Special Feature: Anne Lister, the first modern lesbian?

A
nne Lister’s life and diaries
challenge received ideas
about early nineteenth-
century womanhood, family and
sexual relations. To coincide with
the forthcoming BBC drama and
documentary, in this special feature
leading historians Jill Liddington
and Alison Oram introduce us
to Anne, reveal the intimacies of
her life, and ask how we can best
understand both her and her home,
Shibden Hall near Halifax.

Decoding Anne Lister:

Jill Liddington ‘united in heart
I moved to Halifax in and purse’
1980. My interest in
Anne Lister, alerted
originally by the
Jill Liddington and Alison Oram
1984 Guardian
article about her,
was really only Anne Lister portrait (Shibden Hall Museum)
sparked by Helena
Whitbread’s I Know
My Own Heart,

which I introduced into my teaching. My curiosity
aroused, I decided to check the diaries’ word-
count—only to discover, to my horror, that they
ran to a total of four million words—about three
times longer than Samuel Pepys’s diary. Of this,
roughly one-sixth is written in Anne’s secret code,
recording her relationships with other women. I
wrote about the story of the diaries in Presenting
the Past (1994).
So, anyone working on Anne Lister has to
select a few years. As Helena Whitbread had
focused on the earlier period, I decided to
select the 1830s. By then Anne was developing
energetically Shibden’s economic potential, plus
searching for a life-partner with whom to share
her days. I recounted this in Female Fortune (1998).
Jill Liddington is an Honorary Research Fellow at
Leeds University.
22 HerStoria magazine Spring 2010
Need to Know…
Classic titles
Helena Whitbread (editor), I Know My Own Heart, (Virago 1988 & New York
University Press 1992): selections from the Anne Lister diaries 1817-1824.
Jill Liddington, Presenting the Past: Anne Lister of Halifax 1791-1840 (Pennine
Pens 1994 & 2010): the diaries 1806-40, their dramatic survival, and how
successive generations of editors have each presented their Anne Lister.
Visiting
Shibden Hall Museum, Halifax
www.calderdale.gov.uk/leisure/museums
Calderdale Archives, WYAS (in Halifax Central Library) 01422 392636 – for
Shibden Hall papers; the diaries are also available on microfilm.
History to Herstory – www.historytoherstory.org.uk for
selections from the original diaries and transcripts.
Further reading: Anne Lister.
Helena Whitbread (editor), No Priest but Love, (Smith Settle
1992): selections from the diaries 1824-26.
www.herstoria.com
 Alison Oram

A
nne Lister of Shibden
Hall (1791-1840)
was an intelligent,
socially ambitious, and
entrepreneurial woman
determined to promote
her own status beyond
the family’s origins in the
lower gentry. After her
Uncle James died in 1826,
Anne inherited Shibden,
near Halifax in Yorkshire.
She was soon actively
running the estate, managing
her tenants, exerting
influence in local politics,
and travelling widely. Anne
Lister preserved her position
as a single woman, and from
her youth enjoyed numerous
same-sex relationships,
eventually settling down in
the 1830s with an heiress
from a neighbouring estate.
For almost 150 years after
her death, Anne Lister was
scarcely known outside her
home town of Halifax. Then in
1984 a Guardian article, ‘The two
million word enigma’, alerted
readers to Anne’s extensive
diaries, and suggested she ‘may
well have been a lesbian’. Four
years later, Helena Whitbread’s I
Know My Own Heart (1988) made
the diaries at last accessible
to a much wider readership,
establishing beyond doubt Anne’s
lesbianism. From this sprang
keen interest among transatlantic
historians of gender and sexuality.
Since then, fascination with
Anne Lister has continued.
Sue Perkins presents a
documentary about Anne
Lister on BBC2 this Spring
I was first introduced to
Anne Lister through Helena
Whitbread’s I Know My Own
Heart. Those of us
researching lesbian history
then were interested in how
nineteenth- and twentieth-
century women, writing
about their own passionate
friendships, revealed any
evidence of same-sex love in the past.
