Ossett Pictures - Liberal Club

The Liberal Club on Station Road in Ossett from "Cockburn's Ossett". The building was opened in 1893 for a society formed in 1873. Most of the mill owners in Ossett were non-conformists and many were Wesleyan Methodists as well as strong supporters of the Liberal movement.

Ossett colliery agent and coal merchant, Benjamin Pickersgill Wilson J.P. (1868-1930) was a prospective Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party in the Rothwell Ward, but was beaten in the 1922 and 1924 general elections by Benjamin Lunn, the Labour candidate, despite reducing Lunn's rock solid majority. In the event, the Conservatives, first under Andrew Bonar Law and then Stanley Baldwin won the two general elections.