Shoddy Town

A busy day and an evening meeting in Batley - a town with a lot of family connections.

The town's industry developed rapidly around the "shoddy" textile process - Invented by clothier Benjamin Law who found himself looking for new ways to cut costs and improve business. Law’s answer of tearing up old woollen rags and mixing the resulting threads with virgin wool eventually enabled him to produce a cheaper but durable cloth which was eventually labelled shoddy (coming from an Arabic word which means re-use).

Much of Batley's history has been researched by local historian Malcolm Haigh and his book The History of Batley forms part of a statue above the Market Place.

Malcolm is a not too distant relative and we are both direct descendants of Benjamin Law!