Long before Anne Lister of Shibden Hall was known to TV audiences, her coded diaries, around 5 million words, were being rescued from obscurity, recatalogued and, in 1982, microfilmed by my friend Alan Betteridge, who has died aged 81. Alan served as Halifax and then Calderdale archivist between 1970 and 1994, followed by an active retirement that included teaching for the University of Leeds and much archive consultancy work. He brought Lister to public attention and identified the antiquarians who first cracked Anne’s code in around 1892.
Alan was a superb archivist with thorough knowledge of every class of document in his care. Many historians of West Yorkshire industry and society are indebted to him. Dedicated to accurate cataloguing and preservation, he encouraged all users, from amateur genealogists to senior academics. His doctoral study of Halifax administrative records remains a key source.
