Anne Lister Birthday Festival

Enjoy The Anne Lister Birthday Festival throughout Halifax and Calderdale from Monday 27 March until Monday 3 April 2023 featuring 70+ events ranging from walks, talks and lectures to painting workshops. Her incredible life and legacy continues to inspire and fascinate people around the world in 2023, on the 232nd anniversary of her birth.

Anne Lister's Bedroom at Shibden Hall, Anne Lister's Home - Anne Lister Birthday Week Festival

Anne Lister Birthday Festival Event List – Halifax and Calderdale

Monday 27th March 2023 

Tuesday 28th March 2023 

Wednesday 29th March 2023 

  • Halifax Minster opens 10 am-4 pm
  • Shibden Hall opens 10am-5 pm
  • “Halifax Revealed” walking tour, 1½-2hrs 10.30 am
  • The Piece Hall Tour 1:30-2.30 pm
  • Anne Lister-themed Afternoon Tea at Harveys of Halifax Department Store from 3 pm
  • ‘Some Gay Kings, Queens and Princes’ talk at 7:30 pm

Thursday 30th March 2023 

  • Halifax Minster opens 10 am-4 pm
  • Shibden Hall opens 10am-5pm
  • Ann Walker watercolour workshop 10 am-12.30 pm and 1-3:30-pm
  • 10.30 am: Anne Lister walk incorporating the Way of the Setts
  • The Piece Hall Tour 1:30-2:30 pm

Friday 31st March 2023 

  • Anne Lister Diaries and other items on display in the archives search room – West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale search room 10 am-4 pm
  • Halifax Minster opens 10 am-4 pm
  • Shibden Hall open 10am-5pm
  • Lightcliffe Tower is open 10 am-12 pm and 2-4 pm
  • Conserving Anne’s Diaries talk, Meeting Room, Central Library and Archives 10:30-11:30 am and 2:30-3:30pm:
  • The Piece Hall Tour 1:30-2:30 pm
  • Anne Lister Ball, Todmorden Town Hall 7-11 pm

Saturday 1st April 2023 

  • Anne Lister Diaries and other items on display in the Calderdale Archives Search Room – West Yorkshire Archive Service 10 am-4 pm
  • Halifax Minster opens 10 am-4 pm
  • Ann Walker watercolour workshop 10 am-12:30 pm
  • Children’s top hat decorating workshop, Central Library, Halifax 10:30 am-2:30 pm
  • Shibden Hall open 11am-5pm
  • Ann Walker watercolour workshop 1-3:30 pm
  • The Piece Hall Tour 1:30-2:30 pm

Sunday 2nd April 2023 

  • 10 am-1:30 pm: Historical Halifax Panoramic Walking Tour
  • Help Build Shibden Hall – LEGO Drop-in Sessions 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm
  • Shibden Hall opens 11 am-5 pm
  • Halifax Minster opens 12-4 pm
  • The Piece Hall Tour 1.30-2:30 pm
  • See inside the former Holy Trinity Church,  Blackwall, Halifax, HX1 2QR 4.00 pm

Monday 3rd April 2023 

  • Jane Austin, watercolour artist, painting at Shibden Hall – Throughout the day
  • Anne Lister statue Flower Laying at The Piece Hall 9-10 am
  • Halifax Minster opens 10 am-4 pm
  • Shibden Hall open 10am-5pm
  • Anne Lister Codebreakers Sessions talks x 3 workshops, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale search room – 10-11 am, 11.30 am-12.30 pm and 1 pm-2 pm: SOLD OUT
  • The Piece Hall Tour 1:30 pm-2:30 pm
  • In Conversation with Helena Whitbread, Bankfield Museum 2 pm – SOLD OUT
  • Lego Anne Lister and Lego Ann Walker Stop Motion animation Lego workshop. Suitable for kids 10+ 1-2.15 pm and 3-4.15 pm

31st March to 1 April 2023 the Anne Lister Society Conference, Halifax

How to Book Anne Lister Birthday Week Events

Book Shibden Hall Entry Tickets Here – Shibden Hall was Anne Lister’s home. Tickets are available throughout the Anne Lister Birthday Week.

Book Piece Hall Tours Here – available throughout the Anne Lister Birthday Week. With an almost 250-year history, the Piece Hall Experience is a guided tour with one of their knowledgeable heritage guides who will lead you around the grand colonnades and delve deeper into The Piece Hall’s captivating past.

