TURN the pages of Martin Greenwood’s book, Every Day Bradford, and you will find a story for each day of the year about people places and events from the district’s rich history.

Martin decided to write it after researching his first book, about his grandfather, Percy Monkman, a concert party entertainer in the First World War. In the latest of his regular T&A features about stories he uncovered for Every Day Bradford, Martin writes about Bradford’s two wealthiest millowners, and their public feud:

In the 19th century Bradford saw rapid growth in textile manufacturing. While most of the population lived in poverty and squalor, many made their fortunes. Two men who made immense fortunes were Samuel Cunliffe Lister, later Lord Masham (1815-1906) and Sir Isaac Holden (1807-1897). Contemporaries, they had contrasting backgrounds, became business partners then bitter adversaries in a feud. Lister’s story was one of ‘riches to riches’, but Holden’s was classic ‘rags to riches’. Lister was born into landed gentry. Holden started life in poverty, but his commitment to hard work and self-improvement took him far.

Lister’s father came from a mill-owning family of Addingham. He was a prominent magistrate, operating from his public house, Lister’s Arms (later Spotted House) in Manningham. ‘Justice Lister’ was one of Bradford’s first two MPs after the Great Reform Act in 1832. In 1839 he bought Lilycroft Mill for his two sons, Samuel and John. The latter retired in 1845, leaving Samuel in charge and able to make his fortune.

Samuel Lister devoted much of his career to invention, taking out over 150 patents. His main focus was mechanical woolcombing, the last major wool process to be mechanised. His aim was to separate long fibres, making worsted cloth, from short, used for woollens. In 1842 he bought a woolcombing machine which proved unsatisfactory. Unable to re-sell it, he aimed to improve it. By 1845 it evolved into a machine which produced the first pound of wool combed by machine.

Holden was born into a large family in a village near Paisley, Scotland. He had a chequered education, often disrupted. After some time at a grammar school, he worked in a cotton mill, became a pupil teacher and Wesleyan Minister. Moving south he became a teacher in West Yorkshire and Reading. In 1828 he returned to Scotland before accepting a book-keeping position at a worsted firm in Cullingworth. Here he worked for 16 years, achieving semi-managerial status and developing an expertise in mechanical engineering. He became obsessed with finding a way of mechanising woolcombing.

It was at this point that Holden’s life crossed with Lister, whom he approached about his interest in mechanisation. They developed a partnership for a new square motion woolcombing machine around 1848 and set up a joint enterprise in France, where Holden would manage the factory and Lister would provide capital and machinery. The partnership was initially successful but the two men had conflicting objectives, leading to a split in 1858 over ownership of the patent for the square motion machine. Holden claimed he invented the principle behind it, Lister claimed he had the patent. The argument was carried out via letters to newspapers and flared up for the rest of their lives. James Burnley’s book History of Wool and Woolcombing, took Holden’s side, fuelling the flames.

Holden returned to Bradford in 1860 and opened another profitable factory at Alston Works. He settled at Oakworth House, a central figure in the West Riding textile community, and became MP for Knaresborough and Keighley, and a baronet. Like Lister, he was a generous philanthropist, in his case to Wesleyan causes.

On February 25, 1871 Lilycroft Mill burnt down. A life’s work ruined in a few hours, it would have destroyed most people, but Lister, now 56, turned disaster into an opportunity. Within two years his Manningham mill opened with the tallest chimney in the city.

His new fortune was built on silk and velvet. He sold Manningham Hall and estate to the Corporation on condition it became Lister Park for the public. He bought a great estate in Swinton, North Yorkshire, and was ennobled as Lord Masham. He financed Bradford Children’s Hospital in 1890 then in 1904 Cartwright Hall Art Gallery.

He took on and defeated his workers who went on strike. The 1891 Manningham Mills Strike was a significant factor in the rise of the Labour Party. 

It was not until 1904, 56 years after the original patent and seven years after Holden’s death, that Burnley retracted the comments in his book via a letter to Lister (now Lord Masham). Nineteen months later, Lister himself died, one of the wealthiest men in England.

* Every Day Bradford available online from Amazon and Waterstones and bookshops including Salts Mill.