So, most astonishingly and gratifyingly, Anne
Lister’s diaries presented an early nineteenth-
century woman who privately pondered about
her own sexual nature and actively pursued the
love of other women - and then recorded her
sexual encounters in detail (including number of
orgasms each enjoyed). Indeed, so vivid are these
descriptions that a few lesbians then thought
briefly that they may have been fabricated.
Partly inspired by Anne Lister and Shibden,
I have since begun research on how historic
houses present female (especially lesbian)
sexuality. This study includes Sissinghurst
and the home of ‘the ladies of Llangollen’.
Alison Oram is Professor in Social and Cultural
History at Leeds Metropolitan University, and
author of Her Husband was a Woman! Women’s
gender-crossing in modern British popular
culture (Routledge 2007).

T
he year that Anne Lister was ‘outed’ as a
lesbian to the general public coincided
with Section 28 of the new Local
Government Act (1988), making it unlawful for
local authorities to ‘promote homosexuality’.
This did not make for easy discussion of
homosexuality by councils such as Calderdale,
which is responsible for Shibden.
However, the 1990s saw the gradual
Jill Liddington, Female Fortune: Land, Gender and Authority: Anne liberalising of attitudes towards lesbians and
Lister’s diaries 1833-36 (Rivers Oram 1998 & 2010). gay men, with movement towards an equal
Jill Liddington, Nature’s Domain: Anne Lister and the Landscape of Desire, age of consent, and the Civil Partnerships
(Pennine Pens 2003): the diaries and Shibden estate, 1832.
Act (2004) giving same-sex couples almost
Further reading: same-sex partnerships identical rights as in heterosexual marriage.
Anne Lister still remains little known
Alison Oram & Annmarie Turnbull, The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love beyond West Yorkshire and historians of
and Sex between women in Britain 1780-1970 (Routledge 2001). lesbianism. So, let’s celebrate BBC2’s plans to
Rebecca Jennings, A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex between
introduce Anne to a far wider audience this
Women since 1500 (Greenwood World Publishing, 2007).
Martha Vicinus, Intimate Friends: women who loved women, spring – with a drama starring Maxine Peake
1778-1928 (University of Chicago Press, 2004, 2006). and a documentary presented by Sue Perkins.
Alan Bray, The Friend (University of Chicago Press, 2003, 2006).
In this feature:
Acknowledgements: Anne Lister at Shibden Hall
For trialling the walk, thanks to: Jim & Maura Wilson, Janina & Char March, and Same-Sex partnerships
Chris Sutcliffe at Calderdale Countryside Service.
We would also like to thank all the staff at Shibden Hall for their generous support
Shibden Hall walk ............
and help and YWYAS archive staff at Calderdale, both past and present.

HerStoria magazine Spring 2010 23

 Anne Lister at Shibden Hall
D
iaries and letters—if they
survive—are an excellent means
of understanding women’s
intimate relationships in the past, as
they go right to the heart of lovers’
feelings. But what can we learn about
Anne Lister through visiting her home?
It was here she lived, worried about
her finances, plotted her seductions,
fretted about her social status, and
eventually lived with Ann Walker. How
is Anne Lister represented at Shibden
Hall? Readers of HerStoria would
probably like to see more women as
a presence in historic houses, and in
public history generally. But what do
different groups of visitors want to know,
and how would they like it delivered?
Ever since the house was opened to
the public in 1934, Anne Lister has been
acknowledged as the most dynamic
member of the Lister family and the
person who shaped the property into
what we see today. Anne redesigned
Shibden and its immediate surroundings
24 HerStoria magazine Spring 2010
Alison Oram
to construct a particular version of
herself, especially from 1836 when
she came into full inheritance.
