Batley - Sport and Culture

Sport and Culture

The town is home to the professional rugby league club Batley RLFC And junior football club Batley Juniors F.C. (formely Carlinghow Boys F.C) Carlinghow is also located in Batley

Wilton Park (Batley Park) is a large park between the town centre and Birstall. In its grounds are a butterfly house, the Milner K. Ford Observatory (built in 1966 and home to the Batley & Spenborough Astronomical Society) and Bagshaw Museum. The museum is located in a house built by the "shoddy baron", George Sheard, and features local history, natural history, curios from around the world, and an Ancient Egyptian exhibition. The museum (originally the Wilton Park Museum) is named after its first curator Walter Bagshaw, a Batley councillor and extensive traveller.

The Yorkshire Motor Museum has a small but varied collection of cars dating back to 1885, and reflecting local car makers as well as more famous marques.

Batley Art Gallery, in the Batley Library building, features contemporary art, craft and photography. Between 1966 and 1977 the Batley Variety Club was frequented by many notable acts including Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mathis, Eartha Kitt, The Bee Gees, Roy Orbison, The Hollies and Cliff Richard, among others. For a brief period it was named The Crumpet, after which it was closed for four years surviving numerous applications to have the building demolished. It is now the Frontier nightclub, as it has been since the late 1970s, and hasn't had a refit since. The Frontier was sold to businessmen in April 2005 and continues to operate as a nightclub whilst hosting variety shows and sporting events such as boxing, snooker and darts.

In cricket, Batley has several local teams, and is also part of the cricket association for the Heavy Woollen District. The original definition of the latter area was to within a six mile radius of Batley Town Hall. The Heavy Woollen Cup can now be entered by any team within 18 miles of Batley, but there is an upper limit of 64 teams.