Steel Kitten

Hannah Hauxwell remembered

I found out a week ago that Hannah Hauxwell died at the end of January aged 91. Her funeral takes place tomorrow.

Hannah was 'discovered' by Yorkshire Television, a 46-year old single woman living a solitary bleak life of utter deprivation on a remote farm in Yorkshire. It went on to feature her life as part of 1973 documentary called Too Long a Winter, which is available to watch here, then later A Winter Too Many here and Hannah Hauxwell: Past and Present here. She took part in several documentaries and many books about her life were also written. 

Despite the conditions, she was so incredibly cheerful and optimistic. The last of her family died when she was 34, leaving her alone to run the 80-acre farm but she never felt sorry for herself. If anything, she was enormously grateful for the little she did have.

I don't know why she struck such a chord with me over the years. Maybe I like stories of strong brave women fighting against adversity. 

I hope that chapel is packed to the rafters tomorrow. 

10,000 years BC

 

Have any of you watched this series yet?

I only heard about it yesterday, and went on to Channel 5 On Demand to start watching it.

Here's the trailer.

A group of 20 people from all walks of life - a cross section of UK society - are taken to a wooded wilderness in Europe and left to live a Mesolithic life-style for eight weeks. They're given basic tools, some wild fruit, flints and a freshly killed deer. A stone age archaeologist and survival expert is on hand to give them some advice for the first 24 hours and then leaves. No-one knows how it will pan out - it is as much an experiment for the experts as it is for the participants.

Episode 1 is very compelling. I can't help wondering how some of the heavily made up girls with dyed and straightened hair are going to cope. They were arranging their skins into bikinis at one point (think Raquel Welch in the film one million years BC), all laughing and joking. That was until the camp was shown the deer and told it had to be processed immediately. Skin, meat, organs, sinews, everything was needed. And if they're not quick enough the flies will get it. They were all being crawled all over by mosquitos and flies, so the presence of fresh meat caused thick clouds of them, along with eggs being laid everywhere.

There are six episodes so far, so I have to try and catch up. I enjoy these kinds of social experiments where we live as our ancestors. I don't enjoy modern day social experiments like Big Brother or I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. They're just all about getting ratings, not furthering our knowledge. Mind you, these participants have been set up from the start really. Our ancestors had a lot of survival skills that were learned from their ancestors. These people had barely anything to prepare them but a survival DVD they had watched. A shame really but I'll stick with it.

I recently watched a documentary about the 1978 Iron Age re-enactment series called Living In The Past on youtube and that was excellent, but many of the people taking part were very academic in nature. It was the era of John Seymour and self-sufficiency. The experiment took place over a year and some of the couple brought their children with them, so they really were in it for the long haul.

You can watch the first part of it here

The West Usk lighthouse

We were pottering around this evening, doing the evening chores as usual, when we got a surpise phonecall from Martin's cousin Stephen: "Turn over to Channel 5 quick." And when we did we were surpised to see the place where we got engaged - The West Usk Lighthouse in Newport.

The Hotel Inspector has been called in to advise the owners, Frank and Danielle, on how to go about giving the place a refurb and get more money in. In a way it was lovely to see the place again but we had mixed feelings about the refurb.

On the one hand we sort of agreed with the decluttering thing - the place was jam-packed with bric-a-brac when we stayed there three years ago. Saying that though, everywhere you looked there was something interesting. Even when you're sat on the loo it didn't stop. I vividly remember looking at the toilet roll dispenser and finding a old Victorian man sat on a bike and when you pulled the toilet roll the front wheel went round!

But the decor we felt...well..suited the place. Sort of. It was an eccentric quirky place and I think that says a lot about the people who go and stay there as well! We didn't agree with the Hotel Inspector in many respects. And later on when we watched the undercover mystery shopper pay it a visit in a second prgramme on the Fiver channel he certainly didn't agree with her either. He loved the place!! And he completely blew that travel expert out of the water on the cleanliness front. The mystery shopper stayed in the lighthouse before the travel expert visited and went round with a pair of white gloves running his fingers over every part of the room, even behind the toilet bowl. They came up spotless. No wonder Danielle was so upset with his comments. I would have been too.

  

By the way, we loved the darlek the moment we clapped eyes on him and took full opportunity to give him a thorough inspection when Frank wasn't around ;-))) I'd love to be able to tell you what was inside and what it was made of, but I fear the darlek would lose it's mistique so my lips remain sealed.

Frank had a friend who was involved in the original series who ended up with it in his garage. Unfortunately, his four year old son used to freak whenever he saw it so eventually Frank was asked to take it for him.

The dalek has certainly earned its keep. We were told that the local council wanted to build a roadway and get rid of the lighthouse at one point, and the darlek was instrumental in getting the attention of the national press and helping the local community successfully fight the plans.

I would hate to think the lighthouse could turn into a Premier Inn type establishment and lose it's originality and character. I hope Frank and Danielle don't take it too far.

If you'd like to see the programme, it's repeated on 5th August. I don't yet know whether that's on channel 5 or Fiver and at what time but it's well worth a peak.