Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite: A Yorkshire Tale

Ben o' Bill's,
the Luddite:
A Yorkshire Tale.
D. F. E. Sykes, LL.B.
And
Geo. Henry Walker
LONDON.
Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent,&Co. Ltd.
HUDDERSFIELD.
The Advertiser Press, Ltd
About the author
D F E Sykes was a gifted scholar, solicitor, local politician, and newspaper proprietor. He listed his own patrimony as ‘Fred o’ Ned’s o’ Ben o’ Billy’s o’ the Knowle’ a reference to Holme village above Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley where many of the events in the novel take place. As the grandson of a clothier, his association with the woollen trade would be a valuable source of material for his novels, but also the cause of his downfall when, in 1883, he became involved in a bitter dispute between the weavers and the mill owners.