Saltaire is a Victorian

model village A model village is a mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. "Model" implies an ideal to which other developments could aspire. Although the villages ...

near Shipley,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

. Salts Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allow his workers to live in better conditions than the slums of Bradford. The mill ceased production in 1986, and was converted into a multifunctional location with an art gallery, restaurants, and the headquarters of a technology company. It is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

and on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

History

Saltaire was commissioned in 1851 by Sir Titus Salt, a leading industrialist in the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

woollen industry. The name of the village is a combination of the founder's surname and the name of the river. Salt moved his business (five separate mills) from

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

to this site near Shipley to arrange his workers and to site his large

textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...

by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the railway. Salt employed the local architects Francis Lockwood and William Mawson. Saltaire-map-1893-768x614

Similar, but considerably smaller, projects had also been started around the same time by Edward Akroyd at Copley and by Henry Ripley at

Ripley Ville Ripley Ville or Ripleyville was an estate of model houses for the working classes in the West Bowling ward of the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Started in 1866 the development was built for the industrialist, politician and ...

. The cotton mill village of New Lanark, which is also a World Heritage site, was founded by David Dale in 1786. Salt built neat stone houses for his workers (much better than the slums of Bradford), wash-houses with tap water, bath-houses, a hospital and an institute for recreation and education, with a library, a reading room, a concert hall, billiard room, science laboratory and a gymnasium. The village had a school for the children of the workers,

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

s, allotments, a park and a boathouse. Recreational initiatives were also encouraged such as the establishment of a drum and fife band for school age boys and a brass band, precursor of today's Hammonds Saltaire Band, for men of the village. With the combination of quality housing, employment, recreation, educational facilities and social services the model town represented a landmark example of enlightened 19th century

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

. The building phase was nearing completion in 1871. The census from that year shows that Saltaire had 800 dwellings (755 houses and 45 almshouses), which contained 4,389 people. In October 1872, Saltaire, along with Dean Clough Mill in Halifax, were featured highlights of the Japanese Government's

Iwakura Mission The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy (, ''Iwakura Shisetsudan'') was a Japanese diplomatic voyage to Europe and the United States conducted between 1871 and 1873 by leading statesmen and scholars of the Meiji period. It was not the only such m ...

tour of modern industrial Britain. Sir Titus died in 1876 and was interred in the

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

adjacent to the

Congregational church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

. When Sir Titus Salt's son, Titus Salt Junior, died, Saltaire was taken over by a partnership which included Sir James Roberts from Haworth. Roberts had worked in wool mills since the age of eleven. He had significant business interests in Russia, and spoke Russian fluently. Roberts came to own Saltaire, but chose to invest his money heavily in Russia, losing some of his fortune in the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. He endowed a

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of Russian at Leeds University and bought the Brontës' Haworth Parsonage for the nation. He is mentioned in T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land''. Roberts is buried at Fairlight, East Sussex. His legacy can still be seen in Saltaire: he named Roberts Park, to the north of the river, after his son when he gave it to Bradford Council in 1920. Saltaire village remained under the ownership of the Mill until it was sold by Messrs. Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. to the Bradford Property Trust Ltd. on 31 July 1933. In October 1933, the new owners came to an arrangement with Shipley Urban District Council to carry out improvements, including the renewal of gas services, provision of mains electricity, along with sewerage and sanitary improvements. This included "a comprehensive scheme to eliminate the waste water lavatories and the old type of coal store, and to erect new in their places." The full scheme included the removal of 43 houses to open out certain parts of the village.

Saltaire today

In December 2001, Saltaire was designated a

. This means that the government has a duty to protect the site. The buildings belonging to the model village are individually listed, with the highest level of protection given to the Congregational church (since 1972 Saltaire United Reformed Church) which is listed grade I. The village has survived remarkably complete, but further protection is needed as the village is blighted by traffic through the Aire Valley, an important east-west route. A bypass is proposed to relieve traffic pressure. Roberts Park, on the north side of the river, suffered from neglect and

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The t ...

but has been restored by

Bradford Council City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the Local government in England, local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Bradford has had an elected council since 1847, which has been reformed on several occasions. ...

. In July 2014 it was announced that planning officers had compiled a list of replacement front doors that were deemed to be "not in keeping with the buildings' historic status." Saltaire Building

Saltaire is a conservation area. Victoria Hall (originally the Saltaire Institute) is used for meetings, community events and concerts, and houses a

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

theatre pipe organ. The village is served by Saltaire railway station. The Saltaire Festival, which first took place in 2003 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Saltaire, is held every year over 11 days in September. The Saltaire Arts Trail is a visual arts festival that takes place each May. Its public events include art exhibitions, children's activities, a Makers Fair, and Open Houses where residents open their homes which become temporary art galleries. Politically, Saltaire is part of the Shipley electoral ward of the

City of Bradford Bradford (), also known as the City of Bradford, is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Wes ...