Following the fashionable Romantic
style, she had a Wilderness garden
built with waterfalls (much of which
has recently been restored). She
tidied up the crooked timbers of
the Tudor house by installing a
new Victorian faux-Tudor ceiling,
fireplace and wooden panelling in
the main room. By adding a gothic
tower for her library and having
some Lister lions—the family
symbol—carved in stone and wood,
she similarly mobilised ‘antiquity’ to
signal the longevity of the Listers
as an important local family. Anne
Lister’s ‘home improvements’ were
a classic proclamation of status,
establishing her significance as the
estate’s owner, while also creating
an appropriate home for herself
and her new partner, Ann Walker.
www.herstoria.com

Interior wooden Lister lion
Approaching the house, the
contemporary visitor can appreciate
its charm and its attractive gardens,
set against the view of parkland
beyond. But Shibden Hall doesn’t
immediately reveal the Lister
family secrets. How much of Anne
Lister’s personal life is presented
in various layers of information
to the visitor, including display
boards and guidebooks?
One of the strongest immediate
narratives in the interpretation of
the house is the theme of family. As
soon as you arrive at the car park,
you are met by an information board
with a warm greeting: ‘Welcome
to Shibden—a family home from
1420 to 1933 and still a place for
the whole family to enjoy today’.
Special feature: Anne Lister
As is quite common in historic
houses, there are no labels or signs to
guide the visitor as she walks through
Shibden Hall—nothing to say who
the pictures depict, for example.
Each room is arranged to reflect an
evident type of use—dining room,
kitchen, bedrooms—and the visitor
can buy a brief Welcome Guide to the
layout, providing further explanation
of the contents. The expressed aim
of the curators is for the Hall to be
understood as a family home: ‘our
wish is that the visitor should feel like
a private caller who has arrived while
the family is out!’ While many of the
rooms are organised as they were in
Anne Lister’s lifetime, the Hall is also
used to showcase other furniture and
objects from different periods. The
room that Anne used as a bedroom
is set out as an Edwardian bedroom,
and another upstairs room is furnished
as ‘The Children’s Room’. Taken as a
whole, the house reflects a familiar
layout as a family home—kitchens,
dining room, parlour, study, bedrooms,
dressing rooms, nursery—suggesting
a bustling, multi-generation family.
The concept of Shibden Hall as a
family home makes it approachable
to visitors today, including the school
parties which it often hosts. Yet the idea
of the ‘family’ should make warning bells
chime. Do we automatically assume
heterosexual marriage, followed by the
birth of children? What’s interesting
about the Lister family is that over
many generations it did not fit into
any idealised version of the ‘family’ or
the ‘family home’—especially when
this model includes a nursery. As Jill
Liddington notes, the Lister family was
‘dynastically fragile’. It wasn’t only Anne
who pursued an atypical sexual and
emotional life. The
generations above
and below her also
avoided marriage
or had few children.
While singleness
may have been
particularly marked
in the Lister family,
historians now
remind us how
varied family living
arrangements were
in the past, and
how bachelorhood
as well as
spinsterhood was commonplace.
Over the 200 years from 1729,
when the Rev John Lister inherited
Shibden Hall, to 1933 when the last
Lister died and the property passed into
public ownership, we can make some
intriguing observations. There are only
two periods (totalling a mere thirty-
two years out of 200) when children
under eighteen lived in the house. The
second burst of conventional nuclear
family occurred in the mid-nineteenth
century, after a distant Lister cousin
inherited the house from Ann Walker.
Indeed one hundred years saw pairs of
unmarried brothers and sisters living
together, including Anne’s uncle and
aunt, plus the final owner of Shibden
Hall, John Lister and his sister.
So the interpretation of Shibden
Hall today, as a rather imposing yet
still cosy family home, is much more
conventionalised than the history
of the Lister family warrants. What
‘family’ meant for the Listers was
sibling-based households rather than
marital partnerships, celibacy and
same-sex relationships rather than
heterosexuality, and a dearth of children
rather than a secure succession.
Anne Lister exhibition panel
At the same time, the curators of
Shibden Hall fully represent Anne
Lister’s sexuality, sometimes at one
layer below the surface of this historic
house. If the visitor starts at the
bottom of the Estate, at the lakeside
café, she can view an exhibition on
the history of the Hall which includes
an illustrated account of Anne Lister’s
life. This tells us that: ‘During her life,
HerStoria magazine Spring 2010 25
Anne had a number of love affairs
with women. In 1832, she developed a
relationship with the wealthy heiress,
Ann Walker. Two years later, they
entered into a form of marriage and
set up home together at Shibden’.
