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| Batley | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 .jpg)   .jpg) Clockwise from top: Batley Library and War Memorial,All Saints' Church, Union Rooms on Hick Lane, Commercial Street,Town Hall | |
  Batley Location withinWest Yorkshire | |
| Population | 39,013 (Wards, 2021 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SE245245 |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Areas of the town | |
| Post town | BATLEY |
| Postcode district | WF17 |
| Dialling code | 01924 |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| UK Parliament | |
| 53°43′00″N01°38′08″W / 53.71667°N 1.63556°W /53.71667; -1.63556 | |
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Batley is amarket town in theKirklees district, inWest Yorkshire, England, south-west ofLeeds, north-west ofWakefield andDewsbury, south-east ofBradford and north-east ofHuddersfield, in theHeavy Woollen District. In 2011, the population was 48,730.[2]
Batley Town Hall, designed in the neoclassical style, was paid for by public subscription and opened as the local mechanics' institute in 1854. The town was the home ofBatley Variety Club, which was frequented by many notable musical acts, from 1967 onwards.
The name Batley is derived from theOld EnglishBatalēah meaning 'Bata's wood or clearing'.[3]
Batley is recorded in theDomesday Book as 'Bateleia'. After theNorman Conquest, the manor was granted toIlbert de Lacy and in 1086 was within thewapentake ofMorley.[4] It subsequently passed into the ownership of the de Batleys, and by the 12th century had passed by marriage to the Copley family. Their residence at Batley Hall was held directly fromthe Crown; at this time the district was part of theDuchy of Lancaster.[5]
There has been a church in Batley since the 11th century.Batley Parish Church was built in 1485 and contains parts of a 13th-century predecessor.[6] Despite Batley being an ancient settlement, this is all that remains of any great antiquity.
Howley Hall in Soothill was built during the 1580s by Sir John Savile, a member of the great Yorkshire landowners, the Savile family. The house was besieged during theEnglish Civil War in 1643 before theBattle of Adwalton Moor but appears to have sustained no serious damage. It continued to be occupied during the 17th century but fell into disrepair. Howley Hall was destroyed in 1730. Among the numerous ruins that are still present are the cellars of its great hall.[7]
Methodism came to Batley in the 1740s through the evangelism ofJohn Nelson, alay preacher from Birstall and frequent companion of the movement's founderJohn Wesley.[8][9] Two leading figures in the early Methodist movement,John William Fletcher andMary Bosanquet, were married at All Saints Church in Batley in 1781.[10] By the 1780s meetings were being held in the town and the first Methodist chapel was established around 1800.[8]
During the late 18th century, the main occupations in the town werefarming andweaving. TheIndustrial Revolution reached Batley in 1796 with the arrival of its first water powered mills for carding and spinning. During the next half century the population grew rapidly, from around 2,500 at the start of the 19th century to 9,308 at the 1851census. The parish of Batley at this point includedMorley,Churwell andGildersome, with a total population of 17,359.
Before the industrial revolution, wool was made in Batley for centuries as acottage industry. Samuel Jubb, a 19th-century mill owner and local historian, noted that this was "a manufacture for which the place is well adapted, on account of its possessing a good supply of water and coal, and its central situation in relation to the principal local markets, being about equidistant from Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Halifax, and Wakefield."[11]: 9–10 The water he referred to was not the beck but the largeaquifer beneath the town, which was tapped for cleaning and dying wool.[11]
Atoll road built in 1832 betweenGomersal andDewsbury had a branch to Batley (the present day Branch Road) which allowed for "the growing volumes of wool, cloth and coal" to be transported. Until then there had only been foot and cart tracks. Around the same time there werestrikes in the mills, which led to an influx of Irish workers who settled permanently. Initially this led to antagonism from residents, due to the lower wages paid to the Irish workers and general anti-Roman Catholic sentiment, but this faded in time. By 1853 Catholic services were held regularly in the town; its first Roman Catholic church,St Mary of the Angels, was not built until 1870 and is still in existence.
By 1848 there was arailway station in Batley, and in 1853Batley Town Hall was erected. It was enlarged in 1905, and is in theNeoclassical style, with a corbelledparapet andpilasters rising to a centrepediment. In 1868 Batley was incorporated as amunicipal borough, the formerurban district ofBirstall was added to it in 1937.[12]
1853 also saw the establishment of a smallconfectionery shop by Michael Spedding. His business expanded, moving to larger premises in 1927 becomingFox's Biscuits. Today, along withTesco, it is one of the largest employers in the town.
