Collections A-Z

The A-Z index provides summary details of named print and archival collections. Names in the index are inclusive of people, organisations and subjects, arranged by first name.

Special Collections holds many individual and smaller groupings of manuscripts. These are represented in the A-Z within artificial collections, based on types of material e.g. deeds, scrapbooks.

Entries in the index link to full catalogue records with digitised images where these exist. The A-Z continues to grow as new catalogue descriptions are created.

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Collection
A
Association of Woollen and Worsted Manufacturers Leeds, Archive A meeting of manufacturers connected with the woollen and worsted trade was held in the Council Room of the Chamber of Commerce, Royal Exchange, Leeds, on 10 January 1899. There it was unanimously resolved that "in view of the number of questions arising from time to time affecting the interests of manufacturers connected with the woollen and worsted trade of the City of Leeds and District...it is desirable to form an association exclusively representative of such manufacturers."
Act of Parliament relating to Boothferry Bridge
Anglian Water Papers Privatisation of water supplies was originally proposed in 1984, but because of public opposition to the plans, implementation was delayed until 1988 when the Water Act was passed.
Albert Edward Leak of Lille and Leeds notebooks Albert Edward Leak spent his life working in the textile industry, principally in rope manufacture and associated fields. He lived in Leeds, but spent some time working in Lille. His daughter, Dorothy Mary Leak became a sub-librarian at the Brotherton Library in the University of Leeds
Adolph Jacobs and Company Limited, Business Archive Adolph Jacobs and Company Limited, of Manor Row, Bradford, were wool and noil merchants. Jacobs established the company in 1865 in partnership with Daniel Delius. The partnership between Carl Christian Adolph Jacobs, Ernest Jacobs and Adolph Jacobs the younger was dissolved in 1901. The business was continued by Ernest Jacobs and Adolph Jacobs the younger.
Airedale Mill Company Limited, Business Archive Airedale Mill Company Limited of Rodley, Leeds were commission scribblers, spinners and finishers, incorporated on 24 July 1860
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Business and Financial manuscripts This artificial collection reflects individual and small groups of manuscripts relating to the business and financial activities of named organisations and people. It includes 50 individual accessions to Special Collections. Material of a similar nature can be found in more substantial named archival collections.
Brotherton and Company, Business and family archive In 1878 Edward Allen Brotherton, later Lord Brotherton of Wakefield, founded (with the backing of relatives) the first chemical company in Wakefield. It opened under the name of Dyson Sons and Brotherton at Calder Vale Road and formed the basis of an expanding and successful business, which later became Brotherton & Company.
Berlin informiert. Einheit praktisch
C
Clothworkers Collection A collection of technical and historical works on all aspects of the textile industries, mainly nineteenth and twentieth century publications.
Crockatt family and business Archive The Leeds based firm of Crockatt's dyers and dry cleaners was founded in 1875 by John Crockatt after his apprenticeship as a dyer. As well as being a businessman, he was a senior member of the Churches of Christ, and in his later years he and his wife travelled extensively. His son Douglas followed in his father's footsteps and saw the company through difficult times. Crockatt's became part of the Johnson Group in 1935 and Douglas became Chairman of the Group in 1952. He served in the First World War and was a Liveryman of the Dyers' Company. He was also involved with the Court and Council of Leeds University, in politics in the 1920s, and a magistrate for forty years. Like his father, he travelled a great deal. His son Douglas Allan later followed in his footsteps and was a director of Johnsons from 1961-1984 after a distinguished career in the Royal Navy. He was a well-known magistrate, Vice Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and was awarded both the OBE and MBE. In 1975 to commemorate the firm's centenary, a history of the family firm was written by Colonel Ewart Clay, the family's archivist. Clay's book 'A Century of Crockatt Cleaning' is a useful introduction to both the family and firm. The Crockatt name finally disappeared from the high street in 1997, a year after D. Allan Crockatt's death, to be replaced by Johnson's Cleaners
Christopher Waud and Company, Business Archive Christopher Waud and Company, of Britannia Mills, Bradford, were worsted spinners, using mohair and alpaca, established in 1825.
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Dennis Wheatley Archive Dennis Yates Wheatley (1897-1977) was an English author, one of the world's best-selling writers of thriller and occult novels from the 1930s-1960s.
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Edward Ripley and Son, Business Archive Edward Ripley and Son, of Bowling Dye-Works, Bradford, were dyers and finishers, established c.1806, originally as George Ripley and Son. Edward Ripley's son Henry discovered a system of dyeing superior to that used by their competitors, a factor which made the firm and the family wealthy. Henry Ripley had the model village Ripley Ville or Ripleyville in Broomfields, Bradford, built primarily for the company's workers. It was started in 1866 and finished in 1881. Edward Ripley eventually became a Conservative MP in 1874 and was created a baronet in 1880, shortly before his death in 1882.
Edward Longbottom and family, Dyers of Batley, Business Archive The Longbottom family were dyers in Hunsworth from ca.1831, before moving to Birstall some time between 1841 and 1844. In 1850, Edward Longbottom prepared to lease land in Howley Park, Morley, from the Earl of Cardigan. The lease gave Longbottom the right to establish a dyeworks and to build necessary water-channels and reservoirs. It appears, however, that the lease was not signed until early in 1851. The firm was still in Howley in 1873, but the address had been changed by then to Howley Beck, Batley. Howley is on the border between Batley and Morley. The latest date mentioned in the firm's books is 1885, when the address is still Batley. Members of the Longbottom family whose names appear in the books are Edward, Robert, John, and James. The name of Edward occurs in books dated 1837 and 1885, so it is possible that this name may refer to two people of different generations. From at least 1888 up to 1922, a firm called John and Joseph Longbottom was operating in Bradford Road, Birstall, as "army and pattern dyers", but it is not known whether this firm had any connection with that of Edward Longbottom.
