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History of Batley®

The Batley Valve Co. Ltd was formed in 1964 by two engineers, Michael Stead and Gordon Heap (Gordon had completed his apprenticeship with J. Blakeborough & Sons Ltd)

Gordon and Michael had come together working for a small family owned butterfly valve manufacturing company called DEV Engineering  based in Leeds, they used a  long established engineering company called John Bentley Engineering based in Batley to machine their valve parts. When the owner died, the business was sold by his wife to a company that is now known as Crane Fluid Systems.

At the time Michael and Gordon did not appreciate the daily commute across the Pennines to Manchester. In the 1960’s there was no motorway across the Pennines and the journey was quite difficult, especially in the bad winter of 1963.

The Managing Director of John Bentley at the time offered to sponsor them and utilising the John Bentley Engineering facilities, the Batley Valve Co. Ltd was formed. In 1970, Batley Valve Co. Ltd, was relocated to a purpose built office and factory facility based on Longlands Industrial Estate in nearby Ossett. The company expanded over the years and remained at this site until 2000, when it was relocated to the Hopkinson site at Birkby in Huddersfield.