ABSTRACT

By 1834 Dewsbury 'was one of the most flourishing places in the whole West Riding of Yorkshire' containing 'many extensive establishments for the manufacture of blankets, woollen cloths, and carpets, its market is well frequented, its wealth is very considerable,.4 Coats and uniforms were two other products produced by the recycling of wool. The early specialisation in the manufacture of coarse, strong and cheap woollens led to the location and growth of the recovered wool industry in Dewsbury and Batley.s By the early Victorian age Dewsbury was positioned at the heart of what was known as the heavy woollen district, lying adjacent to the town of Batley, 'the headquarters of the shoddy trade', where the industry had been developed from the early nineteenth century.6 A generation later, in his classic work on the Victorian shoddy trade, Samuel Jubb eulogised 'the advanced position of the town', the consequence of the development and expansion of trade and manufacture, and 'the augmentation of the population'. By 1860, Jubb counted twenty-three woollen mills in Dewsbury, fifteen engaged in the manufacture of shoddy cloths, while

two are exclusively mills for the production of the raw material, viz., shoddy and mungo, or rag-wool; and the remaining six are employed in the yam and carpet trades. The yam and carpet

I 1938 estimate from Fogarty, M.P., Prospects of the Industrial Areas of Great Britain, (London, 1945), p. 28. 2 Parsons, E., The Civil, Ecclesiastical, Literary, Commercial and Miscellaneous History of Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley and the District within Ten Miles of Leeds, Vol. 1, (Leeds, 1834), p. 318. 3 Glover, F.J., 'A History of Messrs. Wormald and Walkers Ltd., Blanket Manufacturers of Dewsbury', (Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 1959), pp. 340-341. 4 Parsons, The Civil, Ecclesiastical, etc., Vol. I, pp. 317-320. 5 Malin, J. C., 'The West Riding Recovered Wool Textile Industry (1813-1939)" (Ph.D. thesis, University of York, 1979), p. 10. 6 Jubb, S., The History of the Shoddy Trade: its Rise, Progress and Present Position, (London, 1860), pp. 116-117.