Eshton Hall Estate Archive Eshton Hall estate was acquired by John Wilson of Threshfield (d. 1706). It descended regularly to his great-grandson, Mathew III (1730-1802). Mathew III married Frances Clive, sister of the first Lord Clive, in 1759. Their only child to survive to adulthood was a daughter, Margaret Clive (1764-1848), who married the Reverend Henry Richardson-Currer in 1783. He died in 1784 leaving a posthumous daughter, Frances Mary (1785-1861), who died unmarried. Margaret married her cousin, Mathew Wilson IV (1772-1854) in 1800. He was a solicitor by training and became a J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant for the West Riding. They had several children, the eldest of whom was Mathew V (1802-1891), who had a colourful political career. He was elected M.P. for Clitheroe, where the family had landed interests, in 1841, 1847 and 1852. Twice Mathew V was unseated for electoral malpractice. He later sat for the North Division of the West Riding (1874-1885) and for the Skipton Division (1885-1886). In 1874 he was created a baronet. Mathew V married Sophia Louisa Emerson Amcotts in 1826 by whom he had a son, Mathew Wharton (1827-1902), who was later the second baronet. Sophia died in 1833 and many years later Mathew V married, secondly, Frances Pedler a widow, from whom he had no issue. A pedigree of the family is printed in Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the county families of Yorkshire, vol. 1 (1874), which may be supplemented from Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (1975). The irregular spelling of the family's favourite male Christian name has been silently standardised to the form used by Burke.
Economics Most of the titles date from the second half of the 18th century onwards. It contains numerous editions of Adam Smith's 'An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations', works on economic theory and economic history by 19th century authors such as Robert Owen, Karl Marx, and J R McCulloch, and 20th-century economists such as Beveridge, Keynes and the Webbs. The collection includes works on aspects of economics such as wages, prices, taxation, banking, commerce and trade, and on specific industries and sectors of the British economy, including the surveys of agriculture in (mainly) English counties produced in the late 18th/early 19th century for the Board of Agriculture & Internal Improvement.
E. Fox and Sons Limited, Business Archive E. Fox and Sons Limited, of Calder Bank Mills, Dewsbury, were shoddy and mungo merchants, established in 1845.
E. J. Arnold wholesale stationers The firm of E.J. Arnold Ltd began in 1863 when Edward James Arnold, a Dorset man, founded a small printing business at Barnstaple in Devon. In 1870 he transferred the business to Leeds, in order to broaden its scope, and shortly after this move, he decided to develop a trade with local schools, taking advantage of changes in the structure of education resulting from the 1870 Act. Within his lifetime, the company became the largest company in the field of educational publishing.
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Greville Press Archive Anthony Astbury (1940- ) was a schoolmaster at Emscote Lawn School, Warwick, when in 1975 he founded a small English poetry press, the Greville Press, named after Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628). The playwright Harold Pinter, amongst others, has assisted him in the administration of the company, which is non-profitmaking. In May 2000 the press celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is noted in literary circles for its fine productions of chiefly shorter twentieth-century English poems with small print-runs.
Gott, wool merchants, Archive The Gotts were a prominent Leeds family, and were partners in firms of woollen merchants and manufacturers from 1780 to 1867.
George Hattersley and Sons Limited, Business Archive George Hattersley and Sons Limited, of Mytholmes, Providence, and Springhead Mills, Haworth and Keighley, were worsted spinners and manufacturers, established in 1850.
Gott Books A collection of illustrated books of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, including works of literature, topography and natural history, formerly owned by the Gott family of Leeds.
George Crowther and Company Limited, Business Archive George Crowther and Company, of Lane Side Mills, Churwell, near Leeds, were woollen manufacturers, established in the late 1830s.
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Hobson, Clegg and Company, Business Archive Hobson, Clegg and Company, of Kings Mill Lane and Priest Royd Mills, Firth Street, Huddersfield, were woollen manufacturers established ca. 1889.
Holly Park Mill Company, Business Archive Holly Park Mill Company, of Calverley, were dyers, scribblers, carders, slubbers, spinners, and fullers, established in the 1860s.
Hermann C. Hillman papers H.C. Hillmann left Germany in the 1930s and worked in the Foreign Office Research Department during World War II as an expert on German economic affairs. In 1948 he became a lecturer in the School of Economic Studies at the University of Leeds. He retired in 1976.
Henry Booth and Sons Limited, Business Archive Henry Booth and Sons Limited, of Moorhead Mill, Gildersome, near Leeds, were woollen cloth manufacturers, established in 1806.
Henry Briggs, Son and Company Limited, Business Archive The company was based at Whitwood and Methley Junction collieries, near Normanton, Yorkshire.
I
Isaac Holden and Sons Limited, Business Archive Isaac Holden and Sons Limited, of Pitt Lane Mill, Bradford (1846-1849), St Denis, Croix, and Rheims, France, were woolcombers, established in 1846. Sir Isaac Holden (1807-1897) had a varied and interesting career. Born in humble circumstances, in his early life he invented, but failed to patent, the lucifer match. He was in partnership with S. C. Lister and later on his own in wool combing mills both in Bradford and in France. Holden was Liberal Member of Parliament for Knaresborough, 1865-1868, when he was described as one of the richest men in the House. Holden supported electoral reform, the disestablishment of the Church and Irish Home Rule. Throughout his life he was a staunch Wesleyan, and in later years he was an active philanthropist. The Holden family were closely associated with the City of Bradford, Sir Isaac Holden's eldest son, Angus, being Lord Mayor in 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1886.
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John Hirst and Sons, Business Archive John Hirst and Sons, of Bankfield Mill and Walk Mill, Dobcross, Saddleworth, were woollen manufacturers, established ca. 1850. John Hirst (1802-77) established the business. He entered into partnership with his sons John, William Lockwood, Ben, Joshua and Arthur.
John Foster and Son, Business Archive John Foster and Son, of Black Dyke Mills, Queensbury, near Bradford, were worsted, alpaca and mohair spinners and manufacturers, established in 1819.
John Harry Jones papers John Harry Jones was Professor of Economics at Leeds 1919-1946. He was born in Wales and graduated from Cardiff in 1903. After further study at Leipzig and Berlin he lectured at Liverpool and Glasgow before coming to Leeds. During the First World War he served in the Ministries of Munitions and of Labour. Later he served on a number of Royal Commissions and Boards, notably the Nova Scotia Royal Commission of Economic Enquiry in 1934.
Jonathan Akroyd Business Archive Jonathan Akroyd, a clothier, was in partnership until ca. 1782 with his younger brother James, the founder of James Akroyd & Sons, of Halifax, stuff manufacturers, worsted spinners and merchants.
Joseph Lee, Business Archive Joseph Lee, of Idle, near Leeds, was a woollen manufacturer, in Idle, near Bradford. The company was established ca. 1800 by Joseph with his brother, William Lee.
John Wilson of Broomhead Archive John Wilson was an antiquarian who lived at Broomhead Hall in the parish of Bradfield, near Sheffield. The Wilson family had lived in the same area for several centuries and extensive family archives formed the original basis for the collection, which was supplemented by acquiring or copying the papers belonging to other local families, such as the Kayes of Woodsome and the Bosvilles of Gunthwaite. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII granted the Manor of Rotherham to George, Earl of Shrewsbury. The Shrewsbury family lacked male heirs and the lordship passed to the Howards, the Dukes of Norfolk. It then descended to a junior branch of the family, the Earls of Effingham, in Surrey.
