On 6 June 2024 Batley’s Memorial Gardens were the scene of 80th anniversary D-Day commemorations.
Of the Kirklees Council commemorative events, the Mayor, Councillor Nosheen Dad, said:
The 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings serves as a reminder that we should never forget those who fought and died to defend the freedoms and peace that we and other countries have today.
We owe an endless gratitude to the brave men, many who were just young soldiers, who displayed incredible courage, resilience, and camaraderie on 6 June, 1944.
As time passes, our veterans become fewer so we must ensure that their legacy and their stories live on through remembrance, commemoration, and learning.
Let us never forget their sacrifice and continue to honour their memory.
That was less than two months ago, when the nationwide spotlight was on commemorations, and it suited Kirklees Council and local officials to put on a show.
Batley War Memorial Gardens, 4 August 2024
The Council website description of the Memorial Gardens, touting out their hiring for events at a charge of £55-£110 per day (and that’s a whole other debate around should this be a pleasure-ground), is:
Located above the Market Place in Batley Town Centre, the Memorial Garden is a small formal park with large memorial, flower beds and grassed areas.
Today I went to the Memorial Gardens and was confronted with weed-filled lawns, unkempt, overgrown and tatty flower beds running to seed, the gardens teaming with litter from vandalised bins and others which clearly had not been emptied recently, and the area overrun with rats.
Batley War Memorial and the War Memorial Gardens – 4 August 2024
Until recently, I’ve lived in Batley all my life, and I have never seen the Memorial Gardens in such a disgusting state. And I’ve since heard this shabby state of neglect is now normal.
Batley War Memorial Gardens – 4 August 2024
Less than two months on from the commemorations, is this the legacy Kirklees Council thinks deserving for those men and women commemorated on Batley War Memorial? Is this what the Mayor meant by honouring their memory? Are the Memorial Gardens and the market estate a demonstration of the town’s civic pride? Is this what Kirklees Council thinks of Batley’s history and heritage? And is this what Batley has been reduced to under the stewardship of Huddersfield-centric Kirklees Council?
Rubbish-strewn Batley War Memorial Gardens, looking across to the Grade II Listed Carnegie Libary, another asset Kirklees Council over many years have allowed to fall into disrepair and could now be planning to sell off
As a reminder to Kirklees Council, this is the history of the War Memorial and Memorial Gardens . This was when Batley Borough were in charge, and those running the town did have some pride in the area, invested in caring for public spaces and buildings and realised the positive wider impact it had both on the town’s reputation and the lives and attitudes of its inhabitants.
Batley War Memorial, 27 October 1923
UPDATE
On 9 August 2024 I received the following response from Kirklees Council.
Hi Jane, the wet start to the summer, while ideal for ducks (and plant growth), has made it challenging for our teams to keep up with the level of growth in our green spaces but they are working their way around the district, it might just take them a little longer. 1/2
Thanks for bringing the disrespectful vandalism to the bin to our attention, we’ve passed it over to the team so they’re aware and can sort a repair. Thanks.
If you do see the Memorial Gardens falling into disrepair please report it to the Council.
July 2024 has been another busy month for the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study, with some wider parish history pieces added. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of July 2024, including links to them, with last month’s new and updated posts signposted so you can easily locate them.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven new posts were added during July 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 345. Three other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for July 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
No new War Memorial biographies have been added this month. I hope to write some for next month. I have updated the names of parishioners who served in, and survived, the First World War section, as more men were identified during July. I have also updated the biography of one of those men who served and survived, Michael Rush.
There are two new posts in the Miscellany of Information section. One is about a public dispute between the church and Batley and Birstall Irish Clubs, which ran throughout the summer of 1903. The other is the story behind a memento plate given to the school children of St Mary’s in 1907. It explains what the plate commemorated, and why it was such an important part of the school’s history.
The final post added this month is in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section, containing the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during July 2024.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
June 2024 has been my busiest month ever for new posts in Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of last month , including links to them, with June’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
16 new posts were added during June 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 338. Two other posts were updated. There’s also a new one-place study section, where I will write about the history of some of Batley’s public buildings and institutions which would have been familiar to the St Mary’s parishioners.
These additions and updates included five new weekly newspaper pages for June 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
One new War Memorial biography has been added this month, James Hughes. I have also updated the names of parishioners who served in, and survived, the First World War section, as more men were identified during June.
There are two new posts in the Miscellany of Information section, about the first Torchlight Procession. So if you want to know about why this annual parish event started, and read about that inaugural procession, head over to that post. The other is about a famous parishioner, Thomas Cassidy, who was a record-breaking rat catcher. And with the General Election on 4 July, his polling booth exploits are something well worth reading about!
The first posts have been added to the Maps and Photographs section. These include four new maps depicting the area around St Mary’s church and schools from the 1890s to the 1930s. There is also an aerial photo from the 1960s.
There is a new post in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section – it is the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during June 2024.
The final two posts can be found in the public buildings and institutions section. One is about the first 50 years of Batley’s hospital – particularly relevant as the first ever patient treated in the initial cottage hospital was a St Mary’s parishioner. The other is the scene of much success for St Mary’s school children – the public baths. Sadly neither of these buildings function today. The hospital has for years stood derelict, crumbling and in 2017 the scene of a fire. There are plans – apparently – to turn it into apartments. The Grade II Listed public baths stand empty, victims of Kirklees Council cuts.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Yes, I know it’s only June and the Festive Season might seem a million miles away – though the weather might seem drab enough for winter, with summer so far seemingly deciding to give this year a miss. But if you do want to guarantee some family, local or house history research before Christmas, now’s the time to start making those booking enquiries. Because you will find that popular, expert researchers are in great demand, and they do get booked up months in advance.
