Low Birk Hat, Barnard Castle

The site is situated adjacent to Hannah’s Meadow, a species-rich upland hay meadow dedicated to Hannah Hauxwell who rose to fame in the 1970s following a series of television programmes that told her story of living remotely without running water or electricity and worked the farm using traditional methods. As a result of such practices, the area became a prime example of species-rich meadow and has subsequently been preserved by the Durham Wildlife Trust.

Hannah put the farm on the market in the late 1980s after her health deteriorated and she moved to Cotherstone.

The barn, located in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is a “non-designated heritage asset”, and featured in the 1970s TV series about Ms Hauxwell’s life ‘Too Long a Winter’.

The barn conversion was approved to be converted to a dwelling house with a living/ kitchen area, a dining room and a boot store on the ground floor. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms will also be situated on the first floor.

The proposal has won the support of Visit County Durham, which says there is a need for more holiday accommodation in the area.

Craig Wilson, destinations projects manager for Visit County Durham, said:

“We would like to support the developer’s ambition and this helps us to build our overnight visitor accommodation capacity, which still lags behind our near neighbouring destinations of Cumbria and Northumberland.”