John Reddihough Limited and William Gawthorp & Company, Business Archive John Reddihough Limited, of 21 Horton Lane, Bradford, were wool merchants, top makers, and wool combers. They formerly operated as Reddihough and Murgatroyd, woolstaplers. William Gawthorp and Company were commission wool combers, Bradford. John and Frank Reddihough were partners, and from the 1890s there were other partners in common with John Reddihough Ltd.
John Raistrick and Sons, Business Archive John Raistrick and Sons, of Brackendale Mills, Idle, near Leeds, were woollen manufacturers, established in 1861.
J. T. Clay and Sons Limited, Business Archive J. T. Clay and Sons Limited were woollen and worsted manufacturers. Based at Crow Trees Mills which included Holme Mill, Raistrick Mill, Brighouse Mill, Raistrick, the company was established under the name J. T. Clay and Sons Ltd. in 1881. They had been manufacturing in the district much earlier under the name Clay and Earnshaw.
J. C. Waddington and Sons Limited J. C. Waddington and Sons Limited, of Crown Point Dye-Works, East Street, Leeds, were woollen and worsted dyers, established in 1869. The firm was until April 1869 known as William Brayshaw and Sons. Most of the nineteenth-century records relate to the latter.
John Crabtree and Sons Limited, Business Archive John Crabtree and Sons Limited, of Thornton Road, then Wigan Street and Sunbridge Road, Bradford, were established in 1840 as mohair merchants. By the twentieth century they had become wool, noils, laps and waste merchants. See Industries of Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Part I (1888), p.212.
James France and Company Limited, Business Archive James France and Company Limited, of Albert Mills, Savile Town, Dewsbury, were carpet and woollen manufacturers and yarn spinners. They were established ca. 1790 in Coxley Valley and moved several times before settling at Albert Mills. According to White’s Directory, 12th Edition c. 1870, James France & Co. were carpet and woollen manufacturers and yarn spinners of Wellington Rd, Westgate, and Hebble Mills, Dewsbury.
James Eccles Williams, notes on economic history James Williams received his MA from the University of Leeds in 1951. His book 'The Derbyshire miners: a study in industrial and social history' was published by Allen & Unwin in 1962.
John Bancroft and Company Limited, Business Archive John Bancroft and Company Limited, of Charles Mill, Oxenhope, Keighley, were worsted spinners, established in 1810. This firm became part of Bancroft & Sunderland Ltd. in 1959. It was based at Eagle Mill, Dalton Lane, Keighley.
Jeremiah Ambler and Sons Limited, Business Archive Jeremiah Ambler and Sons Limited of Midland Mills, Bradford, were combers, spinners and weavers of all kinds of wool and hair, established ca. 1783-1789.
John Bowling and Company Limited, Cyclops Foundry, Business Archive John Bowling & Co. Ltd operated in south Leeds as a general ironfounders between 1878 and 1954.
K
Kellett, Brown and Company Limited, Business Archive Kellett, Brown and Company Limited, of Clover Greaves Mill, Calverley, near Leeds, were spinners, commission scribblers and spinners, scourers, fullers, and tenterers, established in 1834.
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Lord Brotherton (Brotherton Collection)
Lubricating Oils and Grease Traders' Association Archive The inauguration meeting of the Yorkshire Lubricating Oil and Grease Trades' Association was held at the Hotel Metropole, Leeds, on 16 May 1923. The original objects of the Association were to negotiate with the railway companies over charges for the transport of oil; to safeguard the trade against trusts or combines who would sell directly to consumers; the mutual protection of members against selling at or below cost; representation of the Yorkshire trade in relation to issues of national interest through membership of the National Federation; and to establish bona fides for oil traders.
Lister and Company Limited, Business Archive Lister and Company Limited, of Manningham Mills, Bradford, were woolcombers, silk spinners, and knitting wool manufacturers, established in 1838.
Leeds White Cloth Hall The first hall for the sale of white cloth in Leeds was financed by merchants and tradesmen and erected in Kirkgate, Leeds, opening in April 1711. Business flourished, and in 1755 a new hall was built, financed by subscriptions from clothiers, and occupying a site on a strip of land between Hunslet Lane and Meadow Lane. By the mid-1770s this hall also had become too small. Merchants seeking to keep the cloth market centralised in Leeds initiated the building of a third White Cloth Hall which opened in October 1775. A fourth hall was established in the 1860s.
Leeds Clothing Trade Papers
Leeds Chamber of Commerce The Leeds Chamber of Commerce was formed in April 1851, although incomplete records exist of an earlier organisation covering the period 1785-1793.
Letter regarding the General Association of Mill Owners in Lancashire
M
Maurice Warwick Beresford papers Maurice Beresford was Professor of Economic History at the University of Leeds, 1959-1985
Marshall and Company, Business Archive The Leeds flax-spinning firm of Marshall and Co. was founded in 1788 by John Marshall, the son of a draper. He took complete control in 1802, and the firm remained under the control of the Marshall family until its closure in 1886.
Management
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Northern House Publishing Archive The Northern House publishing venture was established by Andrew Gurr and Jon Silkin in the Department of English Literature at Leeds in 1963. At Gurr's suggestion, the Chair of English Literature, A. Norman Jeffares, had agreed to provide funding for the acquisition of a hand printing press for the use of bibliography students. Gurr acquired an old double demy Albion hand press, typefaces and other equipment for just over £250, and the press was set up in the basement of the University gym, at that time underneath the Students' Union.
North Biddick Colliery, Co. Durham, 1722-1733, owned by Maj. Davison and partners The North Biddick colliery was originally opened sometime before 1710.
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Parkwood Mills Company Business Archive Parkwood Mills Company, of Longwood, near Huddersfield, were commission spinners, twisters, warpers, weavers and menders. In 1887, according to their Articles of Association, they were dyers, millers and finishers. They incorporated John Broadbent and Sons, who were woollen manufacturers, and Longwood Finishing Company, who were scourers, millers, dyers, finishers and London shrinkers.
R
Robert Jowitt and Sons Limited, Business Archive Robert Jowitt and Sons Limited, of 153 Sunbridge Road, Bradford, were wool merchants, top makers, wool combers, wool scourers, carbonisers and fell mongers, established in 1776.
R. V. Marriner Limited, Business Archive R.V. Marriner Limited, of Greengate Mills, Keighley, were worsted spinners and manufacturers. The company was originally established c.1784 as Watson, Blacky, Smith and Greenwood, cotton spinners. It later became William Marriner, 1784-1808, B. and W. Marriner, 1808-1888, Marriner Son and Naylor, 1888-1908, and finally R.V. Marriner Limited, 1908. The firm gave up loom weaving in 1837 and concentrated on worsted spinning. Greengate Mill was built in 1874 at the height of the cotton spinning boom. By the late nineteenth century Marriner's concentrated primarily on the production of knitting wools for the home and foreign markets. In 1922 Marriner's advertised the fact that they span 'all classes of hosiery and hand-knitting yarns in botany, crossbred, camel-hair etc.' Their speciality was the production of yarns for 'sports-coats, scarves, etc.' See J. Hodgson, Textile Manufacture, and other Industries, in Keighley (1879), pp. 52-5.
