Latest News
What’s happening in the world of “In Search Of Ann Walker” .
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Ann’s Return
By Dorjana Širola and Diane Halford The Last Trip In the early morning of 20th June 1839, Ann Walker and Anne Lister left Shibden Hall together for the last time. The women loaded up their carriage and set off for a tour of Scandinavia and the Russian Empire. They first travelled to London, where they hired a married couple as servants, then crossed the Channel, continuing their overland journey to Hamburg, then sailed across to Copenhagen. They spent some time exploring Denmark, before sailing to Helsingborg and travelling around Sweden and Norway, with stays in Oslo, Gothenburg, Stockholm and Uppsala, as well as visiting Swedish copper, silver and iron mines.…
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Ann Walker Day at ALBW 2022
A brief video summary of the first Ann Walker Day of Anne Lister Birthday Week in Halifax in April 2022. Created by Gemma Jacob (Twitter:@gemified) who gave kind permission for us to use it on our website.
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Restoring to Glory
Ann Walker’s memorial plaque restoration It was back in May 2019 that we first embarked upon creating a fitting memorial for Ann Walker. We quickly determined that it wouldn’t be possible to get a headstone or ground stone in the Old St Matthews Churchyard, as it is classed as a ‘closed churchyard‘. As such, we knew we would have to be creative in conceiving a memorial for her. Not long after our initial enquiries, we were put in touch with the Friends of Friendless Churches, an organisation who repair and maintain redundant churches in England and Wales. The tower of the old St Matthews Church was under their care, after…
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#AnnWalkerBirthdayChallenge
Are you inspired by Ann Walker? We want to hear about it. Join in our Ann Walker Birthday Challenge To celebrate what would have been Ann’s 218th birthday on May 20th 2021, we want to encourage people to honour Ann by sharing how she inspires us. Ann’s life encompassed many roles, interests, ambitions and accomplishments. Even before she united her life with Anne’s, Ann exercised her role as a daughter, sister, businesswoman and a landowner. We know more about her life since she became romantically involved with Anne Lister, through Anne’s and now her own diary. One of the most inspiring moments of Ann’s life is her decision to choose…
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Ann Walker’s Journal – ALBW Live Interview
Join Alexa and Diane as they discuss finding and transcribing Ann Walker’s diary: See our previous ALBW Live here – Revealing Ann Walker – ALBW livestream
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Ann Walker’s Memorial Update
There have been plans afoot over the last year to create a memorial for Ann Walker where she is buried in St Matthews Churchyard, Lightcliffe. Her current memorial plaque is under lock and key within the tower (the only remaining structure of the Old St Matthew’s) and we would like to create something more publicly accessible. Over the last year, we have worked closely with the Friends of St Matthews Churchyard and the Friends of Friendless Churches and are moving forward to make this a reality. There are essentially 2 stages to this work. The first stage will be the restoration of the original memorial plaque. The second stage will…
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WE FOUND IT!!!
How it was found? After 7 months of patiently waiting for the West Yorkshire Archives to re-open I made my appointment for 20th October 2020, the second week of reopening. I was looking for some papers on the Committeship of Ann Walker after the death of Captain Sutherland. This led me to find in the catalogue an obscure file (WYC:1525/7/1/5/1) in the Rawson’s papers that mentioned Ann Walker. The folder had five documents in it, one being a travel journal catalogued as “Journal of Anne Lister, including travels in France and Switzerland with Ann Walker”. That morning, I arrived at the archives at 10am, the opening time, and laid out…
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Rymer’s letter to the Family Of Ann Walker
A reading of the letter from Rymer to George Mackay Sutherland about the result of Ann Walker’s lunacy hearing and next steps. Read on Adney Bridge, Shibden Park
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Revealing Ann Walker – ALBW livestream
Did you catch the interview that Steve Crabtree and Diane Halford did with Pat Esgate on Ann Walker’s 217th birthday, to discuss some of the research they have been carrying out into Ann’s life?
