The Reform Act Stone
This can be found high on the wall of the former time office of Hick Well Mills and was probably erected by the Burnley family who owned the mill at the time. John Burnley was born in Batley on 14th July 1779, the son of Michael Burnley and Ruth Blakeley. He became interested in the textile industry and is said to have experimented with a rag shredding machine in his barn from about 1813, the same time that Benjamin Law was conducting his experiments. Certainly he was a partner in Hick Lane Mills, the first mill built specifically to produce shoddy, with Joseph Jubb, Michael Sheard, John and Phineas Fox, Michael Spedding and others. Not content with that, in 1824 John built his own mill not far away, Hick Well Mill, which specialised in the production of druggets and pilot cloth.
It must have been with great jubilation that the family received news of the Parliamentary Reform Act, passed in June 1832, which introduced a £10 property qualification, extending male franchise at last to manufacturers like the Burnleys. They were evidently jubilant and erected the stone to celebrate their longed for enfranchisement. They would have to travel to York to cast their vote but evidently felt it was worth it. The stone faces towards the factory, so that all the workforce must have been made aware of it, although the Act did not extend the vote to working men, and certainly not to working women.
The mill suffered a serious fire on 2nd October 1833 but production soon continued. John had married Elizabeth Blakeley in 1801 and his family of 10 children included 4 healthy sons. John, the eldest, had already set himself up in the textile business when his father died on 2nd January 1836, and so the business passed via his will to his 3 younger sons, Abraham, Samuel and Jacob, although John was to be allowed the use of a rag machine and other equipment for an annual fee. Not long afterwards, in June 1836, the company was fined £2 for contravening the Factories Act by employing children under the age of 10. Then in January 1842 the mother of the family, Elizabeth, died.
After this the factory did not do as well and by 1861 was up for sale. It was bought by fellow textile manufacturers the Sheards and was in their hands until they went into liquidation in 1907. James Hunt, rag dealers were operating from the premises in the 1920s. Most of the factory buildings are still standing but have deteriorated over the years, especially with the damage caused by several fires.
The photo in the carousel shows the former time office at the mill with the stone set into its side wall
The Brownhill Windmill
In 1702 John Hey and John Leadbetter bought a piece of land at Brownhill between Batley and Birstall, and by 1712 Francis Bethel and Samuel Leadbetter had erected a house and "building", probably a windmill, on it. Then in 1725 Samuel sold the land and windmill to the Rev. John Copley, vicar of Thornhill. The Copleys were the local Lords of the Manor. They were persuaded by the freeholders of the area to allow John Hardy of Upper Batley to build another windmill at Brownhill, although it isn't clear if this was a replacement for the first. In 1732 Hardy sold his "newly erected windmill" to William Brough for £105. Then, papers in the collection of the Earls of Wilton, dated 1735, show the mill "with all its utensils, tools and instuments" being leased for 21 years to Isabel Scot, wife of Samuel Scot of Carlinghow Mill, and their son, Samuel Scot the younger, for an annual rent of 5 guineas. The Copley family promptly handed the miller back £5 for new sailcloths and allowed him timber from their estates to extend and repair the building. During its history, the millers at Carlinghow and Brownhill are several times one and the same. The Copley estates eventually passed by marriage to the Earls of Wilton, hence their papers ended up in the Wilton collection.
That same year, 1735, the Vicar of Batley enclosed 23 acres of land, including that on which the windmill stood, in order to improve his income. He had been allowed to do so by an Act of Parlaiment of 1713 which applied to all vicars with an income of under £40 per year. In subsequent years, parish events including sports were held in the land around the mill and this probably explains why. Also, two Church of England schools, St. Saviour's and Brownhill Infants, which have now merged to become Windmill C of E Primary School, were built on the site in the 1970s.
