Hannah Hauxwell, who became famous through a Yorkshire Television documentary, farmed near Cotherstone and in 1998 moved to the village itself.
In January 2008, she was still living in her retirement home 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.
It is one of a chain of three reservoirs on the River Balder, a tributary of the River Tees, which it joins at Cotherstone, about 5 miles to the east.
His mother was Matilda (b. 1298), also called Agnes, elder daughter and coheiress of Brian FitzAlan, lord of Bedale, Askham Bryan, and Cotherstone.