Daughter Of The Dales

Hannah Hauxwell battled against hardship and poverty on her isolated north country farmstead, before becoming an unlikely television star and retiring to more comfortable surroundings.

There once was a woman who lived on a farm high on a hill over Baldersdale
She toiled alone on the moor every day and her face was weathered and pale
Her family was gone and she knew nothing more but working as one with the stubborn land
Her life was enslaved to the will of the soil how many more years could she stand?

No power to bring her a light in the dark no water could flow to her door
Invention had left her adrift in its wake forgotten no less and no more
But still she prevailed always steady and bold 80 acres to carry and call
No man or machine for to lighten her load this desolate lady stood tall

Hannah you struggled so long in your rags as you laboured the snow
Standing brave in the face of a life in the North Pennine gales
With your cattle to see you along and the love of a world that you’d never know
You’re a solitary hero a daughter of the Dales

And though she was bidden to cherish the fields of fathers before her long gone
The work and the winters had taken a toll and now it was time to move on
And so she resides at the head of the dale with neighbourly warmth and goodwill
But her heart it still yearns for those lonely old times high up at the farm on the hill

Hannah you struggled so long in your rags as you laboured the snow
Standing brave in the face of a life in the North Pennine gales
With your cattle to see you along and the love of a world that you’d never know
You’re a solitary hero a daughter of the Dales