Anne Lister

The story of Anne Lister reads like something you'd make up if you wanted to prove that real life beats fiction. This landowner from Shibden Hall, near Brough, lived a secret life so compelling that her coded diaries - written between 1817 and 1840 - ended up becoming the basis for Sally Wainwright's BBC drama that gripped millions of viewers.

What you're actually visiting is the remnants of her world rather than a single, polished attraction. Shibden Hall itself sits a few miles from Brough and showcases the house as it was during Anne's era, with her personal items, furniture, and the very rooms where she planned her life with her wife Ann Walker. The diaries, deciphered from her cryptic shorthand, reveal someone far ahead of her time - a woman managing estates, pursuing relationships on her own terms, and leaving a record that historians couldn't ignore for nearly two centuries.

History buffs will find this properly fascinating. The HBO adaptation introduced millions to her story, but reading about how she actually lived - the tension, the careful language, the sheer boldness of it all - hits different when you're standing in the spaces where it happened. You'll need a good two to three hours to do the hall justice, longer if you're really keen on the detail.

Stay at William's Den or Wolds Glamping Pods if you're basing yourself nearby. Both put you within easy reach of Shibden Hall and the wider Wolds landscape that shaped Anne's daily life.