Catalogue description Edward Longbottom and family, dyers of Batley, business archive

This record is held by Leeds University Library, Special Collections

Details of MS 327
Reference: MS 327
Title: Edward Longbottom and family, dyers of Batley, business archive
Description:

The pattern books contain pieces of dyed cloth or yarn attached to the pages, each pattern being numbered or named. No recipes are given. The recipe books give lists of ingredients and brief instructions for making dyes. The recipes are usually named or numbered. Sometimes a note refers to a number in one of the pattern books, but often a pattern is attached to the recipe. The customer's name is occasionally noted against the recipe. Day books (daily records of work done) contain material similar to that in recipe books. The date of making the dye is given, together with the customer's name and recipe. There is frequently a pattern attached, which has been cut from a piece dyed. Costs of labour and materials are often noted.
Date: c1831-1885
Arrangement:

MS 327/1-4 Pattern Books

 

MS 327/5-19 Recipe Books

 

MS 327/20-27 Day Books

 

MS 327/28-30 Miscellaneous Items
Held by: Leeds University Library, Special Collections, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Longbottom, Edward, fl 1837, dyer of Batley
Physical description: 30 items in 6 boxes
Access conditions:

Access to this collection is unrestricted.
Immediate source of acquisition:

In July 1973 Dr K Wilson of the School of History gave to the Brotherton Library a collection of dyers' pattern books and other material from the firm of Edward Longbottom
Subjects:
  • Dyes technology
Administrative / biographical background:

As far as can be ascertained from the Longbottom family were dyers in Hunsworth as early as 1831. Sometime between 1841 and 1844 they moved to Birstall. 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.

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