Barry Cockcroft (4 October 1932 – 4 February 2001) was a British

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

director, writer and producer. He is best known for his documentary ''Too Long A Winter'' about the lady, Hannah Hauxwell who lived alone on a remote farm in the Pennines. Cockcroft was born in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. After leaving school he started work as a

proof-reader Proofreading is a phase in the process of publishing where galley proofs are compared against the original manuscripts or graphic artworks, to identify transcription errors in the typesetting process. In the past, proofreaders would place corre ...

on the '' Rochdale Observer'' and he soon became a reporter and a feature writer.Guardian Obituary Barry Cockcroft 9 February 2001
Retrieved 29 October 2014 A researcher at

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

at its inception in 1968, he was making short films about people who lived in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or Dale (landform), dales, in the Pennines, an Highland, upland range in England. They are mostly located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into C ...

when he discovered Hauxwell. He went on to write best selling books about her and took her around Europe and to North America for further documentaries. Another memorable documentary made by Cockcroft was ''A Romany Summer'', featuring a family of Romani Gypsies travelling and living around York, dealing in horses and attending the

Appleby Horse Fair The Appleby Horse Fair, previously known as Appleby New Fair, is an annual gathering of Romani people (''Gypsies'') and Travellers in Appleby-in-Westmorland in Cumbria, England. The horse fair is held each year in early June, attracting rough ...

. He additionally directed ''

The Underground Eiger ''The Underground Eiger'' is a made-for-television documentary that was released in 1979. It details a world record-breaking cave dive of made by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham from West Kingsdale Master Cave, in North Yorkshire, England to Ke ...

'', which detailed the record-setting cave dive of Oliver Statham and Geoff Yeadon. He married Sheila Jackson in 1956 and they had two daughters, Julie Chadwick and Sarah Manley. After Sheila's death he moved to Cornwall and married Celia Hodgkins in 1978; they had a daughter, Lucy Cockcroft.Barry Cockcroft Profile
at IMDb.com. Cockcroft died of

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and lo ...

(ALS) in St Ives,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

on 4 February 2001 at the age of 68.

References

External links

* 1932 births English television directors People from Rochdale 2001 deaths Deaths from motor neuron disease in England {{UK-tv-bio-stub