In the winter of 1972, a television crew climbed the high ground of the Yorkshire Pennines to film what they believed would be a story about rural decline. Instead, they found Hannah Hauxwell.

She lived alone at Low Birk Hatt Farm, a stone farmhouse exposed to wind and long winters. There was no electricity, no running water, and no modern heating. Light came from daylight and a single coal fire. Water had to be carried by bucket from a distant spring. In cold weather, it froze indoors.

Hannah was in her mid-forties when the cameras arrived. To her, nothing about her life seemed unusual.

Born in 1926, she had been raised on the same 80-acre hill farm. As a child, she rose before dawn to help with cattle and sheep. Winters were harsh, and the work never stopped. At first, she lived with her parents and an uncle. One by one, they died. By 1958, after her mother’s death, Hannah was alone.

She continued running the farm.

The income was small. Hill farming in the Pennines offered little profit even in good years. ...