Hannah Hauxwell: Exploring the legacy of the 'daughter of the Dales'

Television viewers were captivated by their first glimpse of Hannah Hauxwell and her isolated homestead, Low Birk Hatt Farm in the North Pennines.

They were stunned to learn how she lived without electricity, running water and regular human contact, drinking from a stream and collecting bread deliveries from a field several miles away. To them, her world, lit by oil lamps, was a quaint and sobering throwback to the hard lives endured by generations of Dales farmers until the Second World War.

Yet the war had finished decades earlier, and Hannah was still living alone on her remote smallholding where little had changed since the 19th century.

She remained there until 1988, when failing health persuaded her to sell up and retire. She died in a nursing home in 2018, and her passing prompted an outpouring of nostalgia about her incredible life and the Yorkshire Television documentaries which turned her into an unlikely celebrity with fans all over the world.

The Yorkshire Post has explored Hannah's life and legacy in an exclusive, interactive long-read feature. Click here to read the full article.