Up the hill at Shibden Hall itself, we
may have to dig a little deeper. While
the short Welcome Guide contains
nothing on Anne’s personal life, the
comprehensive guidebook, Shibden
Hall Halifax: A Visitor’s Guide (1998), has
an excellent seven-page discussion of
her life, acknowledging the continuing
work of historians writing on her
business and political interests, her
travels and her relationships with
women. It explains how Anne’s sexual
relationships developed in the context
of her ambitions and self-improvement,
and how we know about them from
her diaries. The Guide comments: ‘there
were several … women in her life. Shibden waterfall
The diary entries are extraordinarily Exterior stone ‘Lister’ lion
honest, suggesting that it was not
unusual for women to enjoy sexual culturally dominant
relationships [with other women]’. and the choices made
Information about Anne Lister’s by the professionals
same-sex relationships is not confined who run them. In 2010,
to the guidebook. The friendly and historic houses such
highly knowledgeable museum staff as Shibden Hall face
are happy to develop with visitors the different tensions. On the
theme of Anne’s same-sex relationships one hand, the increasing
and her marriage to Ann Walker. And citizenship rights of
among the public talks given at the minorities, and the policy
house are some on Anne’s lesbian movements towards
relationships. I attended one in 2008 ‘diversity’ and against
by Helena Whitbread which discussed discrimination, mean a
the various strategies Anne used to growing acceptance of
seduce so many respectable women lesbianism. On the other
among the Yorkshire gentry. hand, this process is
Anne Lister’s lesbianism is now far from complete, and
referred to frequently in the wider sometimes sits uneasily
promotion of Shibden Hall through local with what is thought
tourist literature. In 2008, for example, to be appropriate for
you could pick up a Calderdale Council school parties and
leisure and museums pamphlet which family outings—despite
advertised a month-long display at the fact that many of
Shibden on ‘Anne Lister’s Diary’. This those children and
informed the reader, not once but families are themselves
twice, that: ‘In a time when women decidedly queer. How
were expected to marry and raise a do we wish Anne Lister’s
family, Anne chose to educate herself, sexuality—along with
travel widely and manage the estate all her other qualities
she inherited. The diaries that she kept, and achievements—
parts of them encoded, reveal much to be recognised in
about [her], including her intimate public history?
relationships with other women’.
Historic sites don’t speak for
themselves. They reflect the kinds
of histories which are politically and

26 HerStoria magazine Spring 2010 www.herstoria.com


‘In token of our union’:
same-sex partnership ceremonies 1834
F
rom the very beginning, Anne
Lister’s diaries make clear
how firmly she set her face
against conventional marriage. There
were no flirtations with men: she
valued only those who possessed
ancient gentry credentials or whose
experienced brains she could pick.
One by one, her women friends
married. Some had been mere
flirtations. More tragically, there were
a few—notably Mariana Belcombe of
York—for whom Anne had planned
romantically a permanent union. In her
refusal to compromise, Anne was not
completely alone: there were one or
two other like-minded women in her
York circle. But in certain striking ways
Anne was exceptional. First, she had
the intelligence and drive to pursue her
ambitious dreams fearlessly—without
a male protector. And second of
course, she recorded it all with startling
candour and vivid detail in her diaries.
In 1816 in York, Mariana Belcombe
had married an older wealthy
landowner. In Anne’s eyes, worldly
Mariana had ‘sold her person to another
for a carriage and a jointure’ [ie a wife’s
marriage settlement], and she even
told Mariana that she ‘considered
your marriage legal prostitution’.
Full page and detail from Anne Lister’s Diary, Sunday
(Easter) 1834, showing her use of a personal cipher
Special feature: Anne Lister
Then in April 1832, Anne had again
been bitterly betrayed—by another
woman’s marriage plans. Anne and
well-connected Vere Hobart had
taken lodgings together in Hastings.
Anne now fled north, devastated.
