Batley

The Bats Monument

The Bats Monument at the junction of Bradford Road and Hick Lane was erected in 1995 as a gateway rather to the Station Road Conservation area than to the town itself, but it manages to serve both purposes.

It was designed by Rory McNally and Chloe Cookson to reflect the town's history. Its dominant textile industry is recalled in the stonework which resembles folded cloth, and the miniature buildings with unusual rooftops bring to mind several buildings in the town distinctively designed by architects Hanstock and

Sheard. The cornmills which once played an important role, particularly the one which once stood in nearby Rouse Mill Lane, are remembered with ears of corn and stalks of wheat. The paving around the monument has metallic motifs of fish, frogs and horsehoes incorporated into it. The fish and frogs are a reminder of the rural nature of the area not so long ago, when the Batley Beck flowed by, and it still flows very close to the site. It seems the horseshoes represent the workmen's donkeys which were once tethered here, and later horse drawn carriages departed from this spot. Most importantly of all, the bats are an obvious reminder of the name of the town.

Jessop's

This was a very successful men's tailoring business run by father and son George and Henry Jessop. The company began around 1860 in a very small way from George's tiny cottage in Brown's Place, Clerk Green, where he worked long hours sewing suits and jackets and building up a clientele. He was eventually able to open a small workshop in Purlwell and later in Wellington Street, returning after that to Purlwell Mills. By now he was able to employ a few others and his son Henry was learning tailoring skills alongside his regular job in the mills. By 1900 the pair had decided to expand the business, moving into the empty warehouse on Bradford Road, near the Hick Lane junction, vacated by Brooke Wilford and Co.. They converted the ground floor into a tailoring emporium with double front window displays showcasing their wares. Suits could be tailored by staff working upstairs or bought off the peg. The quality of the cloth was good and the workmanship first class, and the businees prospered so much that the Hick Lane junction became a very popular shopping area ,with other businesses in the town relocating to be there. Eventually the company bought more land in the direction of Station Road and constructed a grand parade of four shops, with workspace at the rear and living quarters above. This was an ideal location, busy with people walking between town and station, visiting the banks, ware houses and mills, post office and other shops close by. Custom prospered and the Jessops were able to open other tailor's shops, 20 in all, in nearby towns. In 1924 a new factory was built which utilised the latest technology, and in 1934 the company opened a futuristically designed department store in Commercial Street which became known as the Cunard Building because of its resemblance to an ocean liner. Meanwhile the owners had moved residence to Wood Hall, Healey. They owned sufficient land there that in the late 1920s Henry was able to offer some to the corporation to create a park. The offer was accepted, and Henry then spent £5,000 to provide paths, gardens, seating and a pond for it. Jessop's Park opened in 1929. Both men appear to have been Socialists, they supported the Socialist movement and even made speeches at Socialist meetings. They were also amongst the first employers to reduce workers' hours, provide holidays with pay and medical services for their staff, as well as giving to the poor.

Since that time the factory closed as a tailoring concern in 1990, but has enjoyed a new life as an auction room and subsequently an antiques showroom. See image carousel to see a Jessop's clothing label.

The Regent Cinema

This cinema on Bradford Road, close to the Hick Lane junction, has a white tiled art deco exterior which is sadly falling into disrepair. It was built during 1919 with a seating capacity of 960 and opened on 17th October 1920

with two retail outlets built into the design. One of these was initially opened as a car showroom by motor enthusiast Percy Sykes under the name Graham's Garage which later became Graham's of Dewsbury, a much

larger business. In 1925 the cinema was completely redecorated in Japanese style and a 22 foot proscenium added. Further modernisation in 1930 involved the introduction of a Western Electric sound system, and in 1954 further modifications were made so the cinema could show cinemascope movies.

However, audiences soon began to dwindle with the popularity of television, and the picture house closed in 1963, re-opening the very

next day as a bingo hall. This survived until 1978 after which two very short lived attempts were made to re-open as the Regency Cinema. The first attempt lasted for only 4 months from 1980-81, the second, after extensive refurbishment, for only a month in 1983. Once again the cinema lanquished, although part of the premises was converted into a snooker club. A bid to again revive the building as a nostalgia cinema, wine bar and souk in 2007 failed at the planning stage, and whilst one retail business still uses the premises, the cinema itself is ever growing more dilapidated.