Whilst I do my best to slot in requests for last-minute pieces of research, I am already taking bookings for work to start in late September. In fact, I’ve already a piece of work scheduled for December completion.
So if you’re wanting to commission a piece of research for a Christmas gift or, come to that, for any upcoming special occasion or ancestral visit, please get in touch as soon as possible to discuss your requirements.
To re-write a well-known nursery rhyme:
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, If you want to research 3x great grandad John, now’s the time for that. Brick wall, house walls, trees – root and branches too, Get in touch, book it in, to find out what makes you.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of May 2024 , including links to them, with May’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Six posts were added during May 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 322. Two other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for May 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
There is one new post in the Miscellany of Information section. This is a post about the harsh consequences of refusing to work, even if ill. It does not have a happy ending.
There final post this month is in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick section – it is the parish history snippets which were included in the bulletins during May 2024.
No new biographies have been added this month. However, the final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during May.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of April 2024 , including links to them, with April’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven posts were added during April 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 316. Two other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included four new weekly newspaper pages for April 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.
There is one new post in the Miscellany of Information section. This is a post which illustrates how tough life was, in relatively recent times. It covers a particularly tragic period for a Skelsey Row family.
Leading on from that, this month I included the first ever guest piece to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study website. It is a brilliantly evocative piece about life in the Skelsey Row area, written by Brian Foley. If you read nothing else, this is one not to miss.
There is a new post in the Bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick – the parish history snippets included in the bulletins during April 2024.
No new biographies have been added this month. However, the final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during April.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of March 2024 , including links to them, with March’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven posts were added during March 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 309. Three other posts were updated.
These additions and updates included a new War Memorial biography, that of John William Callaghan. Robert Randerson’s biography was updated. There are five new weekly newspaper pages for March 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. I have also added a new subject heading, a parish history section which will contain the snippets of parish history I produce each week for the weekly bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick. The first piece here is the history snippets included in the March 2024 bulletins. The final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during March.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. The February 2024 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with February’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Seven posts were added during February 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 302. Two other posts were updated.
The additions included a new War Memorial biography, that of John William En(w)right. There was a new school Log Book for 1920. I also added some school history details. There were also four weekly newspaper pages for February 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified during February.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
If you are looking for a speaker during 2024 and 2025 covering family or local history, here are my list of talks for the period.
They are:
Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy.
Local Links to the Lusitania.
My Batley St Mary’s One-Place Study. (Covers aspects of the Catholic parish of Batley St Mary of the Angels until circa 1929).
The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914.
Tips for Researching your Great War Ancestors. This is based around my book about Northern Union – rugby league – players killed in the First World War. For local history groups, I can drop the research tips aspect, and base the talk solely about the players.
The first four have a distinctly Yorkshire flavour, whereas the final one is far broader despite its rugby league connections.
Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy is the story of an unsung Yorkshire hero, living behind enemy lines and carrying out works of espionage and sabotage during World War One. His adopted pigeon Charles played an important part in these wartime exploits. Their daring deeds are more like a boy’s adventure story than real life. But this is a true tale of wartime courage, and one which deserves wider telling.
Local Links to the Lusitania focuses on people with Yorkshire connections on board the Cunard liner, torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast on 7 May 1915. The sinking did not affect only the rich and famous. Many Yorkshire people were involved. This talk explores some of their stories.
There is a possibility this talk can be tailored to your local area.
My Batley St Mary’s talk is based around my one-place study into the Catholic parish of St Mary of the Angels, with a focus on its early history and period up to the aftermath of the First World War. It investigates what a one-place study is, why I embarked on one, why I chose this particular study, as well as my findings – including the Irish migration angle, and with a focus on ordinary parishioners – including some of their tales.
The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914 is a talk based around the events of December 1914 when a devastating explosion, caused during the manufacture of picric acid for the war effort, took place at White Lee. It resulted in deaths and injuries, as well as damage across a vast area of Batley, Heckmondwike and the Spen Valley. It is an event often overlooked because of later explosions in Yorkshire at Low Moor and Barnbow. This talk aims to provide more information about this Heavy Woollen District incident, the forerunner to the later explosions. The talk will explore the unlucky history of the site as well as the events on the day and the aftermath.
Based on my groundbreaking book The Greatest Sacrifice: Fallen Heroes of the Northern Union about rugby league players who died in World War One, the talk investigates the stories behind some of the men. It is also packed with tips for researching your own Great War Army ancestors.
This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. The January 2024 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’s new and updated posts signposted.
Batley St Mary of the Angels
If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.
Despite moving house at the beginning of this month, I did manage to add five posts during January 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 295. Two other posts were updated.
The additions included a new school Log Book for 1919. There were four weekly newspaper pages for January 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified last month. No new biographies have been added here, or in any of the other categories (either World War One or World War Two deaths). These will follow in due course.
Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.
Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.
I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.
Postscript: I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Past To Present Genealogy 