Robert Clough (Keighley) Limited, Business Archive Robert Clough (Keighley) Limited, of Grove Mills, Keighley, were worsted spinners and manufacturers, established in 1800.
S
Stand Magazine Archive This collection represents the archives of Jon Silkin's Stand magazine, from early days in London from 1952 to 1957, through its relaunch from Leeds in 1960 and move to Newcastle in 1965, through to its return to Leeds in 1999. The largest sections of the archive comprise business records and other materials relating to the magazine as a whole; production files (typescripts, dummies, proofs, etc.) relating to individual issues of the magazine from 1952 to 1998; and correspondence between 'Stand' editors, contributors and readers. There are papers relating to the involvement of 'Stand' editors in the 1965 Edinburgh Fringe Festival; and the 'Stand' anthology, 'Poetry of the Committed Individual', published in 1973. The collection also includes several smaller accruals.
Skelton and Wells Leeds wine merchant, Business Archive The Leeds Directory for 1817 contains an entry for Skelton & Wells, wine merchants, at premises in Albion Street in Leeds. In 1860 Thomas Casson bought the business from Frank Richardson & Co, and Skelton & Wells are named as their predecessors. Later owners of the business included John Lupton & Son (in Gascoigne Street) and Cairns & Hickey (in Blenheim Terrace).
S. Tempest and Company, Business Archive S. Tempest and Co were established in 1906 at Laisteridge Lane and later moved to 57 Park Lane, Bradford. The company manufactured gym frocks, blouses, dresses and womens' overalls. It was a partnership between Squire Tempest and Arthur McIntyre. The partnership was dissolved in October 1925.
Samuel Cockroft and Company Limited, Business Archive Samuel Cockcroft and Company Limited, of Barkerend Mills, Bradford, were worsted spinners, established in 1852.
T
Thomas Hield and Sons, Business Archive Thomas Hield and Sons Limited, of 25 Wellington Road, Dewsbury, were exporters of carpet yarns, established in 1881. In 1914 the owners were Thomas Hield, William Donald Hield and Philip Hield.
Thomas Boyd (Leeds) Limited, Business Archive Thomas Boyd (Leeds) Limited, of Stonebridge Mills, Wortley, Leeds, and Victoria Mills, Holbeck, were millers, finishers, waterproofers and embossers, established in 1873.
Thomas Askren farm Archive Thomas Askren, of Hough-on-the-Hill, Lincolnshire, owned Crow Trees Farm and, later, Elder Tree Farm in the parish of Hatfield, near Doncaster, south Yorkshire
T. Berry (Bradford Limited), Business Archive T. Berry (Bradford) Limited, of 80 Grattan Road, Bradford, were wool, noils and waste dealers, established in 1905.
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William Lupton and Company Limited, Business Archive William Lupton and Company Limited, of Whitehall Mills, Leeds, were woollen and worsted manufacturers and traders, was established as such in 1773. The company traded in various goods, particularly cloth, before this date. William Lupton (1700-1771) was a yeoman farmer and clothier. William's third son, Arthur Lupton (1748-1807), was a member of the committee which regulated the activities of the Leeds cloth halls. For the history of the family see: C. A. Lupton, 'The Lupton family in Leeds', 1965 and Francis Lupton 'The Next Generation', 2001.
William Rhodes Limited, Business Archive William Rhodes Limited, of Birkenshaw and Carlton Cross Mills, Leeds, were flock manufacturers, established ca. 1830.
William Willans and Company Limited, Business Archive William Willans and Company Limited, of Dundas Street, Huddersfield, were wool merchants, established in 1825-26.
William Hanson and Company Limited, Business Archive William Hanson and Company Limited, of Haley Mills, Halifax, were cotton spinners, doublers and warp manufacturers.
Wormalds and Walker Limited, Business Archive Wormald and Walker Limited, of Dewsbury Mills, Dewsbury, were blanket manufacturers. The company was originally established in 1811 as Hague and Cook, by Thomas Hague and his nephew John Cook with John Greenwood. The Wormald family joined the company in the 1840s.
West Yorkshire Coal Owners' Association The West Yorkshire Coal Owners' Association was formed in February 1890, in the expectation that collective negotiation would strengthen the colliery owners' position in relation to the rapid growth of the Yorkshire Miners' Association.
W. and E. Crowther Limited, Business Archive W. and E. Crowther Limited, of Crimble and Brook Mills, Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, were woollen manufacturers, established in 1872.
William and Jonn Clarkson Limited, Business Archive William and Jonn Clarkson Limited, of Smale Well Mill, Pudsey, were woollen cloth manufacturers, established ca. 1850. Jonn Clarkson was in business on his own in the 1840s.
Whitfield family bakery, of Idle, near Bradford, notebooks and related material Martha Ann Whitfield (1865-1924), known as Marthann, and Anne Whitfield, afterwards Hook (1886-1981), were the daughters of Emma and Joseph Bateson Whitfield of Brackendale, Thackley. There were two brothers, Alfred and Joshua, and another sister, Ada, who married Fred Barker. Marthann and Annie bought the bakery in Town Lane in about 1920 and eventually sold the business to their nephew, Frank Whitfield, son of Joshua. Marthann died of influenza in 1924, while Annie, who in 1928, at the age of 42, had married William Hardaker Hook, remained in Idle until her death in 1981, aged 95.
William A. Wood (land agents) Archive In 'Bulmer's Directory/Gazetteer' for 1890, William Abel Wood is described as a major landowner and listed as the owner of Green Farm in the township of Lillings Ambo. He is also included as the Councillor for the Sutton-in-the-Forest division of the North Riding.
William Ackroyd, Otley Mills, Business Archive William Ackroyd Limited, were worsted spinners of Otley Mills, Otley, West Yorkshire, established in 1815. William Ackroyd was an entrepreneur who set up a worsted spinning business in a mill in Otley in 1815. Worsted is a woollen yarn woven into a fabric typically used to make tailored clothing such as suits. Up until the late 18th century the wool textile industry had been mainly home based. Ackroyd took advantage of advances in technology to produce yarn in bulk using machinery. He helped to make worsted spinning the major industry that it became during the 19th and early 20th centuries in Yorkshire. By the 1830s William Ackroyd had acquired a partner, Thomas Duncan, who took over the business after Ackroyd's death in 1865.
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Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Archive The Yorkshire Naturalists Union was formed in the mid-nineteenth century as a federation of natural history societies and individual naturalists, from across the county. Its first president was Henry Clifton Sorby.
Yorkshire Land and Warping Company, Business Archive The Yorkshire Land and Warping Company had a registered office at Thorne near York between about 1875 and 1947. Warp is silty, earthy matter carried by tides and rivers which enhances the fertility of the land. Warping is a method of flooding land on purpose to deposit layers of warp.

