Batley The Five Minutes Spare Guide

Yorkshire has a lot to offer for tourists, not least of all Batley: the pretty market town to the southwest of Leeds. Read on and you will see that it has a whole lot more to offer than Biscuts…

Batley isn’t a very big town but it has nevertheless made great contributions to Britain… mainly in biscuits. Found north east of Huddersfield, this small town has a population of 45,000 residents. That’s not very small at all really, but the Batley area includes several of the small villages, settlements, and one horse encampments which the government shipped in alongside this town. Let’s put Batley under the magnifying glass when the sun is behind a cloud and take a look at some of the best bits. Let’s start with an unusual one… What is Batley famous for, anyway?

What is Batley Famous For?

Why does Batley deserve its place on the Five Minutes Spare Travel Guide Wall of Excellence (not a real thing)? Fox’s Biscuits. Batley is famous for the Fox’s Biscuit range, whose factory is on Wellington Street. Additionally, Charlotte Bronte mentioned Oakwell Hall (Birstall) in her book Shirley and the Park.

Are Batley and Dewsbury the Same Town?

No, Batley and Dewsbury are two different towns, which is why they have two different names. You might be confused by this, since Batley also includes:

• Birstall
• Birstall Smithies
• Carlinghow
• Copley Hill
• Hanging Heaton
• Howden Clough
• And Staincliffe.

As for Dewsbury, it shares a border with Batley but it hasn’t been consumed just yet.

Early History of Batley

Now to get to the serious stuff, the part where we research the history of the town so we can break it down to you. Let’s go back to the beginning.

This area of Yorkshire has a ‘rich and diverse’ cross-section of all the periods from prehistoric times. The Yorkshire Archaeological Society has an excellent article that explains what was happening in the area all the way back to the Mesolithic period. Yorkshire has been continuously used for settlements since 10,000 BC. You will find Neolithic burial mounds in Howes, Bronze Age stone circles and rock art, Iron Age and Palaeolithic artefacts, and loads of sites to visit in the area.

As early humans developed into not-so-early humans, the area became home to the Parisi and the Brigantes tribes. The Brigantes were one of England’s largest tribes, though some say it was more like a kingdom’s worth of individual tribes who all worked together. They ruled from Yorkshire all the way up to the borders of Scotland, where they fought off the cattle-raiding Scots for generations. What happened to them? The friggin’ Romans.

Long before Mister Fox made his first biscuit, the Romans landed on the southeast coast of England. They were not pleasant about it: they were here to raid and conquer. With England as a nation not yet established (it wasn’t established until Viking times), there wasn’t any real defence. The kingdom of England didn’t happen until 927AD, about 865 years or so earlier. The Romans arrived on the shores of Kent first to explore in 55 BC. They recorded what they saw there, and came back with an army or six under Claudius, in 43 AD. We couldn’t find any specific mentions of Romans in Batley, but no doubt they trampled through here on the way north to build the wall and fight the Picts. They struggled to control the north, struggled to conquer Wales – even making deals there – and stuck up a wall to keep the guys in blue face paint away from their shiny chariots.

By the time of the Domesday Survey, Batley was a recorded settlement already. The Romans retreated leaving new roads that connected places that had never been connected before. More than one of the places they left, they left behind buildings in timber and stone. They left early quarries and whole towns. They left some of their people, too. Enough to turn Batley from historic arable land into a real boy.

William the Conqueror ordered the survey when he arrived in England but it took about twenty years for his team to get around everywhere on horseback. In some towns, they didn’t even bother recording except to say who owned them. In the north of England, they didn’t even try… there were too many ‘barbarians.’

In 1086, official records say there were 11 houses in the town. At that point, the land belonged to Ilbert de Lacy, who housed 6 villagers, 4 smallholders, and a priest. Batley had 3 x 3 furlongs of woodland, 2 acres of meadow, two ploughlands (fields), 5 teams of men and oxen to plough his fields, and a church. This is likely the same church we know now, rebuilt on earlier places of worship. Back then, Batley Hall was the local manor house and the property of the de Lacy family. Later, the Batley family inherited it through marriage and renovated it for a family home, sometime in the medieval period.

The Medieval Era in Yorkshire

Nearby Howley Hall is the other manor in Batley. It belonged to the Savile family. The cellars remain but the rest is done for. It became home to Thomas Savile, who couldn’t decide who to support in the 1643 civil war and so fluctuated between both sides. It passed in his will to John Savile, who was a parliamentarian, and who offered the use of the hall to Thomas Fairfax, who captured Wakefield from this base. The Earl of Newcastle purposefully feigned an attack on Bradford, which led Sir John to attack his exposed flank. Once the Savile fell for the plot, the Earl marched on Howley Hall, destroying his base of operations, but not the house. The ruins are a little dangerous, but you can still visit this site.