She retreated dejectedly back to
Shibden—even though she would
have to share her home with her aunt,
elderly father and inconvenient sister.
During May, Anne kept melancholy
at bay by immersing herself in Shibden’s
rich library, plus planning ambitious
travel and improvements to the estate.
As always, she derived comfort from her
diary, confiding: ‘Here I am, at forty-one,
with a heart to seek. What will be the end
of it? Heaven protect and guide me!’
Continuing her search for a life-
partner, Anne ‘thought of Miss Freeman
& Miss Walker of Lidgate as people here…
Surely I shall get some companion by-
and-by’. Then in July, the Walker family
paid an unexpected visit to Shibden.
Ann Walker was a neighbouring heiress:
the ancient Lister estate and newer
Walker lands adjoined. What union could
be more appropriate? Charismatically
persuasive, Anne Lister determined to
woo this lonely twenty-nine-year-old
woman—while appearing effortlessly
casual. In August, she ‘called en passant
Jill Liddington
on Miss Walker of Lidgate—and sat
with her tete-a-tete from 10 to 1! ...
Thought I, “she little dreams what is in
my mind—to make up to her—she has
money and this might make up for rank”.’
To enhance Shibden’s elegance, Anne
built a chaumiere (a small moss-thatched
hut) in the grounds. It was conveniently
secluded, and naturally she wished
Ann Walker to view it. By September,
Miss W- and I very cozy &
confidential… she sat & sat in
the moss house, hardly liking to
move… “Well”, said I to myself as
I left her, “She is more in for it than
she thinks—she likes me certainly.”
We laughed at the idea of the talk
of our going abroad together
would [stir]. She said it would be
as good as marriage. “Yes”, said [I],
“quite as good or better”…. How
little my aunt or anyone suspects
what I am about!
The next day, Anne added:
‘Bordering on love-making in the
hut… Our liaison is now established’.
She did now tell her aunt
my real sentiments about Miss
Walker & my expectations… My
aunt...seemed very well pleased
HerStoria magazine Spring 2010 27
 at my choice & prospects. I said
she had three thousand a year…
She thought my father would be
pleased if he knew it, & so would
both my uncles.
Halifax Parish Church, like Shibden Hall, dated
back to the fifteen century. Here earlier Lister
ancestors lay, and here Anne herself would be
buried in 1841
This is startling: both uncles had
been dead for about a decade. But in
Anne’s traditionalist world, her aunt’s
backward glance made sense. Such a
serious union was highly appropriate
for ancient gentry families. It might
be recognised neither in law nor by
the Church—but it was in the eyes
of God. So, by December 1832:
Talking & pressing & love-making
till after three this morning…
[I] insinuated, first time, that
our present intercourse, without
any tie between us, must be as
wrong as any other transient
connection… Miss W- told me in
the [moss] hut if she said “Yes”
again, it should be binding—it
should be the same as marriage…
that is, her declaring it on the Bible
& taking the sacrament with me at
Shibden or Lightcliffe church.
This was however scarcely
straightforward. A reluctant Ann Walker
hesitated: her relatives, knowing Anne
Lister of old, were highly suspicious.
Eventually, in February 1834, Ann Walker
agreed it was understood that she
was to consider herself as having
nobody to please, & being under
no authority, but mine. To make
her will right directly—and…
to add a codicil leaving me a life
estate in all she could and I would
do the same to her. Well, then, is it
really settled or not?’
And, Anne Lister added, ‘she is to
give me a ring & I her one in token
of our union’. Two weeks later, after
28 HerStoria magazine Spring 2010
further hesitation, Ann Walker took
the gold wedding ring I wore…and
then put it on my third left finger in
token of our union—which is now
understood to be confirmed for
ever, tho’ little or nothing was said.
Ann Walker’s half-hearted response
made Anne Lister ponder: ‘does
this seem as if she really thought
us united in heart and purse?’
However, on Easter Sunday 1834, the
two women attended church. Anne’s
diary, as so often, moves seamlessly from
the privacy of bed out to public spaces.