Collection

Association of Woollen and Worsted Manufacturers Leeds, Archive

A meeting of manufacturers connected with the woollen and worsted trade was held in the Council Room of the Chamber of Commerce, Royal Exchange, Leeds, on 10 January 1899. There it was unanimously resolved that "in view of the number of questions arising from time to time affecting the interests of manufacturers connected with the woollen and worsted trade of the City of Leeds and District...it is desirable to form an association exclusively representative of such manufacturers."

Act of Parliament relating to Boothferry Bridge

Anglian Water Papers

Privatisation of water supplies was originally proposed in 1984, but because of public opposition to the plans, implementation was delayed until 1988 when the Water Act was passed.

Albert Edward Leak of Lille and Leeds notebooks

Albert Edward Leak spent his life working in the textile industry, principally in rope manufacture and associated fields. He lived in Leeds, but spent some time working in Lille. His daughter, Dorothy Mary Leak became a sub-librarian at the Brotherton Library in the University of Leeds

Adolph Jacobs and Company Limited, Business Archive

Adolph Jacobs and Company Limited, of Manor Row, Bradford, were wool and noil merchants. Jacobs established the company in 1865 in partnership with Daniel Delius. The partnership between Carl Christian Adolph Jacobs, Ernest Jacobs and Adolph Jacobs the younger was dissolved in 1901. The business was continued by Ernest Jacobs and Adolph Jacobs the younger.

Airedale Mill Company Limited, Business Archive

Airedale Mill Company Limited of Rodley, Leeds were commission scribblers, spinners and finishers, incorporated on 24 July 1860

Business and Financial manuscripts

This artificial collection reflects individual and small groups of manuscripts relating to the business and financial activities of named organisations and people. It includes 50 individual accessions to Special Collections. Material of a similar nature can be found in more substantial named archival collections.

Brotherton and Company, Business and family archive

In 1878 Edward Allen Brotherton, later Lord Brotherton of Wakefield, founded (with the backing of relatives) the first chemical company in Wakefield. It opened under the name of Dyson Sons and Brotherton at Calder Vale Road and formed the basis of an expanding and successful business, which later became Brotherton & Company.

Berlin informiert. Einheit praktisch

Clothworkers Collection

A collection of technical and historical works on all aspects of the textile industries, mainly nineteenth and twentieth century publications.

Crockatt family and business Archive

The Leeds based firm of Crockatt's dyers and dry cleaners was founded in 1875 by John Crockatt after his apprenticeship as a dyer. As well as being a businessman, he was a senior member of the Churches of Christ, and in his later years he and his wife travelled extensively. His son Douglas followed in his father's footsteps and saw the company through difficult times. Crockatt's became part of the Johnson Group in 1935 and Douglas became Chairman of the Group in 1952. He served in the First World War and was a Liveryman of the Dyers' Company. He was also involved with the Court and Council of Leeds University, in politics in the 1920s, and a magistrate for forty years. Like his father, he travelled a great deal. His son Douglas Allan later followed in his footsteps and was a director of Johnsons from 1961-1984 after a distinguished career in the Royal Navy. He was a well-known magistrate, Vice Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and was awarded both the OBE and MBE. In 1975 to
commemorate the firm's centenary, a history of the family firm was written by Colonel Ewart Clay, the family's archivist. Clay's book 'A Century of Crockatt Cleaning' is a useful introduction to both the family and firm. The Crockatt name finally disappeared from the high street in 1997, a year after D. Allan Crockatt's death, to be replaced by Johnson's Cleaners

Christopher Waud and Company, Business Archive

Christopher Waud and Company, of Britannia Mills, Bradford, were worsted spinners, using mohair and alpaca, established in 1825.

Dennis Wheatley Archive

Dennis Yates Wheatley (1897-1977) was an English author, one of the world's best-selling writers of thriller and occult novels from the 1930s-1960s.

Edward Ripley and Son, Business Archive

Edward Ripley and Son, of Bowling Dye-Works, Bradford, were dyers and finishers, established c.1806, originally as George Ripley and Son. Edward Ripley's son Henry discovered a system of dyeing superior to that used by their competitors, a factor which made the firm and the family wealthy.

Henry Ripley had the model village Ripley Ville or Ripleyville in Broomfields, Bradford, built primarily for the company's workers. It was started in 1866 and finished in 1881. Edward Ripley eventually became a Conservative MP in 1874 and was created a baronet in 1880, shortly before his death in 1882.

Edward Longbottom and family, Dyers of Batley, Business Archive

The Longbottom family were dyers in Hunsworth from ca.1831, before moving to Birstall some time between 1841 and 1844. In 1850, Edward Longbottom prepared to lease land in Howley Park, Morley, from the Earl of Cardigan. The lease gave Longbottom the right to establish a dyeworks and to build necessary water-channels and reservoirs. It appears, however, that the lease was not signed until early in 1851. The firm was still in Howley in 1873, but the address had been changed by then to Howley Beck, Batley. Howley is on the border between Batley and Morley. The latest date mentioned in the firm's books is 1885, when the address is still Batley.

Members of the Longbottom family whose names appear in the books are Edward, Robert, John, and James. The name of Edward occurs in books dated 1837 and 1885, so it is possible that this name may refer to two people of different generations.

From at least 1888 up to 1922, a firm called John and Joseph Longbottom was operating in Bradford Road, Birstall, as "army and pattern dyers", but it is not known whether this firm had any connection with that of Edward Longbottom.

Eshton Hall Estate Archive

Eshton Hall estate was acquired by John Wilson of Threshfield (d. 1706). It descended regularly to his great-grandson, Mathew III (1730-1802). Mathew III married Frances Clive, sister of the first Lord Clive, in 1759. Their only child to survive to adulthood was a daughter, Margaret Clive (1764-1848), who married the Reverend Henry Richardson-Currer in 1783. He died in 1784 leaving a posthumous daughter, Frances Mary (1785-1861), who died unmarried.

Margaret married her cousin, Mathew Wilson IV (1772-1854) in 1800. He was a solicitor by training and became a J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant for the West Riding. They had several children, the eldest of whom was Mathew V (1802-1891), who had a colourful political career. He was elected M.P. for Clitheroe, where the family had landed interests, in 1841, 1847 and 1852. Twice Mathew V was unseated for electoral malpractice. He later sat for the North Division of the West Riding (1874-1885) and for the Skipton Division (1885-1886). In 1874 he was created a baronet. Mathew V married Sophia Louisa Emerson Amcotts in 1826 by whom he had a son, Mathew Wharton (1827-1902), who was later the second baronet. Sophia died in 1833 and many years later Mathew V married, secondly, Frances Pedler a widow, from whom he had no issue.