During the late 19th century, Batley was the centre of theshoddy andmungo trade in which wool, rags and clothes were recycled by reweaving them into blankets, carpets and uniforms.[13] In 1861 there were at least 30 shoddy mills in Batley. The owners of the recycling businesses were known as the "shoddy barons". There was a "shoddy king" and a "shoddy temple", properly known as the Zion Chapel. This imposing building in the town centre was opened in 1870, and reflected the popularity of the Methodist movement. The chapel is still active today.[14] In 1875 local womanAnn Ellis led a weavers strike against the shoddy mill owners who were planning to reduce wages.[15]
At the close of the 19th century, growth in population changed the form of governmental institutions above the parish of Batley; the Morley division of the wapentake ofAgbrigg and Morley was disused as special purpose districts were formed.[citation needed]
The library was built in 1907 with funds donated by thephilanthropistAndrew Carnegie. The library has been modernised, with a microfilm viewer, and reels of the Batley News dating back 120 years. The newspaper was founded by James Fearnsides – a local printer. His grandson, Clement, later became the mayor of Batley. The first records ofcoal mining in Batley date back to the 16th century at White Lee; the last pit in the town closed in 1973.[citation needed]
On the nights of 14 and 15 March 1941, the West Yorkshire area as a whole was subject to a Nazi air raid. Batley came through relatively unscathed with one unexploded ordnance being located near the Healey Mill area (opposite Healey Community Centre to be precise) whilst Cleckheaton, located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north-west, suffered from seven bombs that exploded as intended. Leeds, located 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east, went through two nights of damage as, "The raid caused more than 100 serious fires, damaged over 4,500 buildings and resulted in 65 people losing their lives."[16]
The manufacture of shoddy continued into the postwar period. A doctor posted to Batley hospital in 1952 described the town as "one of the last reminders of the industrial revolution as described by Dickens", riven by economic inequality and 'Victorian' diseases likerickets:[17]
In mid-winter, the hospital enjoyed brilliant sunshine on the snow-covered moors on either side of the narrow valley, reminiscent of Wuthering Heights. Nearby were the manor houses of the mill owners, flaunting Rolls-Royces in their porches. The town in the valley was, however, permanently enveloped in a thick blanket of smog spewed from the factory chimneys. The narrow valley was paved with cobbled stones with workers' houses interspersed between the factories. [...] Excess water due to rainfall or melting snow would enter the dwellings over their thresholds.
In 1974, responsibility for local government passed toKirklees Metropolitan Council, with its headquarters inHuddersfield.
Batley's Labour MPJo Cox wasshot and stabbed to death outside herconstituency surgery in Birstall in June 2016.[18][19] The politically-motivated murder, carried out by a local man in the name ofwhite supremacy, was the first assassination of a sitting British MP since 1990.[20][21] Her seat was filled by Labour candidateTracy Brabin in aby-election later the same year, uncontested by the other major parties.[22]
Brabin was elected the firstMayor of West Yorkshire in 2021, triggering ahigh profile by-election in which Labour expected to struggle to retain the formerly safered wall seat.[23] Former Labour MPGeorge Galloway ran for theWorkers Party of Britain, on a platform criticising newly-elected Labour leaderKeir Starmer and targetting issues important to the local South Asian Muslim community.[24] Labour candidateKim Leadbeater, the sister of Jo Cox, ultimately won the election by a narrow margin, following a campaign focused on local issues.[25] The governing Conservative's surprise loss was blamed on poor campaigning and ascandal involving Health Secretary Matt Hancock in the weekend prior to the by-election.[26][27]
In the2024 general election, Labour lost the newDewsbury and Batley constituency toIqbal Mohamed, who was one of four independent candidates who won seats in heavily Muslim areas largely due to Labour's stance on theGaza war.[28]
From the end of the 1950s, the need for cheap labour in the town's textile industries drew in migrant labourers fromGujarat,Punjab, Pakistan and India. The South Asian population of Batley is now around 33% in Batley West and 54% in Batley East.[29]
Batley includes the districts ofBatley Carr,Carlinghow, Cross Bank,Hanging Heaton,Healey, Lamplands, Carlton GrangeMount Pleasant,Soothill,Staincliffe,Upper Batley and White Lee.
