Batley

Batley, a manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 8 miles SW. of Leeds; since 1868 a municipal borough, associated for parliamentary purposes with Dewsbury, 1 mile distant. Batley has about 50 mills and factories, being a chief seat of the shoddy and heavy woollen manufactures—army cloths, flushings, pilots, druggets, &c. It has a town-hall (1864-74); an old parish church, Perpendicular in style; some 30 other churches; a free grammar-school (1612; reconstituted 1874); a chamber of commerce; a mechanics' institute; waterworks (1871-78); and a market-house. The population has increased rapidly: (1851) 9308; (1871) 20,871; (1891) 28,719.