After Samuel Scot, further tenants followed until the mill was rebuilt as a 3 storey smock mill with 2 sets of grinding stones in 1782, using some of the material from the old mill. This new mill was 28 feet high on a 25 foot diameter base. Everything changed again in 1796 when a new Act abolished the Lord of the Manor's right to tolls on grain taken to the mill to be ground. Millers now had to publicly display the actual cost of grinding a set amount of flour, effectively reducing their cut too. Gradually the profitability and necessity for the windmill declined, especially as other more convenient sources of power gained ground. And so the mill was eventually abandoned.
In 1999 Kirklees Council removed loose roof slates from the mill, leaving it open to weathering. The Council began to think about demolition as they considered it too expensive to repair. But a Windmill Preservation Group was set up which campaigned, together with the local newspaper and councillors, to preserve it. The cost of preservation was estimated to be £14,000 in 2003. However, the area committee agreed it should be preserved, and so it still stands, the last of Batley's several wind and water mills.
Parish Boundary Markers
These two engraved posts mark the boundaries of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Grosvenor Road, Batley. The church is part of the diocese of Wakefield, but being on the edge of several authorities, felt the need in 1869 to mark out the parish boundaries. The posts can be found on Old Hall Road and Field Hill Lane, Upper Batley.
Fox's Biscuits
Michael Spedding, the founder of the company was born in Marsh, Huddersfield on 28th February 1834, one of six children of Robert Spedding and Elizabeth, nee Hudson. His father, a butcher, died when he was only 6 so Michael didn't have much of an education, working part time in a mill whilst very young and full time from the age of 11 to help the family out. He worked at first in the textile industry, but later travelled the country doing different jobs and gaining life experience. His brother, William, had settled in Batley and Michael seems to have visited and sometimes worked in the town. However, it wasn't until 1847, when he was working as a ganger laying down the first railway tracks in the town, that he returned on a more permanent basis. He took the initiative and started selling tea and sandwiches to his workmates, renting a house in Stone Coal Road, Soothill, in which to make the sandwiches. In 1853 he married Susan Fox, daughter of Joseph Fox, and the couple began raising a family in a small cottage on Batley Field Hill. Michael had returned to the textile industry at this stage, working as a cloth dresser, but he had lost none of his entrepreneurial instincts and began buying sweets and sweet snacks to hawk around the streets. He was able to make enough money this way to buy the ingredients to make toffee to a recipe one of his former landladies used to make. He sold this around the district, but also from his cottage to miners on their way to and from work.
After four of his children died in little over a year, Michael decided to escape that part of town and moved his family to Up Lane, later known as Spring Gardens, near Batley town centre. Surprisingly, soon afterwards, he sailed alone for America where, after a very rough crossing, during which the captain enlisted him to organise his fellow passengers to man the pumps, he stayed for 9 months. It is not known why he did so, but he may have picked up information about the latest biscuit making technology being used in factories over there. On his return he opened a shop in Burnley Close, near today's market place, selling sweets and brandy snap, the recipe for which he had culled from a neighbour. His brandy snap proved exceptionally popular. Apart from selling it in his own shop, he sold it at a summer fair and supplied it to other local shopkeepers, and in particular to showmen and fair traders to sell to their customers. Business was so good that he had to buy the adjoining property to turn out more, which he sold on market stalls and more fairs.
Soon Michael had to stop selling personally and concentrate on producing. He bought land in what was to become Whitaker Street in 1877 and had a house with attached bake house built on it around 1879. By this time his wife, Susan and only surviving child, Hannah, were doing most of the baking because Susan's father had died in 1877 and Michael decided to take over his business as bonesetter, selling a range of pills and medicines for all kinds of ailments as a sideline. Eventually, in 1892, Michael concentrated on this business only, leaving his interest in the baking business to his daughter and son in law. A few years later he retired and died in 1927.
