In Victorian times, Batley was the centre of the "shoddy trade" in which wool rags and clothes were recycled by reweaving them into blankets, carpets, uniforms. The owners of the recycling businesses were known as the "shoddy barons" . There was a "shoddy King" and a "shoddy Temple", better known as the Zionist Chapel.
The Bagshaw Museum in Batley's Wilton Park has many exhibits about the textile trade.
Batley Grammar School was attended by Sir Titus Salt, an industrialist who founded the model village of Saltaire, and by Joseph Priestley, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, Josiah Wedgwood and Captain James Cook.