Station Road Showrooms

The town's prominent textile manufacturers built a series of impressive mansions along the approach road to the railway station to act as showrooms for their wares. Buyers would arrive by train and within a few minutes couldn't fail to be impressed by the highly decorated showhouses before being impressed by the goods on offer. All of the mansions are richly ornamented but the building directly opposite the station, on the corner of Upper Station Road and Warehouse Street is particularly ornate. It has a turret decorated with bats and boars, whilst atop the building a huge dog keeps guard. Other showrooms are similarly richly decorated, but unfortunately some have fallen into disrepair and some demolition work has occurred.

The Courthouse and National School

The debtors' courthouse, now on Bradford Road, was built in countryside around 1780. Although close to tracks between Batley and Birstall and off to Morley, the road itself was not built until 1832. Parliament had approved the idea of speeding up the hearing of small debt cases (under 40 shillings) by providing these small local courthouses. Previously debtors might be thrown in jail, sometimes with their families, and have to wait months, at their own expense, for a hearing at a court some distance from home, in this case at Wakefield or Pontefract. These small courts were presided over by commissioners rather than a judge, and 12 local men were appointed for Batley. To be eligible, a man had to own property fetching £60 a year in rent and hold £1,500 in assets.

They were assisted by a clerk of court who registered complaints and a Beadle who found the debtor and served him with a summons. The Beadle might also organise an auction of the debtor's belongings to pay off his debt, where deemed necessary, and he kept order in court. He had the power to have anyone threatening or abusing a commissioner arrested. At Batley his office was in the basement of the building. If the case was proved, debtors were made to pay up, perhaps in installments, or sent to jail for up to 60 days, although the commissioners could show leniency where the debtor was thought to be 'honest but unfortunate'. Such men were allowed to keep the tools of their trade and work to gradually pay off their debts. These new courts didn't hear cases involving debts due to drinking or gambling or matrimonial disputes, however. Batley's small courthouse continued to operate until 1846 when its role devolved to the new County Court in Dewsbury.

After this, in 1848, the building became a National School with the aim of providing its pupils with an elementary education whilst instilling Church of England values. After the terror of the French Revolution, fear of social revolution gripped the country. National Schools attempted to counteract any revolutionary ideas circulating amongst the young. The school at Batley had only one classroom and the teacher had his living quarters in the basement. His salary may have depended on how well his pupils performed when the inspectors called annually, so he was usually a hard taskmaster, and caning was not uncommon. The National School continued until 1870 when the Education Act ensured many more schools were established to provide free education for the majority of children.

After this, the building was used as a Sunday School until 1907, then as an Institute in which young people could meet and play games. It then stood empty for years until bought as a workshop by a local joiner and undertaker. It is presently operates as a Chapel of Rest.

Benjamin Law

Benjamin Law was born in Gomersal, the 5^th of 8 children of George Law and Mary Wilby, and baptised at Birstall parish church on 8^th November, 1773. His father was a clothier but died when Benjamin was only 15. By the time he was 17 Benjamin had moved to Batley and married Rachael Stubley in June 1791. There he involved himself in the clothing trade. Rachael died in 1797 and Benjamin went on to marry Lydia Sheard in 1801 at Leeds. The Sheards were an important woollen manufacturing family too. The story goes that Ben was looking for a less expensive way to produce cloth when, on a trip to London to sell flocks, a saddler in Cheapside told him about a substitute material he was now using to stuff saddles, made from torn up rags. Benjamin examined this material and saw that, if refined, the process might be applied to cloth production too. It took him years of experimentation, though, to come up with a viable product, which was given the name shoddy, meaning re-used in arabic. The process involved finely grinding old woollen rags, adding some new wool fibres, spinning and weaving these into a new, cheaper but robust cloth, just what the market was looking for. Law had tried to keep his experiments a secret. A rag-grinding machine had to be developed and he used a room at the Old Mill and later took a lease on Howley Lower Mill with his brother-in-law, Benjamin Parr, for this purpose. They had not patented the new machine, however, leaving it vulnerable to copying. Benjamin finally began producing his new cloth and seems to have been the sole manufacturer for a few years, between 1809 and 1813. The story then goes that he sent his son, John, to America to display the cloth and garner sales. This he did successfully, but he did not want to repeat the mission. When his father insisted, John went, but disappeared. His father pursued him unsuccessfully and returned home. Meanwhile, his rival clothing manufacturers in Batley had stolen both his machinery and his shoddy producing process, and they made their fortunes on it, whilst Law left the business, moved to Hyde and then Stockport, where he died on 21^st February 1837, although he was buried at Batley parish church.

