Shibden Hall

Well, autumn may be advancing (see yesterday) but I'm not ready to let go of summer yet. I've been so busy visiting places and I have a lot of pictures that I haven't yet shared. So if the trees on some of my photos still look a bit green, it's because the pics were taken a few weeks ago. 

Earlier in the year, I visited Shibden Hall Park, near Halifax, with my family but Shibden Hall itself was closed so we couldn't go in. I noticed last month that the hall had reopened for just a few weeks, and I took the opportunity to go and see it. It dates back in parts to 1420 though it has been altered many times. It was originally the home of William Otes and then passed to the Savile and Waterhouse families. Then for about 300 years it belonged to various members of the Lister family, wealthy mill-owners and cloth merchants. In the 1930s it was given to Halifax Corporation and is now a museum, in the care of Calderdale Council.

Shibden Hall is often used for filming and that is why it has been closed for much of this year. It is the location for a BBC series to be called 'Gentleman Jack', which I will explain a bit more about tomorrow. It also featured in the BBC's 'Last Tango in Halifax' and the courtyard at the back and some of the rooms inside were used for the pub and carriage scenes in the Brontë drama 'To Walk Invisible', much of which was filmed in and around Haworth where the literary Brontë family lived.

There is currently a display of costumes from 'To Walk Invisible', which I found interesting. It was fun too to spot the props and alterations that have been made for the current drama series. There were notices inside detailing these. (Spot the fake wall covering the railings in the photo above...).

The costumes above were worn in the Brontë film, as can be seen in the stills below, which also feature Shibden's courtyard.