Three kisses—better to her than
to me… At Goodramgate church
at 10 35/”; Miss W- and I and
Thomas [servant] staid [for] the
sacrament… The first time I ever
joined Miss W- in my prayers—I
had prayed that our union might
be happy—she had not thought
of doing as much for me.
Why Anne Lister had selected this
particular church for the ceremonial
moment is unclear. Certainly, it lacked
painful associations with Mariana’s
marriage, and, with its high box-pews,
was secluded from prying eyes. Anne
probably also appreciated the unusual
semi-circular communion rail. Here the
minister could stand, a kneeling couple
facing each other when celebrating
their wedding—or ‘the sacrament’.
Communion rail (1715), Goodramgate
By summer, Anne Lister had
gained access to Ann Walker’s income.
Improvements could now be made
to Shibden and the yellow carriage
repaired. The two women travelled in
style, across France to Mont Blanc. On
their return, despite chiding from her
relatives, Ann Walker did indeed move
into Shibden, the bedroom refurbished.
By autumn, like any other propertied
newly-weds, serious will-reading
provided the natural language of
love on their long winter’s evenings
together; and Anne Lister began to
Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate,
quietly tucked away near York Minster
grasp the extent of her life-partner’s
inherited wealth. But Ann Walker,
having behaved languidly over the
ring ceremony and Easter sacrament,
still delayed redrafting her will to
benefit Anne Lister—until 1836.
I
t is scarcely surprising that Anne
Lister continues to fascinate writers
on homosexuality. In Intimate Friends:
women who loved women (2004),
American historian Martha Vicinus
depicts Anne Lister as ‘a charming
female rake’, while also recognising
the seriousness of their union (even
suggesting that Ann Walker made a
better marriage bargain than her sister,
bound to a suspicious, greedy husband).
Alan Bray’s erudite The Friend (2003)
goes further, arguing that such life-long
unions were rooted in ancient Christian
traditions, stretching right back to the
fifteenth century of Shibden, Halifax
Parish Church and Goodramgate. He
evokes a world that recognised same-
sex friendships and which honoured
kinship and neighbour obligations.
These had survived in Anne Lister’s
traditionalist world. Indeed, Bray
concludes ‘it is as if one had found
the fifteenth century, alive and well,
and living in the large and prosperous
parish of Halifax’—in the 1830s.
Anne Lister envisioned private
ceremonies ‘in token of our union’:
an exchange of rings, taking the
sacrament together, redrafting their
wills. Same-sex couples celebrating
twenty-first century civil partnerships
may enjoy a backward glance to
Anne’s own ceremonies—of 1834.
Thanks to Helena Whitbread & Dawn
Lancaster for discussion of York’s
churches. Goodramgate photographs are
courtesy of the Churches Conservation
Trust which cares for Holy Trinity.
www.herstoria.com

Anne Lister walk around
Halifax and Shibden
I
n 1826 Anne Lister inherited
the Shibden Hall estate,
just over the brow of the
steep hill above Halifax. During
Anne’s lifetime, the town was
busily industrialising, becoming
a commercial centre with
lawyers and banks serving
local textile mills. Almost two
centuries later, we can still
walk Anne Lister’s streets and
even enjoy some of the Halifax
buildings she knew so well.
The further we climb up above the
town towards Shibden, the more Anne
herself would instantly recognise the
landscape. We enter an older, rural
world of small farms, sunken lanes
and tiny coal pits. This walk explores
the boundary between the urban
new and the ancient countryside—
so familiar to Anne Lister as she
moved between these two worlds.
Starting at the north
entrance to the Piece Hall, it is
a circular route of 3½ miles.
1 Halifax Piece Hall
Inside the Piece Hall (1779), looking north
Opened in 1779, Halifax Piece Hall
originally provided a market place
for selling woollen cloth. Anne Lister
looked with disdain on her family’s
earlier links with the textile industry. But
although she tried to distance herself
from the taint of trade, she certainly
knew the Piece Hall well—and it still
remains a major Halifax landmark.
