Library
A Department of Learner Support Services
University of Bradford >> Library >> Special Collections >> Papers of Sir Isaac Holden (1807-1897) and Family
This collection is a wonderful, relatively little known, resource for studying Victorian Bradford and the wool industry that made the city great. It also offers insight into 19th century French politics and social history and British political life and ideas.
Sir Isaac Holden was born in Paisley in 1807. He became involved with the wool industry as a book-keeper in Townend Brothers worsted mill in 1830. He stayed with the firm until 1846, becoming works manager and introducing mechanical woolcombing methods. In 1847 he took out a joint patent with Samuel Cunliffe Lister for "Improvements in carding preparing combing and spinning wool", and also in making heald and genappe yarns.
In 1848 Holden opened a large new wool-combing plant in Bradford, the Alston Works. Holden and Lister opened a wool-combing factory at St. Denis, near Paris, soon replaced by factories at Croix and Rheims. About this time the two were involved in work on the square-motion comb, which Lister later patented. In 1858, after a number of disagreements, Lister sold his share of the business to Holden. Later Sir Isaac turned to politics: he was elected M.P. for Knaresborough 1865-68, for the Northern Division of the West Riding 1882-85, and for Keighley 1885-95. He was created a baronet in 1893, and died in 1897.
The Papers were donated to the University of Bradford in 1971. They span the 1840s to the 1890s and consist mainly of letters between Sir Isaac, his wife Sarah, and other family members. There is also material relating to his dispute with Lister, the French business, and his home, Oakworth House.
Further information about the archive:
For more details or to use the Archive, please contact the Special Collections staff.
We have started a new project to discover and make available the rich detail in this Archive. Find out more on the Special Collections blog.
This page contains links to Adobe PDF and/or Microsoft Office files. Online conversion tools (please use the e-mail submission if the Web-based form is unsuccessful) and free PDF Reader software are available from Adobe. A list of viewers/readers for Microsoft and Flash software is available. Alternatively, please e-mail the content manager if you need documents in another format.