Hannah Goes To Town

a journey starts for Hannah Hawks well farmer and spinster a simple journey for most people but for Hannah it'll mean crossing a frontier into a way of life she knows nothing of [Music] Hanan Hawks well lives alone in an isolated farm called lo Burk hat on the far edge of an enclosed and partly abandoned yorkshire Dale [Music] once 31 years ago she went on a day trip to Loch Lomond apart from that she's rarely left the Dale but now she's a celebrity and the outside world wishes to honor her [Music] the one place where Hannah makes a fleeting but regular contact with the outside world is alongside the little used road which cuts through the center of boulders Dale once a month the shop in the village five miles away leaves a modest carton of groceries in the milk churn for Hannah to collect it's a good place to keep her Wellington's dry until it's time to walk back to the farm [Music] the Train still good afternoon could I have it you tend to get to them Hana prepared very carefully for her journey to London her weekly wash is done in the reservoir alongside her farm because she doesn't have water on tap she takes her drinking water from a stream which she shares with her cattle for Hannah Hawkes well life has been hard since the day she was born she has been perhaps the most materially deprived person in Britain and in some ways still is but she possesses an inspirational quality which when she appeared in a television documentary four years ago touched the heart of the nation then as now she had her reasons for remaining at Loberg hat attached to the place because my family have lived here since my great-grandfather's time no one else has lived in this house since it was built with our family and the lovely countryside down the new through the iDEN gate down the new road and I've often thought sometimes it's my favorite walk and I've stopped and looked and and I thought well it's one thing if I haven't money in my pocket it's one thing nobody can rob me of nobody can it's mine it's mine for the taking [Music] hannah is the first to admit that she is not the best farmer in the dáil she finds it difficult to control and discipline her animals this winter the people who decide such things have invited Hannah to take a seat at the top table of the women of the year lunch at the Savoy Anna this means you are a guest of honor yes yes you're one of the women of the year yes yes when I'm dirty I'm very proud to be as I do have the option of attending a IIE I don't read myself I have looked at the book and you know I I don't read myself along with some of the the people who are my colleagues fellow women of the year in the least but oh it'll be a wonderful thing I'm very thrilled about it I never dreamt it's something out of this world it's something I never dreamed would happen but it would be wonderful to see the different places you got a letter didn't you I got a letter yes and had several distinguished ladies mrs. Wilson but I think the wonderful thing I think was our debt it and their signature we thought this I think that was I've stated about that would you like to meet a dead I would like to see her I don't know to approach I would I don't know how I would feel about that but it would be lovely to see her just to be able to sing it Anna who once lived on 280 pounds a year tries unsuccessfully to alter a secondhand dress she has to buy her first new dress in 18 years do you know the biggest price I've paid for the dress quite a few years ago was four pounds now what do you think of that so it's very nice but I think my figure isn't all it might be I think perhaps just a little bit more room not quite so revealing now how about that one yes it's very I like the shape of it but if it's my figure you know if it's the problem I I think it needs a bit more room that's just a shade larger yes it has a bit perhaps a trifle um but I mean yes immediateiy is one can do something i like this yes one better band for the room that all lovely it looks more comfortable yes it feels comfortable [Music] [Music] going on it you're off on here you Ray yes ah my job yes and how long are you going to be aware not more than a day or two oh and and you know we're different things and mechanic in stabling and me drop a milk for with curves and what isn't plenty milk for help out we if he plays with cake right I know Ferb it is something yeah I don't know not thank you know why don't you we have a few things to say to I don't know don't you know it's not too worried thank you no thank you I will goodbye now goodbye come on open your dad Jake [Music] [Music] I think the trans were the first traveling I did the sunday-school treat at least a distance from home Sunday school trips or daughter drama Kirk station but first of all Tommy sports came Tommy Oliver a drummer Kirk quite a character and likeable person he had had a person he came and brought us to Roma Kirk station but that was the last time I was on a train I haven't been since to know how fast were troubling no I don't have no idea I'd say between 80 and 90 miles an hour unbelievable geez are you worried about the prospect of meeting all those famous ladies yes I think so at least I'm not worried but then again I'm not one who sort of craves to mix with the with the great ones if the people who were kind enough to speak to me it's a people are life I've never been to London of course it is ones capital city perhaps an important city in the world I think it's well not to see it I happen to know it's really like they say people come rushing about it a migrate so I honestly haven't it Lou [Music] nothing's oh I can't be changed yes and cue [Music] [Music] [Music] excuse me please could I trouble you to ask the way to the Savoy Hotel boy that's a good posture good days net what's wonderful something No thank you one of old a you walk in there yes I see if I can t turn right walk then the Haymarket then turn left into the Falco square walk up to the Strand and it's up there on the right Chad minute I'll carry your bags [Music] [Music] because one heard about the server because it is happening one of the top hotels and associated with a way of life which is person know thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you yes please I know it's not very important thank you thank you I crave to living in luxury but it's wonderful to see just how the other the half of the world lives happily I mean I took all the way to the moon or the valley just let you know that they are available at any time little call buttons