A pedigree of the family is printed in Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the county families of Yorkshire, vol. 1 (1874), which may be supplemented from Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (1975). The irregular spelling of the family's favourite male Christian name has been silently standardised to the form used by Burke.

Economics

Most of the titles date from the second half of the 18th century onwards. It contains numerous editions of Adam Smith's 'An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations', works on economic theory and economic history by 19th century authors such as Robert Owen, Karl Marx, and J R McCulloch, and 20th-century economists such as Beveridge, Keynes and the Webbs. The collection includes works on aspects of economics such as wages, prices, taxation, banking, commerce and trade, and on specific industries and sectors of the British economy, including the surveys of agriculture in (mainly) English counties produced in the late 18th/early 19th century for the Board of Agriculture & Internal Improvement.

E. Fox and Sons Limited, Business Archive

E. Fox and Sons Limited, of Calder Bank Mills, Dewsbury, were shoddy and mungo merchants, established in 1845.

E. J. Arnold wholesale stationers

The firm of E.J. Arnold Ltd began in 1863 when Edward James Arnold, a Dorset man, founded a small printing business at Barnstaple in Devon. In 1870 he transferred the business to Leeds, in order to broaden its scope, and shortly after this move, he decided to develop a trade with local schools, taking advantage of changes in the structure of education resulting from the 1870 Act. Within his lifetime, the company became the largest company in the field of educational publishing.

Greville Press Archive

Anthony Astbury (1940- ) was a schoolmaster at Emscote Lawn School, Warwick, when in 1975 he founded a small English poetry press, the Greville Press, named after Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628). The playwright Harold Pinter, amongst others, has assisted him in the administration of the company, which is non-profitmaking. In May 2000 the press celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is noted in literary circles for its fine productions of chiefly shorter twentieth-century English poems with small print-runs.

Gott, wool merchants, Archive

The Gotts were a prominent Leeds family, and were partners in firms of woollen merchants and manufacturers from 1780 to 1867.

George Hattersley and Sons Limited, Business Archive

George Hattersley and Sons Limited, of Mytholmes, Providence, and Springhead Mills, Haworth and Keighley, were worsted spinners and manufacturers, established in 1850.

Gott Books

A collection of illustrated books of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, including works of literature, topography and natural history, formerly owned by the Gott family of Leeds.

George Crowther and Company Limited, Business Archive

George Crowther and Company, of Lane Side Mills, Churwell, near Leeds, were woollen manufacturers, established in the late 1830s.

Hobson, Clegg and Company, Business Archive

Hobson, Clegg and Company, of Kings Mill Lane and Priest Royd Mills, Firth Street, Huddersfield, were woollen manufacturers established ca. 1889.

Holly Park Mill Company, Business Archive

Holly Park Mill Company, of Calverley, were dyers, scribblers, carders, slubbers, spinners, and fullers, established in the 1860s.

Hermann C. Hillman papers

H.C. Hillmann left Germany in the 1930s and worked in the Foreign Office Research Department during World War II as an expert on German economic affairs. In 1948 he became a lecturer in the School of Economic Studies at the University of Leeds. He retired in 1976.

Henry Booth and Sons Limited, Business Archive

Henry Booth and Sons Limited, of Moorhead Mill, Gildersome, near Leeds, were woollen cloth manufacturers, established in 1806.

Henry Briggs, Son and Company Limited, Business Archive

The company was based at Whitwood and Methley Junction collieries, near Normanton, Yorkshire.

Isaac Holden and Sons Limited, Business Archive

Isaac Holden and Sons Limited, of Pitt Lane Mill, Bradford (1846-1849), St Denis, Croix, and Rheims, France, were woolcombers, established in 1846. Sir Isaac Holden (1807-1897) had a varied and interesting career. Born in humble circumstances, in his early life he invented, but failed to patent, the lucifer match. He was in partnership with S. C. Lister and later on his own in wool combing mills both in Bradford and in France. Holden was Liberal Member of Parliament for Knaresborough, 1865-1868, when he was described as one of the richest men in the House. Holden supported electoral reform, the disestablishment of the Church and Irish Home Rule. Throughout his life he was a staunch Wesleyan, and in later years he was an active philanthropist. The Holden family were closely associated with the City of Bradford, Sir Isaac Holden's eldest son, Angus, being Lord Mayor in 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1886.

John Hirst and Sons, Business Archive

John Hirst and Sons, of Bankfield Mill and Walk Mill, Dobcross, Saddleworth, were woollen manufacturers, established ca. 1850. John Hirst (1802-77) established the business. He entered into partnership with his sons John, William Lockwood, Ben, Joshua and Arthur.

John Foster and Son, Business Archive

John Foster and Son, of Black Dyke Mills, Queensbury, near Bradford, were worsted, alpaca and mohair spinners and manufacturers, established in 1819.

John Harry Jones papers

John Harry Jones was Professor of Economics at Leeds 1919-1946. He was born in Wales and graduated from Cardiff in 1903. After further study at Leipzig and Berlin he lectured at Liverpool and Glasgow before coming to Leeds. During the First World War he served in the Ministries of Munitions and of Labour. Later he served on a number of Royal Commissions and Boards, notably the Nova Scotia Royal Commission of Economic Enquiry in 1934.

Jonathan Akroyd Business Archive

Jonathan Akroyd, a clothier, was in partnership until ca. 1782 with his younger brother James, the founder of James Akroyd & Sons, of Halifax, stuff manufacturers, worsted spinners and merchants.

Joseph Lee, Business Archive

Joseph Lee, of Idle, near Leeds, was a woollen manufacturer, in Idle, near Bradford. The company was established ca. 1800 by Joseph with his brother, William Lee.

John Wilson of Broomhead Archive

John Wilson was an antiquarian who lived at Broomhead Hall in the parish of Bradfield, near Sheffield. The Wilson family had lived in the same area for several centuries and extensive family archives formed the original basis for the collection, which was supplemented by acquiring or copying the papers belonging to other local families, such as the Kayes of Woodsome and the Bosvilles of Gunthwaite.

At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII granted the Manor of Rotherham to George, Earl of Shrewsbury. The Shrewsbury family lacked male heirs and the lordship passed to the Howards, the Dukes of Norfolk. It then descended to a junior branch of the family, the Earls of Effingham, in Surrey.

John Reddihough Limited and William Gawthorp & Company, Business Archive

John Reddihough Limited, of 21 Horton Lane, Bradford, were wool merchants, top makers, and wool combers. They formerly operated as Reddihough and Murgatroyd, woolstaplers. William Gawthorp and Company were commission wool combers, Bradford. John and Frank Reddihough were partners, and from the 1890s there were other partners in common with John Reddihough Ltd.