Fun Facts about Batley in Yorkshire

We don’t pass any of our reviewed towns by when it comes to finding out the hot gossip. OK, some of the gossip is lukewarm at best. If you have ever spent a winter in England then you know that lukewarm is sometimes just enough to stop the hypothermia kicking in. We lost our place… Fun facts, right, here we go:

• One of the coolest things about Batley is that it was the centre of the shoddy wool trade, which is where the word shoddy comes from. This type of wool came from breaking down old clothing, cloth, and garments. The wool recycled old clothes into a new yarn, filled with colours and varied textures. It wasn’t the best yarn, but it was far cheaper than wool. The miners of Yorkshire rejoiced. There were 30 shoddy mills in Batley by the early 1860s.
• Oakwell Hall, which one of the Bronte sisters wrote about, dates all the way back to 1311. Of course, it’s not the original brickwork, it would be weathered down to nothing. The manor hall is the earliest recorded in the area and has undergone multiple refurbishments over the years. It became a family home in 1690 when the Batt family moved in.
• The Batt family is maybe responsible for the name of the town. On the other hand, it may come from one of the older English or Danish languages. It means ‘home of Bats.’ Just don’t expect to see cool cars or signals in the sky. Not that bat.
• Batley once homed a nationally famous music hall. The Batley Variety Club opened in the 60s and the owner managed to attract the likes of Shirley Bassey, Roy Orbison, and Louis Armstrong. It later became the Frontier Club. The club ended its life as a gym, repairing all that liver damage and replacing dances with dumbbells. It was the true end of an era. How the heck do you convince Shirley Bassey to come to play a gig in the Yorkshire countryside, anyway?

On that upbeat note, let’s get back to the industrial era, which was when Batley truly began to grow.

The Industrial Period

At the start of the Industrial era, the town of Batley got its first grammar school. For those who are too young to know this, there used to be two types of schools: grammar schools and technical schools. Batley Grammar School opened in 1612. In 1780, followers of the methodist John Wesley brought their religion to the town to compete with the church.

Despite the school opening in the 17^th century, the town remained fairly small and a little bit posh right up until the 1800s. The railway joined Batley to Leeds main line in 1847, which was not so long after the first railway was built down south. Rumour has it that nearby Dewsbury was the first of the two towns to earn a charter and the residents of Batley rushed to catch up. They earned that charter in 1868, but they didn’t have their own town hall yet because of the rush. The councillors met in the local hotel, instead. The hall eventually found a place on the end of Commercial Street.

Even after the end of the industrial period, the town was still largely a farming town. Water-powered mills arrived here in 1730 and a textile industry sprung up, later turning into shoddy cloth. The town went from 2.5k residents in 1801 to over 9,000 in 1851. The industrial era also brought Irish migrants to the area to settle and man the mills.

The Modern Era

Fox’s Biscuits started off as a small sweet shop run by a local man. Michael Spedding had no idea his expanded business would later become one of the nation’s favourite biscuit brands. This man is behind the Classic, arguably the best biscuit ever made. Andrew Carnegie donated money for the library, which finished in 1907. The Batley News began in the late 1800s, with mining in this area of Yorkshire taking place at White Lee and closing for good in 1973.

Modern-day Batley is a small town in a pool of smaller towns and villages. The area encompasses beautiful Yorkshire countryside and about an acre’s worth of clotted cream. There are picturesque manor houses and plenty of places to argue over which goes on a scone first. It’s a calming, pleasant town which you can tell has had wealth pumped into it over the years. It’s a lovely place for a holiday but an even better place to live.

Famous People from Batley

Batley produces many celebrities for the relatively small size of this sprawling parish. There are celebrities from all eras, starting back with the de Lacy’s and subsequently with the Batt family. There were famous people here when you were just a twinkle in your mum’s eye. Here are the Five Minutes Spare favourites:

• The man who first discovered the presence of oxygen in the air, Joseph Priestley, studied at the grammar school.
• Another famous student of Batley Grammar was Sir Titus Salt, a famous industrialist and living proof that the Romans left their stamp on Britain.
• Jo Cox was a famous resident of this previously happy little town.
• Catherine Exley is pretty impressive. She was a soldier’s wife during the Napoleonic Wars. She travelled all over Europe and left a diary which gives brilliant insight into how people lived at that time. She had TWELVE children, nearly died from multiple illnesses plus starvation, and is the only common soldier’s wife’s account of the war.
• The singer Robert Palmer was born in Batley.
• Tula Lotay, the inspiring comic book artist who illustrated the Supreme: Blue Rose graphic novel, lives in Batley.

There are few other celebs who are still alive to tell their tale. Unfortunately, many of them are MPs, who don’t really count. Let’s push on and get to the good bit – finding out if Batley is holiday destination material.

Best Attractions in Batley

The best things to see and do in Batley involve living museums, ancient ruins, and a serious series of golf clubs. Like… really serious. Here are the attractions the locals recommend.

