Hannah Hauxwell, who became well known after an ITV documentary about her life in 1973 (Too Long A Winter), worked an inherited farm on her own in Baldersdale under very frugal conditions at Low Birk Hat.
Under the Water Act 1973, ownership of the TVCWB's reservoirs, which included the three Baldersdale reservoirs and two others — Selset and Grassholme — on the River Lune a short distance to the north, was transferred to the Northumbrian Water Authority (NWA).