Meanwhile his wife and daughter had been developing a soft ginger biscuit in their bake house and had hired other staff to help them. In 1884 Hannah married one of these, Alfred Beckett, who had lodged with her parents whilst working for the company, but he died only four years later. Another five years passed before she married again, this time to Fred Ellis Fox, another employee who had
always dreamed of being a baker. He had joined the company for this purpose and became a foreman and then head baker before marrying Hannah, who was now largely directing the company. The business and bake house continued to expand, horses and carts were bought to deliver the goods. The first company factory as such was built on land between Victoria Avenue and Wellington Street in 1927, and the latest machinery was installed there and a production line method put in place. The number of staff doubled and this time motor vehicles were purchased for deliveries. Fred died in 1938, but the couple's son, Michael Spedding Fox, developed the company further and it grew phenomenally under his guidance. This was just as well as it coincided with the decline of the textile industry and the closure of mills in the town. Fox's workforce expanded from 200 in 1939 to 2,000 in the 1980s and became the town's biggest employer.
The female workers became know as "Fox's Fairies" for the wonders they achieved.
The company became noted for its production of biscuit assortments and for insisting on quality over price. It had changed its name over the years from SPEDDING & FOX, to F.E FOX and later F.E.FOX & Son Ltd, which was to become FOX's Biscuits. It was awarded two Royal Warrants for its products. Eventually the company was taken over by Lyons and then Northern Foods in 1977 and the 2 Sisters group in 2011, but it retains the Fox name to this day.
The Dewsbury, Batley and Birstall Tramway Company
The enthusiast in setting up this company to establish a tramline in Batley was Joseph Sheard, born 1821, one of the four sons of Michael Sheard who ran Hick Lane and Hick Well Mills. Joseph was the first chairman of the company whilst his brother George was one of the directors. The company was incorporated in 1872 and shares were sold to raise the £50,000 capital needed to build the track and purchase the tramcars. A prospectus of 1873 proposed the first route should run between Batley and the Wilton Arms at Carlinghow. A headquarters and tramsheds were built on Bradford Road adjacent to that public house, and the tramway opened on Saturday 25th July 1874, with 40 horses and 7 trams. Joseph died in 1876 and his brother George, took over as chairman. That same year Merryweather Engineering Company asked permission to trial their trams pulled by steam engines on the line. George, who had built a mansion for himself, "The Woodlands" (now Bagshaw Museum) was a tram enthusiast. He was onboard during the trial run and was so enthused that he petitioned parliament for consent to the use of steam trams on the company's lines. This took several years to achieve and in the meanwhile Leeds had installed their own steam tramway, the first in the country. The Dewsbury, Batley and Birstall Company had more trams, though, 22 in total. The system enabled workers to get to work more quickly and easily and allowed other passengers to travel the district.
See what the company's horse drawn trams looked like in the photo carousel
There were many incidents and accidents associated with the tramway over the years, here are just a few.
On 17th September 1882 a 7 year old Birstall boy, Wilfrid Waterworth Nelson, the son of a coalminer, was run over, wrapped around the wheels and horribly mutilated by one of the company's trams travelling at about 4 miles an hour. The boy was skipping off Sunday School, where he should have been, and was walking on or crossing the track near Batley. At the inquest, witnesses said the tram crew were not to blame as they could not have seen the boy. A verdict of "accidentally killed" was recorded.
In February 1884 Edwin Box, herring dealer and gamekeeper of Savile Town, brought a case against the company for damages. He had been to Leeds to buy a horse and walking back to Dewsbury had been offered a lift on a cart driven by a man he knew named Frank Dovey. He tied his horse to the back of the cart and accepted the lift. Between Batley Carr and Batley they crossed the compny's tramlines and found a steam tram heading towards them at speed. The noise emanating from the steam engine frightened the horse causing it to rear and plunge and eventually overturn the cart. The engine had almost shaved the horse, he claimed. Both men fell from the cart, Dovey being knocked unconscious and Box having his thumb run over by a wheel. The engine driver, Frederick Thomas Elliott, claimed he could not have been going faster than 8 miles an hour as the automatic brake stopped him, and he was not letting off steam. Mr Truswell from the company denied any negligence on their part but suggested there had been negligence on Box's part in not untying his horse and walking it once he got to the tramway tracks, a more dangerous area. The jury found almost immediately for the defendants.
