Page 225 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Batley and Woollen Cloth.
to do everything themselves, it ma}' be they will think it ex'pedienl
to combine the two or three trades in one." The next Quarterly
Meeting was declared special; and the delegates at Manchester,
after this little humiliation, promptly cried " 3'es," and " yes "
again, in approval of currying and tanning. But Mitchell now
"
added, " and making furniture ? —which produced a pause. The
now approved currying busir\ess. however, was continued, and it
"
met with success, while at a later date a business of " re-tanniiig
was carried on.
From Heckmondwike it is not far to Batley; the two places
are almost near enough for their factory smoke to mingle as it drifts
towards Leeds. Here a Batley manufacturing company started
in 1871. Particulars of it are to be found among the multitudinous
facts of Mr. Ben Jones's Co-operative Prod^iction. The capital
nominally was £30,000, in £5 shares, and working men were invited
to take up shares at 2s. 6d. per month. A mill was built and called
the "Livingstone;" but its adventures in the dark continent of
profit-seeking ended without either gain or glory. Yorkshiremen
met ill-fortune stoically, and no doubt many Batley and Dewsbury
woollen workers were silent about the half-crowns and the hopes that
disappeared together. To avoid a compulsory winding up, the
company went voluntarily into hquidation in 1883. The C.W.S.
were mortgagees, for a sum of £7,400, and the property came to the
federation in consequence. Until 188G the mill was let on rental;
but in that year the Committee decided to recommend C.W.S.
woollen-cloth making to the delegates.
Circumstances were conspiring for a large development. The
Northern co-operators again were agitating for a C.W.S. Flour Mill
in their midst. The tea department in London was ready to start
making cocoa. Southern co-operators had wanted a jam factory
in Kent, but their idea had proved very much too premature. Cloth,
corn, and cocoa, however, were in sufficient demand for the Society
to begin milling. A special meeting to this end was held on
November 27th and December 4th, 1886. Corn milling was formally
approved — practically it had been sanctioned aheady. Except
(inevitably) at London, cloth making aroused no opposition. Indeed
the discussion at Manchester was eked out by the pleasantries
arising from an irrelevant demand for vinegar.
The Batley mill, therefore, went on as a C.W.S. enterprise.
Batley has a name for shoddy, but this was a mill for making up
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