Circa 1813 in Batley, England, Benjamin Law developed a process using recycled woolen rag combined with virgin wool to make a material called shoddy.

Benjamin Law is listed as the developer of this process in several books on the woolen industry in Yorkshire.

A Guide to Batley at A Guide To Batley states:

"Batley's heritage can be traced back to the start of the Industrial revolution when Benjamin Law, a local man, decided to mix finely shredded rags with virgin wool to produce woven cloth known as "Shoddy", which had a revolutionary effect on the textile industry."

The cloth trade in England suffered during the the Napoleonic War because of trade embargoes. However, the woolen trade in West Yorkshire remained relatively strong. One of the major problems in the woolen trade in the early 1800's was the lack of sufficient yarn to meet the demands of all the weavers. England did not produce enough wool itself and the war restricted the amounts of importable wool.

In the time before the Industrial Revelation much more time and many more people were needed to prepare and spin the yarn than were needed to weave the cloth. Spinning was a time consuming activity. On the other hand the weaving went relatively quickly. The word "spinster" (to denote someone who never married) is a reflection of the need to have people who had virtually no life except spinning in order to provide the family with enough yarn to keep the family clothed. Spinning wheels greatly speeded up this process, but it still required more spinners than weavers. With the advent of carding and spinning machines the process was accelerated to the point that spinning could more than keep up with weaving. The cloth industry grew at a rapid rate after the introduction of carding and spinning machines. The increased demands for cloth created a need for more raw materials and out of this need shoddy was born.

Benjamin Law developed a process of turning recycled old rags mixed with some virgin wool into shoddy around 1813. He was unable at the time to figure out a way of incorperating taylors clippings into the process. This was figured out by his nephews several years later and was called "mungo". By 1855, 35,000,000 pounds of rag were being sorted and processed into yarn to make "mungo" and "shoddy". The making of shoddy and mungo is a similar process to the making of woolen and worsted, once the rags had been ground up and processed into yarn.

Batley and Dewsbury were the major centers for the rag collecting and sorting business, as well as the manufacturer of shoddy and mungo. Rags were collected from two sources.

1. Old rags from old clothes were collected by ragmen for a price. The ragmen would then sell them to the rag merchant.
2. New rags were bought by the rag merchant as scrap from clothing manufacturers and tailors.

Old rags were not as valuable, as they were dirty and needed more processing to turn into yarn. New rag was used for mungo, which was a finer cloth than shoddy. Mungo was developed by Benjamin Law's nephews, who were the sons of his partner, Benjamin Parr, and Parr's wife, Elizabeth Sheard (The sister of Benjamin Law's wife, Lydia Sheard.)

The sorting of the rag was done at the rag merchant's establishment. The work was mostly done by girls and women. The sorting was done in large well-lit rooms over tables with "riddles" (basically a wire mesh to allow the dirt and dust to fall through). Baskets were placed all around the worker, who sorted the rag to the baskets by quality and color. Sorting was skilled labor. Rag sorters had to recognize the difference in quality of the rag in mixed lots both accurately and quickly. A smart rag sorter could sort about one cubic weight of old rags in one hour. New rag took longer, because it required greater care due to its higher value. Only woolen and worsted were used to make shoddy and mungo. Cotton rag was used to make paper.

Sir Geoge Head wrote:

"The trade or occupation of the late owner, his life and habits, or the filthiness and antiquity of the garment itself, oppose no bar to this wonderful regeneration; whether from the scarecrow or the gibbet, it makes no difference; so that, according to the change of human affairs, it no doubt frequently does happen, without figure of speech or metaphor, that the identical garment to-day exposed to the sun and rain of a Kentish cherry orchard or saturated with tobacco smoke on the back of a beggar in a pothouse, is doomed in its turn to grace the swelling collar, or add dignified proportion to the chest of the dandy".

