More to historic hall than meets the eye

"Is there anything you'd like to know about the house?" the friendly attendant asked as we made our way around the 15th century property. Before we knew it, Norman was telling us all about colourful characters and incidents from Shibden's past, opening secret doors in oak-panelled walls and revealing a warren of underground passages. To say he knows the history of Halifax's historic manor house is like saying that Stephen Hawking knows a bit about astrophysics.

Shibden Hall's history has left a family legacy on the fabric of the house, with a collection of furniture and furnishings reflecting changing periods and styles. It still feels like a family home; rooms are laid out as if someone has just slipped out for a moment.

We met Norman in the housebody, the room at the heart of the house where meals were eaten and visitors were received. The window displays the heraldic arms of the hall's families, while above the huge stone fireplace hang suits of armour.

A portrait of former owner Anne Lister hangs above the doorway and her initials appear on a Jacobethan' style staircase and gallery she installed in the 1830s. Taking centre stage is a magnificent oak table which has been there for 400 years. "It was built in this room in about 1595 - an early form of flat-pack furniture!" said Norman.

Suddenly he produced a box of old photographs and pulled out pictures of King George VI and the then Queen Elizabeth at Shibden Hall. They were in Halifax to take tea with local dignitaries, Norman told us the councillors had planned to take the table to the town hall but they couldn't remove it from the house so the Royal party came to Shibden instead!

The Halifax Home Guard was also stationed at the house; Norman showed us a 1940s photograph of them lined up outside, looking uncannily like characters from Dad's Army.

Norman was a mine of information about every nook and cranny. If we hadn't met him we'd never have known about the hidden doorways and passageways dotted around the house. He pulled back wood panelling in the dining-room to reveal original beams and painted Elizabethan walls, I half expected a James Bond-style revolving bookcase!

Then Norman beckoned us into the cross passage (a corridor connecting the front and back doors) and opened an old door, behind which was a staircase leading to a honeycombed network of passageways beneath the house. "The servants used them to move around the house," said Norman. "Anne Lister was quite a snob and didn't want her servants seen." I peered down the dingy staircase and tried to imagine housemaids scurrying about carrying plates of food.

Back in the housebody, Norman moved on to ghosts. "I've seen shapes in corners of rooms that have moved away quickly," he said. "I'd say the nursery is the most haunted room, grown men have come visibly shaken after feeling a strong presence there. A lady who drowned in the lake walks across the landing, visitors feel her dress brush against them."

Feeling slightly apprehensive, I made my way upstairs to the nursery. I stared hard at the rocking horse, willing it to rock on its own, but it didn't and there were no strange shapes moving in the corner either. Among the lovely old toys arranged on shelves was a dolls house version of Shibden Hall.

The hall was home to the Lister family for more than 300 years from 1615, but dates back to 1420. It was first owned by sheep farmers the Oates and later by the Saviles. The Listers (related to Samuel Cunliffe Lister, owner of Lister's Mill in Bradford) were an established Halifax family when Thomas Lister inherited Shibden, living there during the Civil War.

In 1826, following the death of her brother, Anne Lister took over the estate, aged 34. She was an intrepid traveller, a shrewd businesswoman and prolific diary-keeper. Her journal, kept in code, is a detailed record of her life and local and national events, even a daily weather report. Some days are recorded in more than 2,000 words. "There are 27 surviving volumes," says Norman. "To read all four million words, recording more than 30 years of her life, would take you several years."

Anne died while travelling in Russia and her friend, Ann Walker, inherited the hall but was later sent to an asylum. John Lister, who inherited it in 1867, was the last of the family to own it. Keen to preserve Tudor Halifax, he invested heavily in maintaining his beloved home but in 1923 the money ran out. A philanthropist friend of his came to the rescue, buying 90 acres of Shibden land for a public park and buying the hall, allowing John and his sister to live there. After John's death in 1933 Shibden was handed to the Halifax Corporation which opened it as a museum the following year.

Stepping outside the back door we entered a Narnia-like world we didn't know existed. It was the Shibden Hall Folk Museum, a cluster of stone buildings in a pretty courtyard reflecting centuries-old crafts, skills and ways of life. Walking across the yard, past a horse mounting block and dog kennel, we entered a 17th century barn housing an impressive carriage collection. Among them was the Lister Chaise, one of the world's oldest surviving carriages (dating from 1740), and a lovely old Romany caravan. Also dotted around the yard is a threshing room, dairy, estate worker's cottage, blacksmith's forge, apothecary and a brew house. There's even a bar room laid out in the style of the Crispin Inn in Halifax, where local Luddites met in the early 1800s to plot their attacks on mills.

After stopping for a cuppa in the sweet little tea rooms - we sat outside and I found myself leaning on a slab of stone I discovered was part of Halifax's original gibbet! - we made our way down to Shibden Park, passing some dry-stone walling displayed near the hall's grounds.

It's a splendid park and a good way to see it is from the miniature railway running around the lake.

The park and hall gardens are currently undergoing a restoration funded by a £3.9 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant. A new play area, set to open this weekend, will include a cable ride, covered slide and picnic area. Other restoration projects, due for completion next year, include a new visitor centre, cafe and educational centre, a new boathouse and repairs to the lake edge and a new entrance and exit on Shibden Hall Road.

Factfile

• Shibden Hall is open all year round. From March to November it is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and Sundays, 12 noon to 5pm. From December to February it is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and Sundays, 12 noon to 4pm.

• How to get there: Take the A6036 towards Halifax, turn off at Godley Cutting, Godley Lane or Shibden Hall Lane.

• For more details ring (01422) 321455 or visit www.calderdale.gov.uk/leisure/museums-galleries