As Batley shares boundaries with bothDewsbury andHeckmondwike, parts of Batley Carr, Hanging Heaton and Staincliffe are part of Dewsbury, while part of White Lee is inHeckmondwike. There is an area of Ossett known asHealey, which is identical in name to the Batley district of Healey; the Ossett area is sometimes referred to as "Healey Mills" due to the very large congregation of mills that once existed in that area.
Batley bus station serves the town and is owned and maintained byWest Yorkshire Metro. It is situated in Batley town centre and can be accessed from Bradford Road and St. James's Street. It was re-built by Metro in April 2005 replacing the previously ownedArriva Yorkshire site. There are six stands and a real-time information board at the bus station. Arriva Yorkshire is the main operator.[30]
Batley railway station is on theHuddersfield line between Leeds and Manchester.
Batley Grammar School was founded in 1612 by the Rev. William Lee and is still in existence.[31]
Landmarks around Batley includeOakwell Hall,Bagshaw Museum,Wilton Park,Mount Pleasant stadium, andAll Saints Church, a Grade I listed building.
The town is home to the professionalrugby league clubBatley RLFC[32] and junior football club Batley Juniors F.C. (formerly Carlinghow Boys F.C.) Carlinghow is also located in Batley.
Incricket, Batley has several local teams, and is also part of the cricket association for theHeavy Woollen District. The original definition of the latter area was to within a 6 miles (9.7 km) radius of Batley Town Hall. The Heavy Woollen Cup can now be entered by any team within 18 miles (29 km) of Batley, but there is an upper limit of 64 teams.
The Mount Cricket Club play at Staincliffe and currently in theHalifax Cricket League.
Wilton Park (Batley Park) is a large park between the town centre and Birstall. In its grounds are the Milner K. FordObservatory (built in 1966 and home to the Batley & Spenborough Astronomical Society) andBagshaw Museum. The museum is located in a house built by the "shoddy baron", George Sheard, and features local history,natural history, curios from around the world, and anAncient Egyptian exhibition. The museum (originally the Wilton Park Museum) is named after its firstcurator Walter Bagshaw, a Batley councillor and extensive traveller.
The Yorkshire Motor Museum had a small but varied collection of cars dating back to 1885, and reflecting local car makers as well as more famous marques. The museum closed in 2010.
Batley Art Gallery, in the Batley Library building, features contemporary art, craft and photography.
Between 1966 and 1977 theBatley Variety Club was frequented by many notable acts includingLouis Armstrong,Johnny Mathis,Eartha Kitt, theBee Gees,Roy Orbison,the Hollies andCliff Richard among others. For a brief period it was namedCrumpets, after which it was closed for four years surviving numerous applications to have the building demolished.[33] The club was then known as the Frontier nightclub from the late 1970s onwards. The Frontier was sold to businessmen in April 2005 and continued to operate as a nightclub whilst hosting variety shows and sporting events such as boxing, snooker and darts. The Frontier closed its doors for the final time in 2016 and following a £2 million refurbishment was successfully transformed into JD gym.
A dramatic society was founded in October 1913 at Shelton's café at 53 Commercial Street to present dramatic works to raise funds for Batley and District Hospital. On 8 January 1914 at a meeting in the Temperance Hall, it was decided that it would be known as the “Batley Amateur Thespian Society” and it became affiliated with theNational Operatic and Dramatic Association.
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC Yorkshire andITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from theEmley Moor transmitter and the local relay transmitter situated in the town centre.[34]
Local radio stations areBBC Radio Leeds,Heart Yorkshire,Capital Yorkshire,Hits Radio West Yorkshire,Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire, andRhubarb Radio, a community based station that broadcast fromWakefield.[35]
The town is served by the local newspaper,Dewsbury Reporter.
Batley was used for location filming of the fictional town of Barfield in the 1955 filmValue for Money, starringJohn Gregson andDiana Dors.[36]Monty Python's Flying Circus had a series of recurring sketches in which the members of the Batley Ladies Townswomen's Guild would present famous plays or musicals, or re-enact various historical battles (such as theBattle of Pearl Harbor), by charging at each other, swinging handbags and wrestling in the mud.[37]
The following people are or were from Batley:
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