Poignant photo shows Shibden Hall near Halifax 'quiet for the first time in 600 years'

The house was built in 1420 and curators pointed out that this is the first time in its 600-year history that it has been empty of either residents, staff or visitors.

From 1615 until 1933, it was the ancestral home of the Lister family, whose most famous member is Anne Lister, the subject of the BBC period drama Gentleman Jack. The last Lister donated the house and estate to the 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 has seen its popularity soar.

Gentleman Jack fans - many of them American as the series was a joint production with HBO - have descended on the area to visit previously unremarkable pubs, churches and filming locations, and to explore every inch of the Shibden estate..

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 average number of daily visitors was 500 - in previous summers it had been 150.

The hall only just re-opened for the summer season after a three-month winter break when it was forced to close just six days later due to the coronavirus pandemic - the first unplanned shutdown in its history.

Calderdale Council recently released plans to develop Shibden further as an attraction, which include improving access to Walker Pit, which was sunk by Anne Lister and named after her partner Ann Walker and provided the house's coal supply. They also want to build a new visitor centre and re-establish the old kitchen gardens and ponds that supplied produce for the family.

It is now unclear whether these projects will be able to proceed once the house re-opens.

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