On 18th April 1884 at Batley a young man, Richard Noble, was fined 5 shillings and costs for refusing to pay his penny fare.
On 4th December 1891 at Batley Police Court another young man, Fred Halstead, was fined 20 shillings and costs for assaulting tram conductor Ben Clegg. Halstead, the worse for drink, had got on a car going towards Dewsbury. The conductor tried to refuse him admittance because of the state he was in. Halstead then tried to tender a half-sovereign which caused a further dispute. Finally Halstead knocked Clegg, the conductor, off the car.
The Dewsbury, Batley and Birstall Tramway Company was sold to the British Electric Traction Company on 30th June 1901 and was operated by electricity from July 1903.
See the photo carousel for an Electric tram in Batley Market Place c.1906
"The Woodlands"
"The Woodlands" was designed by Walter Hanstock as the new home of George Sheard of Hick Lane and Hick Well Mills, a Justice of the Peace, and one of the directors of the Dewsbury, Batley and Birstall Tramway Company. He had become wealthy from the textile trade and paid £25,000 for the mansion in the 1870s. It was situated on high ground away from the unhealthy atmosphere of the industrial town and set in extensive grounds with woodland nearby, not far from open countryside, yet only a few minutes walk from Upper Batley Station. In 1882 George and his wife hosted a fancy dress party in the mansion and gardens to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. Guests enjoyed a sumptuous meal followed by a variety of entertainments. Sadly, on 6th September 1902, George died at home of an apoplectic seizure. His trustees put the house up for sale later that year, by auction at first, but when there were no takers the asking price dropped to £3,000. Still no buyer came forward. Eventually this fine mansion was bought in 1909 by town clerk Mr. Charles Robinson, on behalf of the ratepayers, for just £5.
Batley Town Council had just accepted Lord Wilton's offer of land adjacent to "the Woodlands" estate to be used to provide the town with a fine park. Their purchase of "The Woodlands" enabled them to consider adding a museum, art gallery, tea room and possibly a public billiard room to the park's attractions, and accordingly Walter Bagshaw was given the task of setting up a musem in part of the mansion as its first curator. Afterwards the building became known as the Bagshaw Museum. Walter Bagshaw served, amongst other things, on a committee to erect a statue of Joseph Priestley in Birstall market place, a fete achieved in 1912.
When it was offered for sale in 1902 "The Woodlands" was described as "one of the most beautiful and complete residential estates in the locality, the mansion being perfect in build, luxurious in appointment and decoration, fitted thoughout with electric light, occupying a fine position on rising ground and surrounded by very extensive and charming grounds".
Taylor's Woollen Mills
Taylor's became the largest woollen manufacturing company in Batley but had quite humble beginnings. Thomas Taylor, born 28th November 1778, seems to have founded the firm in the 1820s. He had a house at Crossbank, Batley with a small 3 storied mill in front and a weaving shed behind and a 2 storied press shop nearby, on the site which was to develop into Blakeridge Mills, but at the time was known locally as "Tommy Taylor's Mills". Thomas's use of the local beck in his business led to its pollution and a falling out with the local vicar, through whose garden it ran. The Taylors stopped attending the Church of England. Thomas was recorded as being a woollen manufacturer on the 1841 Census, but by 1851 still only employed 5 men and 2 boys. It was his sons who really developed the business from around 1845 onwards. He and his wife, Rebecca, had seven sons, three of whom continued to run the business in partnership in newly steam powered mills. These were John, born in 1817, Thomas born 1819 and Joshua born 1821 and the company became J. T. and J. Taylor. In 1851 the three of them employed 21 men, 15 women and 13 children, but this was only the beginning. The Blakeridge works were extended, new units being added and others enlarged, eventually after even more additions, becoming known as "Blakeridge Mill Village".