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Monday 27 March 2023

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Tuesday 28 March

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Wednesday 29th March

  • Wednesday 29th March 2023 Anne Lister diaries and other items from the Shibden Hall Archive Collection are on display in the Archives Search Room Central Library and Archives, Square Road, Halifax, HX1 1QG (Linked to the Piece Hall’s East Gate). No booking is required, drop in free.
  • Wednesday 29th March 2023 Some Gay Kings, Queens and Princes illustrated talk at the Calderdale Industrial Museum, Square Road, Halifax, HX1 1QG (access also via the Piece Hall’s East Gate). Book tickets here

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Thursday 30th March

  • Thursday 30th March 2023 Anne Lister diaries and other items from the Shibden Hall Archive Collection are on display in the Archives Search Room Central Library and Archives, Square Road, Halifax, HX1 1QG (Linked to the Piece Hall’s East Gate). No booking is required, drop in free.
  • Thursday 30th March 2023 Calderdale Industrial Museum: Updated display on Anne Lister’s mines with volunteers available to show visitors around and answer questions at the Calderdale Industrial Museum, Square Road, Halifax, HX1 1QG. (access route also via the Piece Hall’s East Gate) £5 entry, £4 concessions, U16s free with payment upon entry, no booking required.
  • Thursday 30th March 2023 Ann Walker watercolour workshop with artist Jane Austin in the Education Room at the Bankfield Museum. The workshop includes all materials and a means to take artwork home – cost £30. to book email janewatercolour@aol.com
  • Thursday 30th March 2023 10:30 am meet at Halifax Minster for the Anne Lister Walk incorporating The Way of the Setts. Includes some VERY steep sections which may be slippery. Free.

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Friday 31st March

31st March to 1 April 2023 Anne Lister Society Conference – Halifax UK – for details about registration please email Prof. Laurie Shannon.

  • Anne Lister Society Conference Programme 2023 for FRIDAY, 31 MARCH:
Welcome (9:00-9:10)

LAURIE SHANNON, coordinator of the Anne Lister Society

Panel One (9:15-10:35): Crafting a Style; Fashioning an Estate

Panel chair: ALISON ORAM, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UK

TRISH BREDAR, Northwestern University, US
“Strong Shoes and Iron Heels: Anne Lister’s Pragmatic Fashion”

ALICE BURNS, University of Liverpool, UK
“‘Thinking, as I often do in travelling, of Shibden & alterations there’: Anne Lister and the Labouring Hands of Shibden Hall”

ANGELA CLARE, Shibden Hall and Calderdale Museums Service, UK
“Anne Lister’s Home”

Panel Two (10:50-12:10): Acts of Will: Lives, Agency, and Legacies

Panel chair: TRISH BREDAR, Northwestern University, US

JOAN BURDA, Attorney and WYAS transcriber, US
“The Wills of Anne Lister and Ann Walker: Estate Planning in 19th Century England”

CHLOE ATKINSON, University of Edinburgh, UK
“‘A gradual tendency to mental derangement’: Patient-hood, Perspective, and the Retrieval of Medical Agency in Ann Walker’s Diary”

KRISTYN GORTON and BETH JOHNSON, Leeds University, UK
“Feminist Inheritance: Anne Lister, Sally Wainwright and Gentleman Jack” 

World premiere reading (by video) (2:00-2:10)           

Session chair: LAURIE SHANNON, Northwestern University, US

EMMA DONOGHUE, novelist, screenwriter, and literary historian, IE and CA
Reading from Learned by Heart, her forthcoming historical novel on Anne Lister and Eliza Raine

Panel Three (2:15-3:35): Anne Lister’s Landmark Others

Panel chair: AMY SOLOMONS, University of Liverpool, UK

CHRIS ROULSTON, University of Western Ontario, CA
“When Fred Met Frank: Anne Lister’s Encounters with Frances Pickford”

CAROLINE GONDA, University of Cambridge, UK
“Anne Lister, Sibbella Maclean and the Ladies of Llangollen”

LAURIE SHANNON, Northwestern University, US
“Cheer up, Mary! Stoic Optimism and Anne Lister’s Consolatory Letters to M–”

Friday KEYNOTE lecture (3:50-4:50):

Session chair: MARY FAIRCLOUGH, University of York, UK

ROS BALLASTER, Oxford University, UK
“Adapting Anne: History on Screen and the Representation of Writing Women”

Anne Lister Society RECEPTION (5:30-7:00 pm at the Calderdale Industrial Museum)
  • Friday 31st March 2023 the Lightcliffe Tower is open 10 am-12 pm and 2-4 pm – Old St Matthew’s Churchyard, Lightcliffe, HX3 8TH. Admission is free but donations towards the upkeep of the tower and churchyard are appreciated.  (Leaflets are available explaining the memorials in the Tower, and the location of the Gentleman Jack grave plots and other burial plots relevant to Anne Lister and Ann Walker). 
  • Friday 31st March 7:00-11:00 pm: Anne Lister Themed Ball at Todmorden Town Hall. Book tickets here.

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Saturday 1st April

  • Saturday 1st April 2023 Anne Lister Diaries and other items from the Shibden Hall Archive Collection are on display in the Archives Search Room Central Library and Archives, Square Road, Halifax, HX1 1QG (Linked to the Piece Hall’s East Gate). No booking is required, drop in free.
  • Saturday 1st April 2023 Calderdale Industrial Museum: Updated display on Anne Lister’s mines with volunteers available to show visitors around and answer questions at the Calderdale Industrial Museum, Square Road, Halifax, HX1 1QG. (access route also via the Piece Hall’s East Gate) £5 entry, £4 concessions, U16s free with payment upon entry, no booking required.
  • Saturday 1st April 2023 Ann Walker 10:00 am-12:30 pm and 1:00-3:30 pm – two watercolour workshops with artist Jane Austin in the Education Room, Bankfield Museum. The workshops include all materials and a means to take artwork home – cost £25 – to book email janewatercolour@aol.com
  • Saturday 1st April 2023 Children’s Top Hat Decorating Workshop 10:30am-2:30pm at Halifax Central Library. Free, no booking required.
  • Anne Lister Society Conference Programme 2023 for SATURDAY, 1 APRIL:
Panel Four (9:00-10:00): Re-imagining History in Graphic Arts and Sound