Special feature: Anne Lister
Exterior of Piece Hall, north gateway
Walking: from the north entrance,
walk down Hatters’ Fold, cross
the busy ring road and continue
downhill to the Parish Church.
2 Halifax Parish Church
The imposing Parish Church, much
of it dating from the fifteenth century,
played a central role in Anne Lister’s
life. If the Piece Hall was too new to be
of great interest, the Church signified
all that was ancient, traditional and
therefore important. It was the Listers’
burial place, the church where her
family owned pews and received small
pew rents. As an observant Anglican,
Anne would even consider the powerful
Vicar of Halifax, a keen ‘Blue’ (Tory)
like herself, as her social equal.
Walking: keeping to left of the
churchyard, descend the stone
steps & cross the road where safe.
Walk along Bank Bottom opposite
and over the small Hebble stream
(keeping Matalan on your right).
Cross the road carefully at the
corner, and walk straight up steep
and cobbled Old Bank ahead.
Jill Liddington
3 Old Bank
Looking up Old Bank
Built in 1741, this was a more direct
and accessible route down into Halifax
than ancient Magna Via, which curves off
half-way up. Anne Lister knew Old Bank
well, often walking down from Shibden
into town. For instance, in January 1835,
during Halifax’s ‘window-breaking’
election, she reached the bottom of
Old Bank, where she encountered ‘a
yellow mob of women and boys…
they looked capable of pelting me’. A
diehard ‘Blue’, Anne held her ground,
berating them for all the damage done
during the election. They let her pass.
Walking: when Old Bank reaches
Beacon Hill Road, cross and climb
stone steps ahead. At the top of steps,
continue up steep track opposite.
At the top, bearing right, continue
ahead, along Shibden Hall Road.
HerStoria magazine Spring 2010 29
 View back across Halifax from
4 above Old Bank
The bridge over Godley Road (to your left) gives
a panoramic view across the town. Much of it is
new of course, but Anne Lister would certainly
recognise the Piece Hall and Parish Church
Along Shibden Hall Road, you soon
see beautiful Shibden Valley on your left.
The rural landscape, pocked with small-
scale stone-quarrying, has changed little.
Walking: turn left into the car-
park—and then down the path
towards Shibden. Bear right to reach
the upper terrace above the Hall,
descending the far steps to the garden.
5 Shibden Hall
Shibden Hall from the upper terrace
Shibden Hall, originally built in the
early fifteenth century, can still take
your breath away. It was acquired by the
Lister family through marriage in 1619.
Before you step inside her
home, please turn to ‘Anne Lister
at Shibden Hall’ (p XX).
Walking: stroll down the grassy slope
behind the Hall to the lake and café.
6 Shibden Park grounds
In 1791, the year she was born,
Anne’s Uncle James had Shibden
mapped. When she was young, the
estate still remained a patchwork
of archaically-named small fields.
Once Anne inherited the estate
from Uncle James, she determined
to landscape the grounds more
fashionably, and in 1832 built a
chaumiere or a moss-thatched hut (see
30 HerStoria magazine Spring 2010
‘In Token of Our Union’
p. x). It is difficult to
identify exactly where
this was situated, but
it probably stood in
the right-hand corner
of Lower Brook Ing.
Map of Shibden Hall Estate belonging to Mr James Lister, 1791.
West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale
Shibden Park, from the boating lake
Walking: at the lake, bear
right. Just below the children’s
playground, find the track passing
underneath the railway viaduct.
Tunnel under the Halifax-Bradford railway line,
looking back towards Shibden
Walking: follow stone-flagged
footpath through the fields, back up to
Shibden Hall Road, then turn left downhill.
7 Ireland
At Shibden Hall Road, the first
house is ‘Ireland’, one of Anne Lister’s
tenancies. In the 1830s, it comprised
just sixteen acres and was leased to
Charles Howarth. He was a joiner by
trade and also did odd jobs around the
estate, helping build Anne’s chaumiere.
‘Ireland’, occupied by Anne Lister’s tenant,
Charles Howarth
The 1832 Reform Act gave the vote
to more men. But Charles’s £46 annual
rent did not reach the £50 minimum
for enfranchising tenant farmers.
