Among The Yorkshire Dales

Lyrics

1
For all those raised in Timble among the Yorkshire Dales.
They live the lives of countrymen, and all this entails.
Every day's a working day; ending with the setting sun,
Each one a duel with nature, as the season's courses run

Chorus
For as the seasons change each scene,
Through endless waves of grey and green,
Hannah has nowhere to go,
And time stands still for all we know.

2
Every spring brings hope eternal from turning of the soil,
Autumn brings its own reward for the effort and the toil,
Winter brings the harshness of the drifting, driving snow,
Each summer reaps the harvest, urged by the sun's warm glow.

3
Take water from the flowing stream, raise it from the well.
Clear the field with horse and plough, send cattle to the fell.
Amass the fruits of labour, pick flowers from the lane,
End each day with candlelight, 'til the sun will rise again.

Final Chorus
For as the seasons change each scene,
Through endless waves of grey and green,
Hannah has nowhere to go,
And time stands still for all we know,
And time stands still for all she knows.

This is a contemporary song about Yorkshire.

Provenance

Hannah Hauxwell was born in 1926 and from the age of 35, following the death of both her parents and uncle, she farmed alone the 80-acre Low Birk Hatt Farm high up in the Yorkshire Pennines.

In 1970 ITV produced a moving documentary called “Too long a winter” which chronicled the unendurable conditions of farmers at that time. This was followed up by “A winter too many” twenty years later, showing how little had changed.

Hannah has now retired and lives in the village of Cotherstone (now part of Co Durham, after administration changes), only a few miles from the farm where she toiled alone all those years.

The song is one of several I have written about Yorkshire where I have lived and worked for all but a few years of my life.

My reference to Timble is a bit of poetic licence, to represent Yorkshire farming everywhere, although it is Hannah who has become synonymous with the life of hill farmers everywhere.

Words and music by John Storey, August 2005
Harmony vocals by Maggie Allred