John Raistrick and Sons, Business Archive

John Raistrick and Sons, of Brackendale Mills, Idle, near Leeds, were woollen manufacturers, established in 1861.

J. T. Clay and Sons Limited, Business Archive

J. T. Clay and Sons Limited were woollen and worsted manufacturers. Based at Crow Trees Mills which included Holme Mill, Raistrick Mill, Brighouse Mill, Raistrick, the company was established under the name J. T. Clay and Sons Ltd. in 1881. They had been manufacturing in the district much earlier under the name Clay and Earnshaw.

J. C. Waddington and Sons Limited

J. C. Waddington and Sons Limited, of Crown Point Dye-Works, East Street, Leeds, were woollen and worsted dyers, established in 1869. The firm was until April 1869 known as William Brayshaw and Sons. Most of the nineteenth-century records relate to the latter.

John Crabtree and Sons Limited, Business Archive

John Crabtree and Sons Limited, of Thornton Road, then Wigan Street and Sunbridge Road, Bradford, were established in 1840 as mohair merchants. By the twentieth century they had become wool, noils, laps and waste merchants.

See Industries of Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Part I (1888), p.212.

James France and Company Limited, Business Archive

James France and Company Limited, of Albert Mills, Savile Town, Dewsbury, were carpet and woollen manufacturers and yarn spinners. They were established ca. 1790 in Coxley Valley and moved several times before settling at Albert Mills.

According to White’s Directory, 12th Edition c. 1870, James France & Co. were carpet and woollen manufacturers and yarn spinners of Wellington Rd, Westgate, and Hebble Mills, Dewsbury.

James Eccles Williams, notes on economic history

James Williams received his MA from the University of Leeds in 1951. His book 'The Derbyshire miners: a study in industrial and social history' was published by Allen & Unwin in 1962.

John Bancroft and Company Limited, Business Archive

John Bancroft and Company Limited, of Charles Mill, Oxenhope, Keighley, were worsted spinners, established in 1810. This firm became part of Bancroft & Sunderland Ltd. in 1959. It was based at Eagle Mill, Dalton Lane, Keighley.

Jeremiah Ambler and Sons Limited, Business Archive

Jeremiah Ambler and Sons Limited of Midland Mills, Bradford, were combers, spinners and weavers of all kinds of wool and hair, established ca. 1783-1789.

John Bowling and Company Limited, Cyclops Foundry, Business Archive

John Bowling & Co. Ltd operated in south Leeds as a general ironfounders between 1878 and 1954.

Kellett, Brown and Company Limited, Business Archive

Kellett, Brown and Company Limited, of Clover Greaves Mill, Calverley, near Leeds, were spinners, commission scribblers and spinners, scourers, fullers, and tenterers, established in 1834.

Lord Brotherton (Brotherton Collection)

Lubricating Oils and Grease Traders' Association Archive

The inauguration meeting of the Yorkshire Lubricating Oil and Grease Trades' Association was held at the Hotel Metropole, Leeds, on 16 May 1923. The original objects of the Association were to negotiate with the railway companies over charges for the transport of oil; to safeguard the trade against trusts or combines who would sell directly to consumers; the mutual protection of members against selling at or below cost; representation of the Yorkshire trade in relation to issues of national interest through membership of the National Federation; and to establish bona fides for oil traders.

Lister and Company Limited, Business Archive

Lister and Company Limited, of Manningham Mills, Bradford, were woolcombers, silk spinners, and knitting wool manufacturers, established in 1838.

Leeds White Cloth Hall

The first hall for the sale of white cloth in Leeds was financed by merchants and tradesmen and erected in Kirkgate, Leeds, opening in April 1711. Business flourished, and in 1755 a new hall was built, financed by subscriptions from clothiers, and occupying a site on a strip of land between Hunslet Lane and Meadow Lane. By the mid-1770s this hall also had become too small. Merchants seeking to keep the cloth market centralised in Leeds initiated the building of a third White Cloth Hall which opened in October 1775. A fourth hall was established in the 1860s.

Leeds Clothing Trade Papers

Leeds Chamber of Commerce

The Leeds Chamber of Commerce was formed in April 1851, although incomplete records exist of an earlier organisation covering the period 1785-1793.

Letter regarding the General Association of Mill Owners in Lancashire

Maurice Warwick Beresford papers

Maurice Beresford was Professor of Economic History at the University of Leeds, 1959-1985

Marshall and Company, Business Archive

The Leeds flax-spinning firm of Marshall and Co. was founded in 1788 by John Marshall, the son of a draper. He took complete control in 1802, and the firm remained under the control of the Marshall family until its closure in 1886.

Management

Northern House Publishing Archive

The Northern House publishing venture was established by Andrew Gurr and Jon Silkin in the Department of English Literature at Leeds in 1963. At Gurr's suggestion, the Chair of English Literature, A. Norman Jeffares, had agreed to provide funding for the acquisition of a hand printing press for the use of bibliography students. Gurr acquired an old double demy Albion hand press, typefaces and other equipment for just over £250, and the press was set up in the basement of the University gym, at that time underneath the Students' Union.

North Biddick Colliery, Co. Durham, 1722-1733, owned by Maj. Davison and partners

The North Biddick colliery was originally opened sometime before 1710.

Parkwood Mills Company Business Archive

Parkwood Mills Company, of Longwood, near Huddersfield, were commission spinners, twisters, warpers, weavers and menders. In 1887, according to their Articles of Association, they were dyers, millers and finishers. They incorporated John Broadbent and Sons, who were woollen manufacturers, and Longwood Finishing Company, who were scourers, millers, dyers, finishers and London shrinkers.

Robert Jowitt and Sons Limited, Business Archive

Robert Jowitt and Sons Limited, of 153 Sunbridge Road, Bradford, were wool merchants, top makers, wool combers, wool scourers, carbonisers and fell mongers, established in 1776.

R. V. Marriner Limited, Business Archive

R.V. Marriner Limited, of Greengate Mills, Keighley, were worsted spinners and manufacturers. The company was originally established c.1784 as Watson, Blacky, Smith and Greenwood, cotton spinners. It later became William Marriner, 1784-1808, B. and W. Marriner, 1808-1888, Marriner Son and Naylor, 1888-1908, and finally R.V. Marriner Limited, 1908. The firm gave up loom weaving in 1837 and concentrated on worsted spinning.

Greengate Mill was built in 1874 at the height of the cotton spinning boom. By the late nineteenth century Marriner's concentrated primarily on the production of knitting wools for the home and foreign markets.

In 1922 Marriner's advertised the fact that they span 'all classes of hosiery and hand-knitting yarns in botany, crossbred, camel-hair etc.' Their speciality was the production of yarns for 'sports-coats, scarves, etc.'

See J. Hodgson, Textile Manufacture, and other Industries, in Keighley (1879), pp. 52-5.

