What a fantastic day we all had when we visited Shibden Hall in Halifax, home of Anne Lister, from the TV series Gentleman Jack.
Shibden Hall dates back to 1420, the same age as Turton Tower and offers visitors a fascinating journey through the lives of the people who lived and worked there.
Anne Lister’s Bedroom 
Main Hall 
Dining Room 
Marian Lister’s Costume 
Staircase 
Portrait of Anne Lister 
Apothecary 
Iron Mongers 
Basket Makers 
Stables 
Anne Lister’s Carriage 
After lunch, we visited Cliffe Castle and in Keighley, home of Victorian millionaire and textile manufacturer, Henry Isaac Butterfield. The house was completed in the 1880s and funded by the Butterfield family’s industrial empire, which included; wool textile mills and a shipping business that took British goods to Europe, America and China.
The visit included a curatorial tour around the house which included sparkling Victorian rooms and furniture, paintings and decorative art as well as the museum which houses special galleries dealing with; natural history, archaeology and social history, along with the internationally important display of stained glass by Morris and Co.
Victorian Room 
Parkland 
Pavilion Cafe 
Animals and Bird’s 
Renovated Stained Glass Window 
Art Gallery 
Costumes 
Costumes 
Art Gallery 
William Morris Stained Glass 
Morris Stained Glass 
Portrait of Madamoiselle de Pourtales 1925 by Arthur A McEvoy 
Ceramics 
Bird Display 
Geology 
Geology 
Geology 
Mural depicting evolution 
Dragonfly from mural 
Historical items 
This was a really lovely day out. Shibden Hall is very impressive and even if you hadn’t seen the TV series ‘Gentleman Jack’ there was a wealth of information about the Lister family and plenty of interesting things to see. I particularly liked the 17th Century Aisled Barn with its coaches and little workshops explaining the different trades of the day.
Cliffe Castle was quite grand, again with lots of interesting things to see. The lady who did the guided tour/talk was very knowledgeable. I was fascinated by the huge Malachite fireplace and the size of some of the oil paintings (10 feet x 10 feet.)
I would definitely visit both places again.