Then a 46-year-old spinster, she toiled alone in her family home, Low Birk Hatt Farm, () a dilapidated farm that she had run by herself since the age of 35 following the deaths of her parents and uncle. With no electricity or running water and struggling to survive on £280 a year, life was a constant battle against poverty and hardship, especially in the harsh Pennine winters, where she had to work outside tending her few cattle in ragged clothes in temperatures well below freezing.

In the summer of 1972, Hannah was discovered by a friend of a researcher at Yorkshire Television while out walking on the dales. The researcher contacted Barry Cockcroft, a producer at the company, who proposed to make a TV documentary tentatively titled 'The Hard Life'.

It was Hannah’s spirit, her gentleness and humility, that gripped not only a nation but, as the documentary was syndicated, parts of Europe too: so much so that after the documentary first shown in 1972, Yorkshire TV's phone line was jammed for three days with viewers wanting to find out more and help her. Over the next twenty years, her life was transformed. A local factory raised money to fund getting electricity to Low Birk Hatt Farm, and she continued to receive thousands of letters and generous donations from well-wishers around the world.

Almost two decades after Too Long a Winter, the same TV crew returned to her farm to catch up with Hannah. The second documentary, A Winter Too Many, saw that Hannah had a little more money, which she had invested in a few more cows. The crew followed her to London where she was guest of honour at the Women of the Year gala. But, out of the spotlight, her back-breaking work on the farm continued; and each winter became harder for her to endure. With her health and strength slowly failing, she had to make a heart-rending decision: to sell her family farm and the animals she adored and move into a warm cottage in a nearby village. Both programmes about this extraordinary Daleswoman have been put on a single DVD, Hannah Hauxwell's Winter Tales. Barry Cockcroft also took her around Europe and to New York for further documentaries.

The footage of Hannah's journey to the Women of the Year gala, briefly touched upon in A Winter Too Many, was used alongside additional footage (collected at the time) to document Hannah's entire trip.

in 1992 director Barry Cockcroft once again ventured into Hannahs life making the documentary series 'Innocent Abroad' which followed Hannah on her first trips outside of the UK. On a grand tour of Europe reminicent of Victorian ladies, Hannah covers France, Grermany, Austria, Switzerland and Itlay in her naive but captivating style. The series was released as a set of DVDs. The series proved so popular it was followed by another trip, this time to come the USA in 1993.

In January 2008, she was still living in the village of Cotherstone, less than five miles (8 km) from Low Birk Hatt Farm, where the meadows have been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Hannah's Meadows.

A new book, Hannah Hauxwell—80 Years in the Dales (W. R. Mitchell) was published in 2008.

A new DVD, Hannah Hauxwell—An Extraordinary Life, featuring Too Long A Winter, A Winter Too Many, and Innocent Abroad, has been published.

Hauxwell was interviewed on Woman's Hour in March 2008.

'Seasons of my life' 1989 Arrow Books Hannah Hauxwell with Barry Cockcroft ISBN 0-09-972970-9