Heavy Woollen District

The Heavy Woollen District is named from the heavyweight cloth manufactured in the area in West Yorkshire, England.[1] Dewsbury, Batley, Heckmondwike and Ossett are at the core of the area while Liversedge, Gomersal, Gildersome, Birkenshaw, Mirfield, Cleckheaton, Morley, Tingley, East Ardsley, Birstall and Horbury are peripheral. The manufacture of wool cloth for clothing, blankets, rope and twine is ongoing in the district by companies such as E. Simms/Heavy Woollen Textiles.[2][3]

Machell's mungo and shoddy mill in Dewsbury has been converted to flats but retains its mill name.

Most of the district is in Kirklees. Ossett and Horbury are in Wakefield and Morley is in Leeds.

The area was one of the key textile centres in Yorkshire, famed for its production of "shoddy and mungo".[4] For years companies had tried to blend different fibres without success leading to the term, "munt go", i.e. "mustn't go" as a Yorkshire colloquialism. Machinery invented in Batley to grind soft rags (shoddy) are thought to have first been devised in 1813[5] and for hard rags (mungo) later on. Most mills have either closed or put to other uses, but some shoddy/mungo mills remain such as Edward Clay & Son Ltd. in Ossett.

There is still a Heavy Woollen District football[6] association and junior cricket association,[7] both with representative teams. The cricket Cup originally defined the district as within a six-mile radius of Batley Town Hall, but this has now been extended to an eighteen-mile radius. It is was first competed for in 1883 and is widely considered one of the most prestigious tropheys in amateur cricket.[8]