Shoddy proved to be a very popular product, being cheap yet durable. Large government orders were placed for fabric for military and police uniforms and it was used for blanket making and the like. Its production came with some health hazards for the workforce, though. A fine dust was produced which caused “shoddy fever”. Other fibres cast off during production were used as a kind of manure on the fields. By 1815 shoddy was the staple trade of the town. Hick Lane Mill, built with Sheard family involvement in 1821-2, was the first mill in the town set up specifically to produce shoddy.

The Wilton Arms

This public house in Batley was built around 1825 by local carpenter Peter Heppleston. By 1832 he had expanded the building and added a brewhouse, naming the pub after the Edgertons, Earls of Wilton, who owned most of the land in the area. Abraham Newhouse was the first landlord, to be replaced by James Sheard in 1840. The Wilton became the principal hotel in town and the main meeting place as it had a large meeting room behind. When it was auctioned in 1877 it also had outhouses including a stationers' shop and a wash house. It was bought at this time by the existing tenant, William Slater, who ran it until 1886 when it was sold to the Springwell Brewery Company of Heckmondwike. They eventually sold it to Hammonds, and in 1970 it passed to Bass. it has now been renamed "The Taproom". In the meantime lots of local associations and societies held

meetings there, including the local Board of Health, Batley Corporation officials and workmen, the Liberals, the Conservatives, Batley Tradesmen's Association, the Oddfellows, the PaxtonSociety, Agricultural Society, and many sports clubs.

In March 1844 a meeting of mill owners was held there to oppose Sir James Graham's Factory Bill, when it was decided to send a deputation and petition to parliament appealing for members not to pass the Bill, and in particular the 7th clause.

A couple of interesting cases also arose involving the landlord, William Slater. The first was a money lending case heard at Dewsbury County Court in April 1879 in which Slater claimed that Joseph Lomas, a tailor, owed him £3, consisting of a cash loan of £2.8.6d plus the cost of 7 gills of whiskey that had been supplied to him. Lomas refused to pay up, although he kept promising Slater he would, and had offered to make a suit of clothes for Slater's boy. The boy was measured up, but no suit was forthcoming. The court found for Slater for the value of the cash loan only, not for the spirits supplied.

Then, in October 1882, again at Dewsbury County Court, Tom Colbeck, a woollen manufacturer, brought a case against Slater for breach of warrant. He had bought 2 carriage horses from Slater in May for 70 guineas, both warranted to be quiet to drive and ride. But one of the horses proved to be a vicious kicker who could not be harnessed or put into shafts. Colbeck had asked Slater for 35 guineas back and he would keep the horse. Slater refused. Much evidence was given about the antics of the horse in kicking out parts of its stable and loose box and even the other horse. Descriptions of the numerous but futile attempts to harness it brought laughter from the courthouse gallery. Case adjourned.

Lee Fair

It seems there has been an interest in horses, horse fighting and horse breeding in the Tingley area since Viking times. It was here that Viking elders met every once in a while for lengthy political and judicial meetings.

Meanwhile their families had to be entertained and so an event similar to a fair was held nearby. This interest in horses continued until medieval times, fostered by monks from Nostell Priory who had set up a small monastery at Woodkirk St. Mary's Church. It was their Prior who petitioned King Henry I for a Royal Charter to hold a fair at Woodkirk, probably in the vicinity of the church. His petition was granted in 1135 and confirmed the following year by the new king, Stephen. Control of the fair proved a lucrative business for Nostell and at one point provided the Priory with a quarter of its annual income. Naturally, the fair included trading in horses but many other goods were traded too, including cattle, geese, foodstuffs, wine, spices, silk and woollen cloth. Entertainments were also

provided, the Townley or Wakefield Mystery Plays were staged spectacularly here with the addition of humour to engage the masses, and there were jugglers, sword swallowers, musicians and medicine men to amuse them, and beer tents to refresh them too. The local priest had to be on hand to perform wedding ceremonies on demand as this was an opportune occasion. People travelled great distances, from as far away as the Continent to buy and sell

at Woodkirk fair. At the dissolution of the monasteries in Henry VIII's reign, a Dr. Thomas Liegh acquired most of Nostell's assets, and so the fair was re-named after him, but it continued to be held. But by 1656 Wakefield cloth market had captured most of the trade in cloth and a slow decline began. In this year some people from West Ardsley sent a petition to local justices to try and ban the fair, calling it "a tumultuous meeting place of idle persons where there have been lives lost". However, Lord Savile owned the rights to the fair by this time and he refused to close it. It is true that fines had been issued in the past for offences such as assault, damage to property and faulse trading which had been committed there. However it was still a major event in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when special trains were laid on to bring people to the fair. It still continues and claims to be England's oldest surviving charter fair. A stained glass window in the church gives an impression of how it might have looked in medieval times.