Saltaire

Saltaire is a Victorian era model village in West Yorkshire, England.

Saltaire was founded by Sir Titus Salt in 1853. The name of the village is a combination of the founder's surname with the name of the river Aire. Salt moved his entire business from Bradford to this site partly to provide better arrangements for his workers than could be had in Bradford and partly to site his large textile mill by a canal and a railway.

Salt's philanthropic project is usually seen as an example of paternalism. Salt built neat stone houses for his workers, wash-houses with running water, bath-houses, a hospital, as well as an Institute for recreation and education, with a library, a reading room, a concert hall, billiard room, science laboratory and gymnasium. The village also provided a school for the children of the workers, almshouses, allotments, a park and a boathouse.

Year	Decision	Comments
2001	Inscribed	Reasons for inscription

Reviews

Mrs. Ruth White (Trentham. Australia):
On a recent trip to Ilkley, I was fortunate to be taken to Saltaire. Not having heard of this place I did not know what to expect there. On arrival at Saltaire I was pleasantly surprised as we wandered around past Salt's Mill and surrounding houses, churches etc.
I was intrigued by the magnitude of the buildings and the far sightedness of Sir Titus Salt. His employees must have been grateful for his innovations. The Mill itself was just what I imagined a mill of that era would be. The setting of Salts mill and housing was essential to his business operations. I wonder what Sir Titus Salt would think of the pubs and inns today in the vicinity of his industrial area.

Writing these comments brings back happy memories of a great day spent there with my Australian daugher and family now domiciled in London. Even the weather was pleasant for October. I would urge anyone staing in the region to pay a visit to this site. It is well worth it.

Ian Cade (England):

I must admit that sometimes I have to really motivate myself to visit the Industrial sites on the list, after a few dull visits I wasn’t imagining this one to be much different. The website didn’t give me much hope, displaying adverts for the shops that now inhabit Salt’s Mill selling lots of expensive things that you don’t really need. However I really quite enjoyed my visit.
The main site is Salt’s Mill, which is an impressive building, when it was built it was the largest factory in the world, and its on a strip of land between the railway, one of the worlds first and the hugely important Leeds-Liverpool canal give a great idea of how the industrial infrastructure at the height of the industrial revolution worked. The Mill now houses an extensive collection of David Hockney’s art, including his own paintings of Saltaire, which were nice I really liked his photomontages and opera sets. Although the rest of the mill was given over to some fancy shops it was actually interesting to walk around and you got to see the architectural details, such as the Iron frame of the building. The shops themselves were actually pretty decent and the restaurant is supposedly one of the best in the area.
Next to the mill is the village of Saltaire, this was one of the earliest examples of housing designed for employees of large industrial factories. The average life expectancy in Bradford at the time of building was very low; 36 years old (I may be wrong). In an attempt to improve the situation the village provided very adequate housing with the latest developments such as outside toilets, to help improve sanitation. There were also a hospital, almshouses, theatre/community hall, church and parkland. This was a revolution and has an effect throughout the world on the planning of living conditions, it reminded me very much of the city I grew up in and the houses behind where I currently live are almost identical to the ones pioneered at Saltaire. They still look like very nice places to live; a little small but very nice, walking around the village reminded me a lot of the Begijnhofs in Flanders.
Saltaire is a very easy place to visit as it has its own train station on the Leeds/ Bradford metro line about 20 minutes from either city. Bradford is a great place to get a curry, whilst Leeds is, I feel, one of England’s more underrated cities, and very good place to go out for some nightlife. It is also possible to visit from the magnificent cathedral city of York, 1 hour by train changing in Leeds.
It is certainly worthy of its place on the list as it shows not only the great achievements of the industrial revolution but puts it in a context along with infrastructure and urban planning that have had a world wide impact. This is one of the better Industrial sites I have visited and the lovely weather made this a very rewarding visit, worth a visit even if Industrial heritage is not your usual idea of fun.

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I live near to Saltaire and I think it's a great little place. The Saltaire Festival is on at the moment (6 - 16th September 2007) so it's probably a good time to visit if you want to join in with the festivities.

For more information, please visit the Saltaire website at www.saltaire.yorks.com

Ingemar Eriksson (Sweden):
I went up to Saltaire on a day-trip from Manchester by train with nice wievs.
I consider it worth the efforts but as James already har written, it is the total kept concept, with a large restored factory and the nearb village that makes it a heritage. The Hockney exhibition is nice but does it could be anywhere, not necessesary in a WHS site.

Date posted: January 2006

jamie baldock (england):
if u havnt visited yet it was a bad mistake you are missing alot of exiting things eespecialy the david hockney collection a great combination of modern and old art

jamie baldock (England):
saltaire is a nice place to visit the history is deplayed all around you. it is nice to have such a pleasent historical sight just a few miles down the road i strongly advise people to visit it. today it has many shops and salts mill houses the entreging David hockney collectoin.

James (UK):
Appart from being a beautiful place Saltaire is also a truly remarkable one. In a time that was notorious for the poor treatment of employees by mill owners Sir Titus Salt built a self contained village around his mill to house his workers. In addition to houses and streets, which are all named after members of his family, he also built churches, schools, parks, etc... today's employers should take note. Although the houses have been in constant use since they were built the mill itself was in ruin until a few years ago but now contains shops, cafe's, business' and even art galleries (the David Hockney collection is housed in Salts mill). On a strip of land between the river Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool canal is a section of the mill that has been converted into apartments. If you walk accross the foot bridges into Roberts park there is a good view of this secondary mill across the wier. Sir Titus was a Temperate man and there are still no pubs allowed within Saltaire village. Although there are several on its boundary.

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