When the Queer British Art exhibition was held at Tate Britain in 2017, its curator Clare Barlow described the history of queer culture as being “punctuated by dustbins and bonfires”. Similar records of female homosexuality are thought to have been destroyed by shame-filled families – just as Arthur Burrell suggested. That John Lister chose to preserve Anne’s diaries is therefore remarkable. It is not known whether he did so out of a love of history or whether, as has been suggested, he was also secretly homosexual. A new BBC One and HBO drama Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones as the indomitable Anne, tells her story from 1832, when she started transforming Shibden and her relationship with Ann Walker began to flourish.

Suranne Jones, left, said playing Anne Lister was an “uplifting” experience

Its transmission is the culmination of a 20-year dream of television writer Sally Wainwright, who grew up just a few miles from Shibden Hall. Overawed by Anne’s “phenomenal intelligence” and fascinating, conflicted personality - “very down to earth but mercurial” - Sally first pitched an idea for an Anne Lister drama in 2003 but was knocked back. She believes changing attitudes to sexuality are enabling Anne’s story to be told now. “She’s been hidden away, people didn’t want to show off about her,” she says.

Anne’s insatiable appetite for life and almost neurotic documentation of her every move means there are many aspects of her personality to explore. She was a woman of great intellect and scientific knowledge; during a private lesson in Paris, for instance, she dissected a woman’s head for fun. Her penchant for keeping clippings of her lovers’ pubic hair is another aspect of her intriguing personality. But while eccentric, she certainly wasn’t always likeable.

The Lister diaries have been restored by experts

“Anne Lister was amazingly deft at controlling situations and manipulating people to further her considerable ambitions,” says Jill Liddington, whose book Female Fortune inspired the Gentleman Jack series. “She certainly took advantage of lonely Ann Walker’s wealth, but in seducing her, she behaved no more caddishly than any other suitor whose expenditure ambitions exceeded his income.” Living in a lesbian marriage in the 1830s, albeit discreetly, demonstrated “extraordinary bravado”, Jill added. This determination to live life on her own terms continues to inspire those who discover Anne’s story.