Editing Batley (section)

=== Post-industrial history ===
On the nights of 14 and 15 March 1941, the West Yorkshire area as a whole was subject to a Nazi air raid. Batley came through relatively unscathed with one unexploded ordnance being located near the Healey Mill area (opposite Healey Community Centre to be precise) whilst Cleckheaton, located {{convert|2.5|miles|abbr=on}} north-west, suffered from seven bombs that exploded as intended. Leeds, located {{convert|6|miles|abbr=on}} north-east, went through two nights of damage as, "The raid caused more than 100 serious fires, damaged over 4,500 buildings and resulted in 65 people losing their lives."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Leeds Blitz {{!}} Leeds Beckett University |url=https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/leeds-blitz/ |access-date=9 February 2023 |website=www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk }}</ref>

The manufacture of shoddy continued into the postwar period. A doctor posted to Batley hospital in 1952 described the town as "one of the last reminders of the industrial revolution as described by Dickens", riven by economic inequality and 'Victorian' diseases like [[rickets]]:<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Antia |first=N. H. |date=February 2004 |title=A shoddy town named Batley |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)15612-2 |journal=The Lancet |volume=363 |issue=9409 |pages=662 |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(04)15612-2 |pmid=14987905 |issn=0140-6736}}</ref>

{{Quote|text=In mid-winter, the hospital enjoyed brilliant sunshine on the snow-covered moors on either side of the narrow valley, reminiscent of Wuthering Heights. Nearby were the manor houses of the mill owners, flaunting Rolls-Royces in their porches. The town in the valley was, however, permanently enveloped in a thick blanket of smog spewed from the factory chimneys. The narrow valley was paved with cobbled stones with workers' houses interspersed between the factories. [...] Excess water due to rainfall or melting snow would enter the dwellings over their thresholds.}}

In 1974, responsibility for local government passed to [[Kirklees|Kirklees Metropolitan Council]], with its headquarters in [[Huddersfield]].