Anne Lister, though she of course
had no vote herself, was always on
the look out for extra voting tenants
to support ‘Blue’ [Tory] candidates.
She apparently promised Charles she
would pay the additional £4 a year, if
he would vote in the ‘Blue’ interest.
8 Denmark
Further down the road on your left
is ‘Denmark’, another of Anne Lister’s
tenancies. In the 1830s, it comprised
fifteen acres and was occupied by
Thomas Pearson. This rental entitled
Thomas to a vote. With the Secret Ballot
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 Map of Anne Lister Walk
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Green Lane
Railway Line
Junction of Green Lane and Rough track
Beacon Hill Road is off map Shibden Hall roads

Act still a generation away, we know how
such enfranchised men voted. And in
the 1835 election Thomas Pearson duly
voted for Anne Lister’s ‘Blue’ candidate.
’Denmark’, occupied by Anne’s tenant
Thomas Pearson
Walking: from ‘Denmark’, retrace your
steps back up the road—and at new-build
houses, turn left up into Shibden Hall Croft.
Immediately turn right, then immediately
left. This path leads into Pump Lane; climb
up this steep sunken lane right to the
top. Turn right into Barrowclough Lane.
9 Pump Lane
Map of Listerwick Colliery, showing
Denmark (right) and Pump (centre).
West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale
Shibden estate had always included
a few tiny coal mines. But it was only
in the late-1830s that Anne Lister was
able to develop mining on a profitable
scale, and only after her death in 1840
that Listerwick Colliery really grew.
However, as you walk from
‘Denmark’ up to Pump Lane, there
seem few remaining signs of
Shibden’s old mining history.
Walking: at the very end of
Barrowclough Lane, carry straight
on—through the wide green barrier.
The path begins to slope down, until
you are right above Walker Pit.
32 HerStoria magazine Spring 2010
10 Walker Pit
Walker Pit from Barrowclough Lane
Anne Lister developed Walker Pit
in 1834, shortly after her union with
Ann Walker was agreed. Anne now
had access to Ann Walker’s income,
so it became possible to finance her
ambitious schemes. On 17 October 1834
Anne noted in her diary the intense
mining rivalry with the coal-owning
Rawsons, writing about her own coal:
mine to be pulled at this new
pit (to be called Walker pit in
compliment to A-) will make (at
8d a load) a great deal more than
Rawson’s [coal]’
Walking: further down the path
there is a choice of five routes. Bearing
left, take the new gravel path, skirting
right round the steep hillside high above
the town. This eventually drops down
onto Beacon Hill Road by bus-stop.
11 Halifax from Beacon hillside
Walking: turn right, down Beacon
Hill Road, keeping to pavement. Walk
right the way down, until opposite
Aquaspersions Ltd; turn right and snake
down Magna Via until it rejoins Old Bank.
On Bank Bottom again, ahead of
you is the Parish Church, and to the
left are old staithes. After Anne Lister’s
death, once the railway reached Halifax,
coal was brought in by train and
tipped into wagons waiting below.
Halifax Parish Church, with coal staithes
Travel Suggestions
Rail: Halifax has a good train service
from both Leeds-Bradford and
Manchester. The Piece Hall is three
minutes walk up from the station,
Car: the town is only four miles
from the M62 (junction 24).
Parking is available at Woolshops
(at start of walk) or by the station,
though both are expensive.
Walking: the route involves
two steep climbs and, unless
it is a dry summer, boots
are strongly advisable.
Shorter option: From the bottom
of Shibden Hall Road, take a steep
left turn, leading up to the main
Leeds Road (A58), for buses from
Hipperholme back to Halifax.
Jill Liddington will lead a
guided walk following this
route, on Sunday 16th May,
meeting at 11 am at the
Piece Hall north entrance.
Book (essential) by calling
Julie Swift on 01422 393273
or email
Julie.Swift@calderdale.gov.uk
Photo © BBC
The BBC2 Drama
“The Secret Life of
Anne Lister”, starring
Maxine Peake, will be
screened Spring 2010
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