Eerie scenes at historic hall as it is emptied of people for first time
EERIE IMAGES show a deserted Shibden Hall, empty of people for the first time in its 600-year history.
The house in the Halifax village was built in 1420 and from 1615 to 1933 was the ancestral home of the Lister family, whose most famous member Anne Lister was the subject of the BBC period drama Gentleman Jack.
The last Lister donated the house and estate to Calderdale Council in 1933, complete with Anne’s secret diaries hidden behind a wall panel.
Shibden has been open as a visitor attraction ever since and since Gentleman Jack aired in the summer of 2019 its popularity has soared.
Fans of the series, many of them American, have descended on the area to visit previously unremarkable pubs, churches and filming locations and to explore every inch of the Shibden estate.
ALL QUIET:
At Shibden Hall, visitor numbers trebled between May and August 2019. In August, 14,419 people passed through the museum, compared to just over 2,500 in August 2018.
The hall had only just reopened for the summer season after a three-month winter break. It was forced to close just six days later due to the pandemic. Calderdale Council recently released plans to further develop Shibden as an attraction, including improving access to Walker Pit, which was sunk by Anne Lister and named after her partner Ann Walker.
It also wants to build a new visitor centre and re-establish the old kitchen gardens and ponds that supplied produce for the family.