The Hudson Family were involved in local politics, and were businessmen, landowners and farmers.
James David Hudson (1820-1908) was a founder member of the Wetherby Rural District Council in 1897. Previously he had been a produce merchant, exporting cheeses to the United States. He was said to have crossed the Atlantic twelve times in sailing ships. He bought the family home, Hill Top Farm in Wetherby, with proceeds from the sale of a property block in Broadway, New York, in 1861. His son, Major Joseph H (Tatie Joe) Hudson was Commander of the local Home Guard in WWII. He was chairman of West Riding Conty Council before it’s demise in the 1970s. He founded the potato packing company, which provided his nickname, and it lasted 60 years closing down in 1978.
His son David Hudson (1924-2004) was a millionaire businessman who owned Grange Park, Southeast of the town. David’s daughter, Jennifer, married Peter Fleming, a Wimbledon doubles champion who partnered John McEnroe, in Wetherby Methodist Church. David was elected onto Wetherby Rural District Council in 1965, and onto the West Riding County Council in 1967 then onto Leeds City Council in 1975. He was Lord Mayor in Leeds in 2001-2. He was passionate about cricket and played for Wetherby Cricket Club for many years. When the A1 By-pass went through Grange Park he arranged for the old Cricket Club wooden pavilion to be burnt down as a ‘Viking Funeral”. David died aged 80 in November 2004 in a freak accident when his ride on a motor mower rolled down an embankment and crushed him to death.