Panel chair: DIANE LAWRENSON, sculptor of “Contemplation, Anne Lister,” UK

CAROL ADLAM, writer, artist, graphic novelist, UK
“Gap, Edges, Sites of Creativity? Writing – and Illustrating – a Biography of Eliza Raine”

REBEKAH OKPOTI, Liverpool Hope University, UK
“Soundscapes of Halifax Minster and Performing the Anne Lister Organ Sonata”

Panel Five (10:10-11:30): Queer Texts, Queer Subtexts, Queered Sex

Panel chair: STEPHEN TURTON, University of Cambridge, UK

METTE HILDEMAN SJÖLIN, Lund University, SE
“Confessions of a Grubbler: Language, Queer Theory, and Anne Lister’s Hand”

MARC SCHACHTER, Durham University, UK
“Lust for Knowledge: More on the Erotics of Anne Lister’s Readings in the Classics”

ANNA HAWTHORNE, University of Sheffield, UK
“Bad, or Mediocre, Sex: Anne Lister and Isabella Norcliffe, 1819-22”

Saturday KEYNOTE lecture (11:45-12:45)

Session chair: CHRIS ROULSTON, University of Western Ontario, CA

ANNA CLARK, University of Minnesota, US
“Anatomies of Pleasure: Anne Lister’s Search for the Clitoris”

31st March to 1 April 2023 Anne Lister Society Conference – Halifax UK – for details about registration please email Prof. Laurie Shannon.

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Sunday 2nd April

  • Sunday 2nd April 2023 10:00 am-1:30 pm: Historical Halifax Panoramic Walking Tour – 5 miles including places of interest connected to influential figures such as the Listers, the Rawsons and the Bronte family. Book tickets here
  • Sunday 2nd April Anne Lister Birthday Week drop-in to help resident LEGO expert Michael LeCount build a replica model of Shibden Hall at The Crossley Gallery, D Mill Dean Clough Halifax HX3 5AX Book tickets here
  • Sunday 2nd April 4:00 pm: See inside the former Holy Trinity Church, Blackwall, Halifax, HX1 2QR. Holy Trinity Church was Anne Lister’s ‘new church’, now Trinity House – a rare opportunity to see Rawson family memorials, and also to see John Abbott’s tombstone. Entry by donation.

Book Anne Lister Birthday Events Monday 3rd April

  • Monday 3rd April 2023- Anne Lister’s 232nd Birthday – 9:00-10:00 am: Flower laying at The Piece Hall with the Anne Lister community at the statue of Anne Lister. Free entry.
  • Monday 3rd April 2023 Jane Austin, watercolour artist, painting at Shibden Hall. Throughout the day, free – watch Jane Austin painting on-site at Shibden, and admire the artist at work in the natural and beautiful environment of Shibden Hall.
  • Monday 3rd April 2023 Halifax Central Library and Archives – Lego Anne Lister and Lego Ann Walker Stop Motion Animation Lego Workshop. Suitable for children aged 10 plus. Tickets – book 1:00-2:15 pm or book 3:00-4:15 pm.
Anne Lister Birthday Flowers and Anne Lister Statue at the Piece Hall, Halifax

Anne Lister Birthday Week Event Location Map

 

Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack of Shibden Hall, Halifax

Anne Lister Gentleman Jack wrote a 5 million word diary with 16% encrypted combining the Greek alphabet, zodiac, mathematical and punctuation symbols, covering her daily life, travels and lesbian romances. For a fascinating insight into her life please see our Essential Guide to Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack of Shibden Hall Halifax.

Another must-see is the Anne Lister Monument at Shibden Hall. See here for information, photos and location

Where to Stay or Eat and Drink in Halifax with Anne Lister Connections

Whether you are just looking for a quick drink or coffee, a leisurely lunch or quality dinner, or you want to stay over in a boutique room or the Shibden Mill Inn’s Anne Lister Suite, take a look at our article on the Shibden Mill Inn here. The Shibden Mill Inn has been in the ownership of both the Lister family and the Walker family and is less than a 3-mile journey by car or taxi.

Gentleman Jack Writer Sally Wainwright – Happy Valley TV Series Locations

If you’re planning to visit the Halifax and Calderdale area or you are just interested in Sally Wainright’s Happy Valley TV series, please take a look at our Explore Breathtaking Happy Valley Filming Locations with Sally Wainwright – there are filming locations throughout Calderdale including Halifax and Hebden Bridge. We have also included our Happy Valley Filming Locations interactive map.

Also if you’re looking to explore the beautiful Calderdale countryside and are looking for places to eat and drink then take the opportunity to read our 15 Happy Valley Country Pubs article also with a location map to help you make the most of your time.