Sawyer's Hill caused me some aggro too when I started cycling, until I realised that there was no rule against getting in a low gear and just keeping the pedals turning even if I am going only just fast enough to not tip over sideways.
I have a mental block because unless I have the cadence up to around 60 I think I am going to wreck my knees. I also have a mental block with that hill because I see it rising up towards me and just want to finish it. I do wonder how much of my aggro is mental.
My younger son has a similar problem of wanting to see the finish of a hill. We were in Ireland on holiday last week and, having manfully got most of the way on the road that goes through the middle of Clare Island (reaching 100m from 50m) he saw that the summit he had set his heart on was in fact very slightly lower than the actually highest point. Seeing the tarmac stretching up, albeit very slightly, he got off and walked. I've done much the same thing a long long time ago.
If you ride all the time in very big gears with a low cadence you may damage them, but on the occasional hill, using a low cadence is not going to do any damage. On the other cycle ride we did on our Irish holiday I was almost stumped by a hill on a little lane in Clew Bay that reached a maximum height above sea level of 27m. The problem was that it did this straight up the side of a drumlin hill, so reached this princely height 100m away from the sea. I can tell you now that my cadence (even with a triple chainring and with most of the monster climbs in the Alps done last year) was a lot lower than 60 as it is on any hill which I find hard (which is more than some people might think).
Oh, and chapeau for beating the hill. Contrary to some advice above, if I've struggled up a hill I felt I ought to have done better, I'll seek it out when I next get the chance, even if it is on a far flung Audax event, if only to confirm that it was diabolical as I first thought.