Historic Sites

Take a walk through the fields of Soothill to explore the ruins of Howley Hall. Once part of the English Civil War, it was the former home of the Savile family, who were wealthy landowners in Medieval Yorkshire history. The old hall is a moderate walk from the car park. This excellent example of Elizabethan architecture is one of Yorkshire’s most prestigious ruins. There is a geocache hidden at Howley Hall, ancient gardens to retrace, and 2 miles of countryside to explore.

Landmarks

Oakwell Hall is still a local attraction to the Birstall/Batley area. It began as a manor house which was mentioned in town records from 1310. You can book the house for weddings and parties nowadays. You can also go along to the surrounding gardens and countryside which is now a country park. It’s a good landmark, a historic site, and a day out for the kids near Batley.

As suspected, the church of All Saints in Batley dates to the 15^th century, in part. Historians also believe that it was built on top of the same ruined church from the 1300s. Nobody turns a church into a gym. You can still attend a service at the Parish Church of All Saints in Batley. They are a Christian church which has gorgeous stained glass windows.

Cultural Attractions

Oakwell hall has become a living museum, styled up as it would be in the 1690’s. Asides from this wonderful old building, you can also visit the Bagshaw Museum in Kirklees. This place has a kid’s play area and café. It is set inside its own woodland and it runs exhibits about international and local history/art/culture. They have an African Gallery, an Egyptian Tomb, and features about the history behind Fox’s Biscuits and the Batley Variety Club. Maybe there you will find out how the owner of a dance hall in rural Yorkshire managed to attract Shirley Bassey to his place for a gig. Was it money? Was it beauty? Was it charm?

Batley Library is also an art gallery now. It still stands in the original 1907 library, but it has been refurbished once or twice. Now it contains some classical pieces for the community to enjoy. Both paintings and books.

Outdoor Attractions

Take a walk around the pond at Wilton Park. This gorgeous, duck-friendly park is the park that surrounds the Bagshaw Museum. There is plenty of parking and a fair number of pensioner-friendly benches to relax on. It has a steeply sloping woodland part and lots of open space.

Sports and Teams

Since Batley is less of a small town and more an amalgamated cluster of settlements, there are a few football clubs and teams. You have the Birstall Rovers who play in the Yorkshire Amateur Division. Then you have the Howden Clough Junior FC. There is the Street Soccer Club on Heritage Road, and then there is a Powerplay group in a local sports centre.

There are also a few golf clubs in the local region. You have Howley Hall Golf Club, the Yorkshire Golfer on Branch Road, Hanging Heaton Golf Club, Cleckheaton and District Golf Club, and the Clubhouse on Bradford Road. We are not going to link them all, you know how to use Google.

We can’t not visit Batley and ignore the massive great Rugby Stadium in town. The Fox’s Biscuits Stadium (formerly the Mount Pleasant Stadium) belongs to the Batley Bulldogs. Largely regarded as the best rugby league stadium for miles in any direction, it is on a hill overlooking the town, it has a terraced stand, and sports three grandstands, and is famous for the red and white BATLEY writing on the seating.

Where to go shopping in Batley?

Most of the good shopping is on the wisely named Commercial Street. Where all the commerce takes place. In the ever-advancing thrall of capitalism, however, those shops have oozed out into other places. Check out the Mill Outlet and Garden Centre, Batley Plaza in the town centre, and Birstall Shopping Park. Or take the trip to Leeds.

Where to eat and drink in Batley?

There is a funky diner on Bradford road called Jem’s Pit Stop. We are not sure who Jem is, but she sure does make a decent burger. You have to try Mr Ts though, to make a fair burger-by-burger comparison. Everyone in town has their own favourite. There’s Luigi’s in Birstall and Roberto’s Italian to choose from for posher nosh.

Other Nearby Attractions

Batley is not an island. Yorkshire is brimming with excellent locations which will encourage you and your family to get out and explore. If you are spending more than a week in Batley, see some of these top-rated nearby towns:

• Visit the walls of historic York or walk in the Cathedral gardens.
• Go and visit the lovely market town of Skipton.
• Head to North Yorkshire and see the town of Settle, on the edge of the Dales National Park.
• Head into Leeds and check out the Royal Armouries Museum.
• Visit the National Coal Mining Museum of England.
• Go and follow the trail of sculptures in the Sculpture Park.

With so many nearby attractions, you could spend your full two weeks’ holiday in Batley and it would fly past for all the fun you were having.

How to Get to Batley?

And as always, you ought to know how to get to Batley before you try to visit there. Here are our rough directions and some advice: use Google Maps.

By Road

Follow the M62 out of the city and head south when you hit the turn-off for Birstall.

By Rail

Batley Train Station is about 8 miles southwest of Leeds.

By Air

Your nearest airport will be Leeds & Bradford.

By Sea

The nearest port is in Hull, which has European passenger ferries.

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