, of the Saltaire and Hirstwood ward of Shipley Town Council, and part of the parliamentary constituency of Shipley, currently represented by Anna Dixon of the Labour Party. From 1999 to 2005, parliamentarians from three chambers,

Chris Leslie Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British business executive and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the La ...

MP in the House of Commons, Lord Wallace of Saltaire in the House of Lords and Richard Corbett MEP in the European Parliament, all lived in Saltaire.

Proposed bypass

Saltaire is surrounded by a

buffer zone A buffer zone, also historically known as a march, is a neutral area that lies between two or more bodies of land; usually, between countries. Depending on the type of buffer zone, it may serve to separate regions or conjoin them. Common types o ...

established to protect the context of the World Heritage Site. Concerns have been raised over plans announced by Bradford Council and Action Airedale to site a bypass through the buffer zone to either side of the World Heritage Site and to tunnel beneath the village. Within sight of the mill, the tunnel would follow the line of the railway and exit behind the United Reformed Church. As it would pass alongside the

, it could impact on this Conservation Area. The route would impact on an ancient semi-natural woodland and the Woodland Garden of Remembrance at Nab Wood Cemetery. No progress on a bypass for Saltaire has been made as it has been described as "financially unviable". Instead Bradford Council are focussing on the Shipley Eastern Relief Road, which will feed traffic into Bradford along the existing Canal Road Corridor.

Salts Mill today

Salts Mill closed as a textile mill in February 1986, and Jonathan Silver bought it the following year and began renovating it. Today, it houses a mixture of business, commerce, leisure, and residential use. In the main mill building are: * The 1853 art gallery: several large rooms given over to the works of the

-born artist

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

: including paintings, drawings, photomontages, and stage sets. * Industrial companies including the

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

manufacturer ARRIS International plc (formerly

Pace plc Pace plc was a British company which developed set-top boxes (STBs), advanced residential gateways, software and services for the pay-TV and broadband services industry. Pace's customers included cable, telco, satellite and IPTV operators. T ...

). * Various shops. In 2006, there are shops selling books, art supplies, jewellery, outdoor wear, antiques, suits, bicycles, and housewares; the last includes pieces by internationally known designers such as Alvar Aalto and Philippe Starck. * Restaurants and cafes. The "New Mill", on the other side of the canal, is divided between offices for the local

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

Trusts and residential flats.

Media

Film footage of Saltaire and the nearby Shipley Glen Tramway in 1914 is held by the Yorkshire Film Archive. A two-minute short clip showing workers leaving Salts Mill on 24 July 1900 is held by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

. 2009 *'' Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen'' (BBC TV television drama) 2014 * '' The Hunter's Prayer (film)'' 2015 * '' An Inspector Calls (BBC TV Movie)'' *'' Countryfile'', 25 May 2015 (BBC TV Series) 2017 *'' The Hunter's Prayer'' (film starring Sam Worthington) 2018 * '' Funny Cow'' (film starring

Maxine Peake Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her roles as Twinkle in ''Dinnerladies (TV series), dinnerladies'', a sitcom on BBC One (1998–2000), as List of Shameless (British TV series) characters#Vero ...

) * '' The ABC Murders'' (BBC TV Series starring John Malkovich) 2019 *'' The English Game'' (Netflix series written by Julian Fellowes) 2020 *'' Countryfile'', 13 December 2020 (BBC TV Series) 2022 * '' Gentleman Jack'' (TV series) * ''Our Great Yorkshire Life''

Notable residents

*Martha Brown (servant to the Brontë family) * Arthur Raistrick (geologist and archaeologist) *

Tony Richardson Cecil Antonio Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director, producer and screenwriter, whose career spanned five decades. He was identified with the "angry young men" group of British directors and play ...

(film director and producer) * Sir Titus Salt (businessman and founder of Saltaire) * Jonathan Silver (entrepreneur and owner of Salts Mill) * Bob Stanley (music journalist and founding member of Saint Etienne (band)) * Marie Studholme (actor and singer known for Victorian and Edwardian musical comedy) In the early 2000s, Saltaire was home to three parliamentarians, each a member of a different parliament:

MP in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

, William Wallace, Baron Wallace of Saltaire in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, and Richard Corbett MEP in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

Notable businesses from Saltaire

* The Scott Motorcycle Company was based in Hirst Works, Hirstwood Road, in the early 20th century. *

head office is in Salts Mill.

Photographs

File:Saltaire Victoria Hall 1.jpg, Victoria Hall, Saltaire Village File:Saltaire Salts Mill.jpg, Salts Mill File:Salts Mill.jpeg, Salts Mill and River Aire File:Salts Mill 2.jpg, Salts Mill Congregational Church - Saltaire - Inside.jpg, Inside of the Congregational Church

References

Sources

External links

Saltaire Village website

Saltaire in Yorkshire.com

Saltaire in the Unesco World Heritage site
{{Authority control Geography of the City of Bradford Tourist attractions in the City of Bradford Model villages Planned communities in England European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points World Heritage Sites in England Populated places established in 1853 Shipley, West Yorkshire Textile industry of the United Kingdom