dairy.

In the 1990s when the future of the dairy was again threatened, its former managers and workforce ensured cheese making continued, with a vsitor centre opening that now attracts 350,000 people a year to Hawes.

In 2013, the creamery’s future was given a boost by the European Commission awarding Wensleydale Protected Geographical Indication status, alongside Cumberland sausages and Cornish pasties.

The decision means Yorkshire Wensleydale can only be applied to cheese which is produced within an area around Hawes.

As Hawes biggest employer, the creamery, off Gayle Lane, continues to stand as testament to residents’ resilience, but it is by no means the only such symbol.

When the Hawes post office was set to be replaced by a mobile service three times a week, with undelivered mail having to be collected in person from Leyburn, long-serving and outspoken councillor John Blackie led a community takeover, moving it into the Hawes’ library.

Followiing council cuts, in 2005 the library moved into the community office, so it could keep it open five and-a-half days a week, instead of just two.

And in response to dwindling public transport, the residents-led Little White Bus was established in 2011 and the community has repeatedly shown its strength again resisting the closure of Dale Head petrol station, which would have left locals with a 36-mile round trip to fill their cars and farm vehicles.

Hawes response? The first community-run petrol station in England, run by part-time staff and volunteers.

Between the dairy and petrol station Upper Dales councillor Blackie battled to retain stands a memorial to him alongside Hawes’ memorial to those who lost their lives in the two world wars.

Beside the creamery and dominating a section of the main throughfare stands a thriving primary school, in a Victorian building complete with bell tower, on the fringe of Hawes’ commercial area which features almost back-to-back cafes, guesthouses, hotels and pubs, as well as shops aimed at tourists.

They range from The Chippie, which is famed for its deep-fried Wensleydale delicacy, to the listed White Hart Hotel, which bears the date 1712 above one of its diminutive entrances.

There’s a host of other heritage features in Hawes heart, including the main A684 road becoming cobbled for a section and the 1851 Church of Saint Margaret, which boasts a double-chamfered tower.

The Gothic church was built with stone quarried on top of nearby Snaizeholme Fell and carried on a sledge to the site. The landmark building replaced a chapel of ease that had served Hawes since 1480.

The imposing Market House, which serves as the venue for the Tuesday market, is beside the centre’s only non-independent shop, the Spar, and even that is a franchise.

Businesses such as grocers Elijah Allen & Son, which was launched by a farmer in 1860, who decided to diversify by supplying the hundreds of navvies working on the Carlisle to Settle railway line and viaduct at Ribblehead a few miles away.

Hawes historic centre was recently showcased to more than a million viewers after drone footage of the traditional practice of moving flocks of Swaledale ewes through the town to the moors.