Bradford and District Overlookers' Friendly Society and the Yorkshire Federation of Power Loom Overlookers
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The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available. Please feel free to add or update with any additional information. |
The Bradford and District Overlookers' Friendly Society No 1 was formed in 1844, a No 2 Society was formed soon after. In 1881 the two Societies amalgamated and, in 1890, changed their name to the Bradford and District Power Loom Overlookers' Society. In 1885 the Society rented and furnished rooms of their own at the Albert Rooms in Horton Road. The Society moved from the Albert Rooms to Textile Hall, opened by F W Jowett (a member of the Bradford Society) on 13 March 1915. In 1912 the Bradford Society joined the Yorkshire Federation of Power Loom Overlookers.
The Yorkshire Association of Power Loom Overlookers was formed from the Yorkshire Federation of Power Loom Overlookers in 1921. Five Societies, the Bradford and District Power Loom Overlookers' Society, the Huddersfield and Dewsbury Power Loom Turners' Society, the Keighley District Power Loom Overlookers' Society and the Leeds and District Power Loom Overlookers' Society affiliated to the Yorkshire Association for the purpose of controlling and financing industrial disputes. Other objects of the Association included providing lock-out, unemployment and death benefits; regulation and control of the entrance of all apprentices and learners into the trade; to undertake propaganda work in any district which may be in need of being organised; and to unify all efforts to raise the standard of living by securing for all its members satisfactory terms of employment. The registered office was in Bradford. The Yorkshire Association was reorganised in 1972.
The Yorkshire Association was represented on other organisations, including the National Wool (and Allied) Textile Industrial Council, the National Association of Unions in the Textile Trade and the Wool, Jute, and Flax Training Committee. E D Sleeman, secretary of the Bradford Society and Yorkshire Association was also a member of several other committees: the Yorkshire Council for Further Education, the Governing Body of the Bradford Institute of Technology, the Bradford Hospital Management Committee and the Yorkshire Electricity Board.