here you just have to press the button there's anything that we can get you just let us know give us a call downstairs into a session or if you like to call me myself ever dreamt it would be like this at all not because it is a place of wealth and luxury it's the sheer beauty which appears to me especially my home being what it is and telephone by the side of the bed this other call buttons again if you need yes [Music] thank you good night well thank you Kimani madam how are you a smoker thank you would you like [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this Marty has the means financially no the opportunity it's nice Paraguay I wouldn't keep on impermanent now I would need to be quiet season to get back to the healing [Music] beg your pardon you're going to be presented to the Duchess of Gloucester I was to be presented to her it's very wonderful yes it's so much about you who's looking after your phone the neighbors looking at this item is not mr. time no no it's the best let's go on [Music] I wish you a long and happy retire thank you that's very kind I enjoyed your film yes sounded go skinny thank you very much why do you think the press made such a fuss over that I don't know I have no idea in the least if they you know I I I got a bit of attention from them but then there were other people as well so that I have no idea in the least I'm just a very ordinary person come especially compared with a lot of the people who were there what about London hammer has it come up to expectations it's past expectations because it's much a much more beautiful city than I'd ever imagined but I think out in the streets one doesn't see that everybody's in a big hurry of course one doesn't say the friendly faces or or the friendly words in one's own north country well one passes the time of day or smiles at someone they haven't a clue who they are but that it doesn't seem to be like that go in in London and out in the street the face is something to lock their life somehow I never even came across a friendly London policeman perhaps the hazy thing of the past thank you very much no it's very kind of you but no thank you didn't you want to drink no thank you no I don't drink wine why not well I think it's better for me at any rate simply not to touch it some members of the family had two great liking and for eating and that can run in the blood so I simply don't have it I don't mind people people like a glass of wine everything in moderation but in in excess it's a very bad thing and as ruined many a fine person and the lives of the people around them also so have you never tasted wine no no I I've had this I do like I like me to wear rum sauce with plum pudding yes but no I've never drunk wine and haven't don't intend to now you've been to Soho haven't you do you disapprove of that sort of place only the the big rather I don't know what called the garish advertisements in in a certain line which interested in the paella wasn't it didn't create ly offering me or upset me when one doesn't bother about them just idea I just simply didn't like them I don't think they will this need for those kind of things to be so displayed but the lovely stirred the stones ionizer formerly you know one associated Soho I think with the underworld rather the criminal side of life but now I and it's it's been a good thing I think only of all the lovely vegetables' that's what I think of associate with Soho well not he did mentioned no would you come to London again Anna oh yes I would it strikes me that I've seen the best side and the loveliest side but I know it hurts other sides and and it strikes me as being for someone much less fortunate as being a very lonely place if people come without friends or relatives and I know there are people amounting to thousands who haven't a roof over their heads till this there's that side to it it could be a very lonely place do you think it would be lonelier than your way of life yes very much so the if one is rather short on things in life in the country you can go out in this the hills and and the river the streams in summertime the birds singing they don't fail you you I think you could I'm sure not experiencing it but I'm sure you could be much more lonely and then in the country but surely you must experience loneliness up at the farm what sort of loneliness is that Hannah is it permanent company I think will not delve perhaps further maybe so but I'm very lucky not lots of wonderful friends some wonderful people I've met and of course I have my shaggy dog now this little rascal with his grand company so there's never been anyone the one who lived a very limited life one wasn't a way very much one was limited to the people there so which weren't really so very very many and because the hills lovely as they are but there were there the borderline you looked around in you know your sewin lights the car lights in the further down the day and but of course you were one was where they were without transport and and their number of people in the day once opportunities perhaps were limited [Music] 600 of the best-known women in Britain Hannah has talked to a royal Duchess Prime Minister's wife and other illustrious ladies but the one she most admires a debt hallows the French born war heroine she hasn't even seen and the lunch is about to end [Music] nobody wants to talk with you yes [Music] No not as much as I'm meeting you [Music] [Music] do people bother you no I've been lucky you see I need a wave in the remote death and away from the window so that interesting people I've haven't met one the people who come the big nice genuine Pape and people don't go and bother with you too much no that's marvelous how does it wonder thank you perhaps being busy on the farm sometimes it is a problem but they are nice because in genuine [Music] cities one gets the peace [Music] it's been a wonderful experience but of course it's been just for a while I knew that and I've enjoyed it very much and I'm like the young Englishman in the prisoner of Zenda he was a king for a day and I've been a lady of leisure for a few days but now we going home and of course there is no place like home this my and it moves the little dog and so I think that is all [Music]

Channel: Andy Worboys

Views: 625,136

Rating: 4.855679 out of 5

Keywords: Hannah Hauxwell, Low Birk Hatt, Baldersdale, Yorkshire, Teesdale, Upper Teesdale, Yorkshire Dales, Documentary, Woman of the Year

Id: zJQlzanYABg

Length: 35min 27sec (2127 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 09 2018