Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
We were going to an evening entertainment with Ed Gamble in Bradford, so took the opportunity to visit Shibden Hall, not too far away. Shibden Hall is now famous as the home of Anne Lister played by Suranne Jones in the excellent TV series 'Gentleman Jack'. In the past it was more infamous than famous as Anne Lister was 'the first modern lesbian' and as such not accepted by the good folk of Halifax. Lister's diaries reveal much about contemporary life in West Yorkshire, including her development of historic Shibden Hall and its estate, and her interests in landscaping, mining, railways, and canals. The hall is hardly a mile away from the centre of Halifax yet it could be another world, tucked away as it is in its private valley. The Hall, dating originally from circa 1420, is a distinctive half-timbered building furnished in the styles of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, adapted and extended throughout the centuries by the families who lived here. As soon as you enter you get the feeling of a home that is 'lived in' but reflecting many generations. And the main hall called the 'Housebody' has been altered the most. It was the heart of the house but Anne Lister opened it up to the roof and gave it a baronial feel conversant with her character. Her portrait and that of her Uncle from whom she inherited Shibden hang prominently in the hall. The various downstairs rooms are chock full of interest and full of furniture and artefacts often from Yorkshire. Here the study....... kitchen..... dining room..... Upstairs there is a very intimate feel to all of the bedrooms and the wide oak floorboards are some of the original ones which would have been laid as unseasoned wood and have therefore cracked and buckled over time, or one might say added character! The clock in the bedroom known as the Oak Room was made by Pinchin of Greetland, and the only one he made. There is a small downstairs area where you can have a cup of tea, and the shop has soome nice pieces for sale. We then looked in the aisled barn first recorded in 1677. Today it houses a collection of carriages including.......... .....the Lister Chaise built around 1725 and one of the oldest in the world. It was a travelling carriage for the lister family and has their coat of arms on each door panel. The Park Drag, originally a stagecoach but then a privately owned carriage for days out has an inside toilet. Very very difficult for us to imagine its use with 6 passengers of mixed sex inside! The tack room would have been nice and cosy with the fire roaring away...... Just outside the barn there is a folk museum with a series of reconstructed trades rooms, all very well done indeed.... Because we had time to kill we drove then to the centre of Halifax, and admired some splendid buildings but none so impressive as the enormous Piece Hall. Opened in 1779 for the trade of pieces of cloth it now houses a good collection of shops restaurants and wine bars, meeting rooms and much else. We had a long chat with the bookshop owner (who is hoping to open a shop in Clitheroe), and availed ourselves of the wine bar. Ed Gamble? A huge disappointment. The warm-up act, about 20 minutes, was far from funny and full of the F word as expected. And Ed Gamble was not at all funny, not original, and full of the F word. Nothing to our liking at all. Never mind we had had a really good day.
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August 2023
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