About Anne Lister's diary for 4-10 September 1834

Introduction

Since the last passage (February 1834) when Anne Lister and Ann Walker had exchanged rings ‘in token of our union’, they had travelled widely – as far as France and Switzerland. It was agreed that, on their return in late August, Ann Walker would move to live with the Listers at Shibden Hall. The ‘marriage’ and shared home was now settled.

During the summer Anne Lister had also developed ambitious plans – for improvements at Shibden, enlarging the estate by judicious land purchase, and for maximizing the estate’s coal-mining potential.

Selected passage

These seven days record Anne and Ann setting up house together at Shibden. This included arranging a ‘tent-wise top’ for their bedroom; letting Ann Walker’s house, Lidgate, to a tenant for ten years; and trying to acquire a good ‘front-gallery pew’ at Lightcliffe church. But Ann walker’s move to Shibden only further fuelled the suspicions of her relatives, including her elderly aunt, the Rawsons and – especially - William Priestley and his wife.

Meanwhile a back-log of estate business had built up during their extended summer travels, and this passage records Anne Lister’s complex calculations as she negotiates with John Pearson over his Mytholm farm lease, and with a neighbour about buying nearby fields with coal-mining potential. When it came to running the estate, Anne Lister struck a hard bargain. She certainly meant business.

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