Yorkshire Scenes Lore and Legends, M Tait, 1888

"Hither are brought tatters from pediculous Poland, from the Gipsies of Hungary, from the beggars and scarecrows of Germany, from the frowsy peasants of Muscovy; to say nothing of snips and sherds from monks' gowns and lawyers' robes, from postillions' jackets and soldiers' uniforms, from maidens' bodices and noblemens' cloaks" A heterogenous collection truly, to be shredded by "devils" into mungo fibre, re-spun and re-woven, and thus resurrectioned into new material for the backs of people who little dream of the various vicissitudes through which their garments have previously gone."

Yorkshire Scenes Lore and Legends, M Tait, 1888

Shoddy Grinding Mill

John Hewitt in the History and Topography of the Parish of Wakefield and its environs published 1862 gives a description of the Shoddy Grinding Mill as follows:

"About the years 1829 and 1830, I recollected a man of the name Pearson, who was a manufacturer of flocks, at East-Moor, Wakefield. He had a grinding machine which was worked by hand labour, and with this machine he ground woolen rags, commonly called "hard woolens" (old cloth garments) into flocks. This grinding mill was very much like the apparatus fixed at the head of a draw well, for the purpose of drawing up water, with the exception that the roller, instead of having a rope attached to it, had many iron-spikes or teeth well sharpened fixed in it; and, in lieu of the well, there was a large wooden box, into which dropped the rags which had been speedily rent or torn into flocks by the iron teeth of the roller, when motion was given to the latter by means of turning round the crank attached to it. Flocks thus ground much resemble wool, the originals fabric of which woolen cloth is made, but being of course the "worse for wear" and in consequence of the pulling to pieces by the mill, are of a much shorter nature, or fibre, than the new wool is; but notwithstanding this drawback, woollen rags disentangled in this manner by mills, similar in principle to the one I have mentioned, have become a famous article of traffic in Dewsbury, Ossett, Daw-Green, Horbury, Wakefield, and a few adjacent places westward from Wakefield. With the admixture of a little new wool, the flocks (called "shoddy") produced by grinding "soft woolens" (old stuff garments, flannels, etc.) have become extensively used at Dewsbury and a few neighboring places, and are manufactured into "new cloth" and other kinds of new woollen goods, suitable to be made into new wearing apparel! Invention and the skill of man are always progressing; and in course of time it was discovered that cloth rags (hard woolens) when properly separated from sewing thread and cotton linings, were much superior than soft woolens in being made up into new cloth, and this caused them to much exceed the latter in price as 3d. and 4d. per stone of 16lbs, whilst, since their improved value, I have known old cloth rages devoid of seams, and likewise new cloth "clippings" (tailors rags) sold at as much per lb.. There is one fact with regard to woollen rags, which, more than any other is calculated to make a person smile who is unacquainted with their history in this part of the West-Riding. This fact is that woolen rags, especially hard woolens, have frequently in large quantities, used as manure for potatoes, and when the new potatoes were gathered; and, after the latter's going through the process of grinding by the shoddy mill , (laconically, humorously, and justly styled "the Devil"!) they have been re-manufactured into "bran-new cloth". I can vouch for this; for I have seen potatoes manured with woolen rags in Wakefield, and which same rags were afterwards sold at a good price for manufacturing purposes to the shoddy manufactures of Dewsbury!

Besides woollen cloth, other goods, such as druggets (used as carpets) horse-rugs, floor-cloths, etc, are made of shoddy. "Mungo" is a term much applied to shoddy, and I have often seen painted in large letters on a shoddy mill's walls at Horbury- the mill occupier's name preceding the trade,- "Grinder of Mungo." It is not my intention in this Chapter to give definitions of the words, "Mungo" and "Shoddy"; but I cannot refrain from noticing what I consider to be the correct derivation and undoubted origin of the cognomen of "Dewsbury Devil", as applied to the Shoddy Grinding Mill, or Machine."

In 1822 , nine years after Benjamin's invention, the Baine's Directory (like a phone book before telephones) for the town of Batley listed Benjamin Law as a "Flushing Manufacturer" under the heading "Professions and Trades". (Information about the Baine's Directory was taken from BATLEY in Baines's Directory and Gazetteer Directory of 1822) Flushing and shoddy may have been the same thing because the only definition of flushing I could find described it as "a course heavy woolen fabric" and noted that it was the type used in military uniforms.

