`Jewel box' meadows are Hannah's legacy.

Head deeper into County Durham and you come to Teesdale. A little further on and there is Baldersdale in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

And it is from Baldersdale that in 1973 a TV documentary was broadcast which entranced millions of viewers.

Too Long a Winter, made by Barry Cockcroft, told the story of Hannah Hauxwell, who had lived at tiny and remote Low Birk Hatt Farm for more than 50 years.

For 25 years Hannah lived alone, without any mains electricity or water from a tap.

It was said that she managed without warmth, water, company or money.

Well, not exactly. There was running water, albeit from a stream outside the farmhouse.

She had the company of her pet dog and a few cows with names like Her Ladyship and Rosa.

She did have money ( but very, very little of it. In the 1970s she got by on pounds 5-pounds 6 a week.

She farmed her meadows and pasture in the traditional way, using only cow manure.

It is believed that they had not been ploughed for a century, if at all.

The result was meadows which were a jewel box show of wildflower colours.

Botanist Mark Prosser came across the meadows during a plant survey. Referred to as "Flower Gentleman" by Hannah, he knew had found something very special.

The list of plants in the meadows reads like a description of what much of the countryside would have looked like hundreds of years ago.

The roll call included meadow fox-tail, sweet vernal grass, downy oat grass, wood horse-tail, red fescue, crested dog's-tail, wood anemone, bugle, floating sweet grass, sharp flowered rush, ragged robin, wood cranesbill, marsh marigold, globe flower, yellow rattle, adder's tongue fern, and moonwort.

In 1988 Hannah retired from the farm which her great great-grandfather William Bayles was the first to occupy in 1826.

Hannah, who was born in 1926, moved to the village of Cotherstone near Barnard Castle ( where she still lives ( and a new world with central heating, bathroom, telephone and a shop within walking distance.

She became a celebrity, appearing twice on the Wogan show, and had a rose, which was launched at the Gateshead National Garden Festival in 1990, named after her.

Durham Wildlife Trust launched a pounds 25,000 appeal to buy the main meadows. The target was quickly met and Hannah's Meadow nature reserve was created.

The Pennine Way runs through the reserve and Hannah's 18th Century barn serves as an unmanned visitor centre with information panels.

The reserve consists of two species-rich unimproved upland hay meadows and grazing pasture in what is a traditional farming landscape.

The pasture is used by breeding lapwing, skylark, redshank, curlew and meadow pipit.

The meadows, some of the best in upland Durham, are a site of special scientific interest.

The trust continues the traditional management and the seasonal cycle goes on as it has for centuries. It is Hannah's legacy.

"The meadows are a little oasis, full of colour in summer. When Hannah retired she wanted someone to continue to manage the land in the way she had done," says trust reserves manager Mark Richardson.

"They are a picture of the past and a little piece of history."