Two of the brothers married daughters of successful carpet manufacturer Samuel Cooke and his wife Rhoda of Liversedge, and it is believed that this led to the acquisition of a new mill at Cheapside, said to be financed by Mr Cooke. This was the 4 storey building which on 10th January 1879 suffered a devastating fire, reducing it to rubble, in which state it was left for over 20 years whilst manufacturing continued in the company's other premises. No lives were lost at Cheapside, but its machinery, much of it the latest model, was. Only the weaving sheds were saved. Damage was estimated at £20,000. The mill had been insured but not sufficiently to replace it straight away.
Before this, on 22nd August 1862, fire had broken out at the by then extensive Blakeridge Mills which consisted of 3 mill buildings, one of which had only been built the previous year. As at Cheapside, one of the machines had overheated causing the fire, and although fire engines from all over the district attended, the fire raged all morning and one employee, James Kemp, burnt to death. Other employees jumped from the windows, some from 3 and 4 storeys high, and some of these were seriously injured. The buildings were completely wrecked, only the old mill, which had been intended for demolition, survived, and damage was estimated at 17 or 18 thousand pounds, a huge setback for the company. The only redeeming grace was that some of the new machinery ordered for the new mill had not yet arrived.
Meanwhile Joshua and Alice Taylor's oldest son,Theodore Cooke Taylor, had been born at New Hall, Carlinghow on 3rd August 1850, and after being educated at Batley Grammar School and Silcoates School, Wakefield (a school for the children of non-conformists which he later supported financially) he entered the family business aged just 16 and experienced every department of the firm. In 1817 he undertook a tour of Europe and thereafter travelled extensively for the business as well as for pleasure. The company he joined manufactured cloth using a combination of new wool and old reclaimed material in the form of rags, or shoddy. For the more robust fabrics they used cotton warp threads producing a very hardwearing material, but they also produced mattelasse fabrics at the other extreme, a quilted and ornamented dress fabric. Both sold well and returned good profits.
In 1879, the year Joshua died, Theodore took over his father's role and became part designer, salesman, buyer and blender. His younger brother, Arthur, and cousins John Taylor and later Thomas Frederick Taylor joined him in running the company, the latter in 1883, but by January 1892 all had agreed to let Theodore take complete control. He was a man of strong convictions and one of these was to promote profit sharing amongst his workers. In 1892 he had 600 employees, but this had expanded to 1,000 by 1900 and 1,800 by 1918. He introduced the profit shares as bonuses for his workers in proportion to the hours they put in, and soon they were topping up their wages handsomely with the various share dividends. However, although the company's employees were gradually becoming its owners, Theodore kept control by retaining all the voting rights himself. He was considered a very good employer by those who worked for him.
By now the company was operating from 3 big mills - Blakeridge, Cheapside and Branch Road, Batley and they also came to own Waterloo Mills at Bramley, Leeds. It took advantage of the new ready to wear clothing business which had originated in Leeds, providing all the desirable and necessary fabrics.
Theodore had entered politics in 1889 being elected to the new West Riding County Council, but in 1900 was persuaded to stand for parliament. He became a Liberal M.P. and worked hard to try and achieve old age pensions. Despite his business interests, he supported Free Trade, and strongly opposed the opium trade, visiting China to follow up his ideas on this.
Theodore had married his first cousin, Sara Jane Ingraham of Pennsylvania, who had been born in Britain and visited relatives here at times. They had 3 daughters but in 1919 she and their eldest daughter died in the influenza epidemic. However, Theodore married again, this time to Mary Isabella McVean, the daughter of a Highland Laird, and the couple moved from Batley to Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. He continued to be a strict Congregationalist, a teetotaller and averse to smoking and gambling, but for his 100th birthday organised a trip to Blackpool for all his factory staff and even danced with some of his mill girls there. He died in Grassington on 19th October 1952, aged 102, but was buried in Batley. Thousands lined the streets of Batley at his funeral. Theodore left £185,233 in his Will.
The Taylor's Blakeridge Mills in Batley still stand having now been converted into luxury apartments (see photo carousel).