Baine's Directory lists 118 people, including four women, involved a trade or profession in Batley. There are 25 people listed under "Miscellany of Trades" including the schoolmaster, the parish clerk, a mill owner, a "bone setter", and the four women. Two of the women are listed as "vict." (This may stand of victualer) at what appear to be taverns or pubs. The other two women are listed by their names only, no occupation or trade is listed. There are separate categories listing, 30 blanket makers, 4 butchers, 4 carpenters, 4 cattle dealers, four coverlet manufactures, the 21 flushing Manufacturers, 3 grocers, 2 maltsters, 3 stone masons, 2 surgeons, and 16 woolen manufacturers. There were two Michael Sheards, both flushing manufacturers. The Sheards were shoddy manufacturers for many years. Michael Sheard and sons are listed in all the directories as shoddy manufactures through the 1870s. Benjamin Law's second wife was Lydia Sheard, the daughter of Michael Sheard. It was the sons and grandsons of Michael Sheard's brother, George Sheard, who made their furtunes in shoddy.

Many people made a lot of money on shoddy. However, Benjamin Law and his children did not seem to turn Benjamin's invention into the financially successful venture that other did. Leeds directories for 1830, 1834, 1842, 1861,1863 and 1863 included very few listings for the Law family:

1. 1830. Benjamin Law was not listed in the 1830 Directory of Leeds, which included a section for the township of Batley. There were no Laws listed in Batley although Benjamin was still alive in 1832, and his sons, George, Joseph, and William were all adults by 1830. There were three Sheards, George, Michael, "sen.", and Michl. "Jun." listed under the heading, "Flushing, Padng. and Drugget Mfrs." He may have moved to Stockport by this time.
2. 1834. No Laws listed. At this point the Laws were living in Stockport in Cheshire.
3. 1842. No Laws listed. Some of Benjamin's son's were back in Batley.
4. 1861. The Leed's Directory listed four Laws in Batley:
   • Thomas Law, Plumber. Thomas was the son of Benjamin's son Joseph.
   • John Law and Joseph Law, Shoddy and Rag Grinders. John and Joseph were the sons of George Law and the grandsons of Benjamin Law.
   • Joseph Law, Flushing, Padding, Drugget, Pilot Cloth etc.
5. 1863. No Laws listed
6. 1866. Samuel Law at the White Hart Inn.

The censuses in Batley indicate that the descendants of Benjamin were not among the manufacturers of shoddy. Benjamin's children, George, Joseph, William, Abraham and Isaak were listed in the censuses in Batley

1. George (born 1792) was listed in the 1841 as a Rag Dealer, in 1851 as a clothweaver, and in the 1861 census as a "hawker of house cloth".
2. Joseph was listed in the censuses as a bookkeeper
3. William was listed in the censuses as a woolen weaver. Lydia Law (age 15) and her, sister, Emma (age 13), the daughters of William Law and the granddaughters of Benjamin Law were listed in the 1851 census as rag sorters.
4. Abraham (born 1817) was listed on the baptisms of his children in 1845 and 1849 as a Leith rag merchant and in 1855 as a Batley rag merchant and in the 1861 census as a commercial traveler (salesman)

Another family member who were involved with the shoddy trade was Robert Walker Sykes, the brother of Elizabeth Sykes who was listed in the 1881 census as a rag grinder. His father-in-law, James Hepworth, was listed as a rag merchant.

1880 Article about Benjamin Law written by his grandson, Edwin Law Wendy Rose transcribed the 1880 article by Edwin Law and the letters related to it. For the complete transcription of the Batley Reporter Articles of 1880 go to Wendy Rose

Benny Parr Wood and the Howley Mill Photo by E Ineson Batley from Views and Reviews , 1896 courtesy of the Batley Community Archives, May 2006

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