THE Gentleman Jack television phenomenon has tripled visitors to Anne Lister’s ancestral home this summer – and it is having a positive effect on businesses in the tourism industry.

With the BBC series airing a few weeks earlier in the U.S., Calderdale Council’s Chief Executive Robin Tuddenham blogged in the summer that its success would be a game changer for tourism, increasingly an important part of the borough’s economy.

Now the council has released figures which show the effect increased visitors to Shibden Hall, Anne’s home in Halifax, is having, and is formulating plans to increase and improve its offer where Anne’s legacy is concerned.

The popularity of the series, starring Suranne Jones as Anne, a 19th century lesbian, scholar, traveller, businesswoman and landowner, will also mean the hall will be closed for some weeks outside its regular seasonal closure for a while next year while a second series, penned by Sally Wainwright who often uses a Calderdale setting for her drama, is filmed.

Many scenes in the first series were also filmed in Bradford.

Suranne Jones BBC drama Gentleman Jack transforms Bradford's streets

Calderdale Council Cabinet member for Public Services and Communities, Coun Susan Press (Lab, Todmorden), said the series’ impact had been astonishing.

Figures show through the summer an average 500 visitors a day visted Shibden Hall, up from 150 a day the previous summer, with 14,419 visiting in August alone, compared to 2,579 the previous year.

Coun Press said: “We’re overwhelmed by the incredible and far-reaching impact of Gentleman Jack.

“The TV series has showcased Calderdale’s distinctiveness to the world, leading to unprecedented visitor numbers to Shibden and beyond.

“It has secured our place on the map as a major cultural, LGBTQ and heritage destination, not only boosting the local economy, but also having a profound, personal impact on the lives of many people across the globe.”

She said museums, local businesses, hotels, events and attractions have all reported increased income following the series’ screening, with social media also helping spread the word.

For example, the Old Bridge Inn at Ripponden has reported an increase in American and Canadian tourists in particular, while Halifax Minster reports a 40 per cent increase in visitors from 500 to 700 a week.

The council is now looking into a range of plants to build on the series’ impacts including developing Walker Pit – subject of a source of Anne’s income, and friction with the Rawson family – as an additional visitor attraction, creating a visitor centre which will also have educational space and improving access to the hall through Shibden Park.

Events held since the programme aired have proved very popular at several Halifax vanues, including 11,000 people across the world linking in with a Facebook live screening by historian Helena Whitbread at the hall and a display of costumes from the series at Halifax’s Bankfield Museum.

A Winter Craft Fair at the hall will mark the last few weeks of the museum’s most successful season yet, when it takes place on Saturday, November 16, and Sunday, November 17 (10am to 4pm both days) before it closes for winter on Christmas Eve, re-opening on March 2, 2020.

It will also be closed between November 7 and 15 for essential maintance and next year potential visitors will need to bear in mind the hall is expected to be closed for filming of the second series for a number of weeks around June/July and September/November next year.