Robert Clough (Keighley) Limited, Business Archive

Robert Clough (Keighley) Limited, of Grove Mills, Keighley, were worsted spinners and manufacturers, established in 1800.

Stand Magazine Archive

This collection represents the archives of Jon Silkin's Stand magazine, from early days in London from 1952 to 1957, through its relaunch from Leeds in 1960 and move to Newcastle in 1965, through to its return to Leeds in 1999. The largest sections of the archive comprise business records and other materials relating to the magazine as a whole; production files (typescripts, dummies, proofs, etc.) relating to individual issues of the magazine from 1952 to 1998; and correspondence between 'Stand' editors, contributors and readers. There are papers relating to the involvement of 'Stand' editors in the 1965 Edinburgh Fringe Festival; and the 'Stand' anthology, 'Poetry of the Committed Individual', published in 1973.

The collection also includes several smaller accruals.

Skelton and Wells Leeds wine merchant, Business Archive

The Leeds Directory for 1817 contains an entry for Skelton & Wells, wine merchants, at premises in Albion Street in Leeds. In 1860 Thomas Casson bought the business from Frank Richardson & Co, and Skelton & Wells are named as their predecessors. Later owners of the business included John Lupton & Son (in Gascoigne Street) and Cairns & Hickey (in Blenheim Terrace).

S. Tempest and Company, Business Archive

S. Tempest and Co were established in 1906 at Laisteridge Lane and later moved to 57 Park Lane, Bradford. The company manufactured gym frocks, blouses, dresses and womens' overalls. It was a partnership between Squire Tempest and Arthur McIntyre. The partnership was dissolved in October 1925.

Samuel Cockroft and Company Limited, Business Archive

Samuel Cockcroft and Company Limited, of Barkerend Mills, Bradford, were worsted spinners, established in 1852.

Thomas Hield and Sons, Business Archive

Thomas Hield and Sons Limited, of 25 Wellington Road, Dewsbury, were exporters of carpet yarns, established in 1881. In 1914 the owners were Thomas Hield, William Donald Hield and Philip Hield.

Thomas Boyd (Leeds) Limited, Business Archive

Thomas Boyd (Leeds) Limited, of Stonebridge Mills, Wortley, Leeds, and Victoria Mills, Holbeck, were millers, finishers, waterproofers and embossers, established in 1873.

Thomas Askren farm Archive

Thomas Askren, of Hough-on-the-Hill, Lincolnshire, owned Crow Trees Farm and, later, Elder Tree Farm in the parish of Hatfield, near Doncaster, south Yorkshire

T. Berry (Bradford Limited), Business Archive

T. Berry (Bradford) Limited, of 80 Grattan Road, Bradford, were wool, noils and waste dealers, established in 1905.

William Lupton and Company Limited, Business Archive

William Lupton and Company Limited, of Whitehall Mills, Leeds, were woollen and worsted manufacturers and traders, was established as such in 1773. The company traded in various goods, particularly cloth, before this date. William Lupton (1700-1771) was a yeoman farmer and clothier. William's third son, Arthur Lupton (1748-1807), was a member of the committee which regulated the activities of the Leeds cloth halls. For the history of the family see: C. A. Lupton, 'The Lupton family in Leeds', 1965 and Francis Lupton 'The Next Generation', 2001.

William Rhodes Limited, Business Archive

William Rhodes Limited, of Birkenshaw and Carlton Cross Mills, Leeds, were flock manufacturers, established ca. 1830.

William Willans and Company Limited, Business Archive

William Willans and Company Limited, of Dundas Street, Huddersfield, were wool merchants, established in 1825-26.

William Hanson and Company Limited, Business Archive

William Hanson and Company Limited, of Haley Mills, Halifax, were cotton spinners, doublers and warp manufacturers.

Wormalds and Walker Limited, Business Archive

Wormald and Walker Limited, of Dewsbury Mills, Dewsbury, were blanket manufacturers. The company was originally established in 1811 as Hague and Cook, by Thomas Hague and his nephew John Cook with John Greenwood. The Wormald family joined the company in the 1840s.

West Yorkshire Coal Owners' Association

The West Yorkshire Coal Owners' Association was formed in February 1890, in the expectation that collective negotiation would strengthen the colliery owners' position in relation to the rapid growth of the Yorkshire Miners' Association.

W. and E. Crowther Limited, Business Archive

W. and E. Crowther Limited, of Crimble and Brook Mills, Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, were woollen manufacturers, established in 1872.

William and Jonn Clarkson Limited, Business Archive

William and Jonn Clarkson Limited, of Smale Well Mill, Pudsey, were woollen cloth manufacturers, established ca. 1850. Jonn Clarkson was in business on his own in the 1840s.

Whitfield family bakery, of Idle, near Bradford, notebooks and related material

Martha Ann Whitfield (1865-1924), known as Marthann, and Anne Whitfield, afterwards Hook (1886-1981), were the daughters of Emma and Joseph Bateson Whitfield of Brackendale, Thackley. There were two brothers, Alfred and Joshua, and another sister, Ada, who married Fred Barker. Marthann and Annie bought the bakery in Town Lane in about 1920 and eventually sold the business to their nephew, Frank Whitfield, son of Joshua. Marthann died of influenza in 1924, while Annie, who in 1928, at the age of 42, had married William Hardaker Hook, remained in Idle until her death in 1981, aged 95.

William A. Wood (land agents) Archive

In 'Bulmer's Directory/Gazetteer' for 1890, William Abel Wood is described as a major landowner and listed as the owner of Green Farm in the township of Lillings Ambo. He is also included as the Councillor for the Sutton-in-the-Forest division of the North Riding.

William Ackroyd, Otley Mills, Business Archive

William Ackroyd Limited, were worsted spinners of Otley Mills, Otley, West Yorkshire, established in 1815. William Ackroyd was an entrepreneur who set up a worsted spinning business in a mill in Otley in 1815. Worsted is a woollen yarn woven into a fabric typically used to make tailored clothing such as suits.

Up until the late 18th century the wool textile industry had been mainly home based. Ackroyd took advantage of advances in technology to produce yarn in bulk using machinery. He helped to make worsted spinning the major industry that it became during the 19th and early 20th centuries in Yorkshire. By the 1830s William Ackroyd had acquired a partner, Thomas Duncan, who took over the business after Ackroyd's death in 1865.

Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Archive

The Yorkshire Naturalists Union was formed in the mid-nineteenth century as a federation of natural history societies and individual naturalists, from across the county. Its first president was Henry Clifton Sorby.

Yorkshire Land and Warping Company, Business Archive

The Yorkshire Land and Warping Company had a registered office at Thorne near York between about 1875 and 1947. Warp is silty, earthy matter carried by tides and rivers which enhances the fertility of the land. Warping is a method of flooding land on purpose to deposit layers of warp.