Saltaire is a Victorian model village located near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, south of the River Aire. Salts Mill was constructed between the railway and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Titus Salt built the mill and homes between 1851 and 1871 to provide his workers with better living conditions than the crowded and poor areas of Bradford. The mill stopped making goods in 1986 and was changed into a place used for many purposes, including an art gallery, restaurants, and the headquarters of a technology company. The model village is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

History

Saltaire was created in 1851 by Sir Titus Salt, a prominent business leader in the Yorkshire wool industry. The village’s name combines the founder’s last name and the name of a nearby river. Salt moved his business, which included five mills, from Bradford to this location near Shipley. He chose this site to provide housing for his workers and to build a large textile mill near the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and a railway. Salt hired local architects Francis Lockwood and William Mawson to design the village.

At the same time, similar but smaller projects were started by Edward Akroyd in Copley and Henry Ripley in Ripley Ville. Another example of a planned industrial village is New Lanark, a World Heritage site founded by David Dale in 1786.

Salt built clean, stone houses for his workers (much better than the poor living conditions in Bradford), along with wash-houses with running water, bath-houses, a hospital, and a building for recreation and education. This building included a library, reading room, concert hall, billiard room, science lab, and gym. The village also had a school for workers’ children, homes for the elderly, garden plots, a park, and a boathouse. Recreational activities were encouraged, such as forming a drum and fife band for boys and a brass band for adult men, which later became the Hammonds Saltaire Band.

The village combined good housing, jobs, education, healthcare, and community spaces, making it a notable example of thoughtful 19th-century city planning. Construction was nearly finished by 1871. A census from that year showed Saltaire had 800 homes (755 houses and 45 almshouses) housing 4,389 people. In October 1872, Saltaire, along with Dean Clough Mill in Halifax, was visited by the Japanese Government’s Iwakura Mission, which toured modern British industry.

Sir Titus Salt died in 1876 and was buried in a mausoleum next to the Congregational church. After his son, Titus Salt Junior, died, Saltaire was managed by a partnership that included Sir James Roberts from Haworth.

Roberts began working in wool mills at age 11. He had business interests in Russia and could speak Russian fluently. Although he owned Saltaire, he invested heavily in Russia and lost some of his wealth during the Russian Revolution. He funded a Russian studies position at Leeds University and donated the Brontës’ Haworth Parsonage to the public. Roberts is mentioned in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. He is buried in Fairlight, East Sussex. His legacy remains in Saltaire, including Roberts Park, named after his son, which he gave to Bradford Council in 1920.

Saltaire remained owned by the mill until it was sold by Messrs. Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. to the Bradford Property Trust Ltd. on July 31, 1933. In October 1933, the new owners worked with Shipley Urban District Council to improve the village. This included updating gas and electricity services, improving sewers and sanitation, and removing 43 homes to expand parts of the village.

Saltaire today

In December 2001, Saltaire was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This means the government must protect the area. Each building in the model village is individually listed for protection, with the highest level of protection given to the Congregational church (now called Saltaire United Reformed Church), which has been grade I listed since 1972. The village has remained largely intact, but more protection is needed because heavy traffic through the Aire Valley, an important east-west route, threatens it. A bypass is being planned to reduce traffic pressure. Roberts Park, located on the north side of the river, was once neglected and damaged by vandalism but has been restored by Bradford Council. In July 2014, planning officers created a list of replacement front doors that were not considered suitable for the buildings' historic appearance.

Saltaire is a conservation area. Victoria Hall (originally the Saltaire Institute) is used for meetings, community events, and concerts, and contains a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. The village is served by Saltaire railway station.

The Saltaire Festival, first held in 2003 to mark Saltaire’s 150th anniversary, takes place every September over 11 days. The Saltaire Arts Trail, a visual arts festival, occurs each May. Events include art exhibitions, children’s activities, a Makers Fair, and Open Houses, where residents open their homes to display art temporarily.

Politically, Saltaire is part of the Shipley electoral ward in the City of Bradford, the Saltaire and Hirstwood ward in Shipley Town Council, and the Shipley parliamentary constituency, currently represented by Anna Dixon of the Labour Party. From 1999 to 2005, three parliamentarians—Chris Leslie MP in the House of Commons, Lord Wallace of Saltaire in the House of Lords, and Richard Corbett MEP in the European Parliament—lived in Saltaire.

Proposed bypass

Saltaire is protected by a buffer zone created to help preserve the special features of the World Heritage Site. Plans by Bradford Council and Action Airedale to build a bypass around the site have raised concerns. The proposed route would run along both sides of the World Heritage Site and include a tunnel near the village. The tunnel would be located near the mill, follow the path of the railway, and exit near the United Reformed Church. It would also pass close to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which is part of a protected Conservation Area. The planned route would cross an ancient forest and the Woodland Garden of Remembrance at Nab Wood Cemetery.

No progress has been made on the bypass because it has been called "financially unviable," meaning it is too expensive to build. Instead, Bradford Council is focusing on the Shipley Eastern Relief Road, which will direct traffic into Bradford along the existing Canal Road Corridor.

Salts Mill today

Salts Mill stopped operating as a textile mill in February 1986. The following year, Jonathan Silver purchased the mill and started repairing and improving it. Today, the mill includes spaces for business, shopping, dining, and living. Inside the main mill building are:

• An art gallery built in 1853, which displays the artwork of David Hockney, a famous artist born in Bradford. The gallery includes paintings, drawings, photo collages, and stage designs.
• Industrial businesses, such as ARRIS International plc, a company that makes electronic products (previously known as Pace plc).
• Many stores. In 2006, these included shops selling books, art materials, jewelry, outdoor clothing, antique items, suits, bicycles, and household goods. Some of the household goods were designed by well-known creators like Alvar Aalto and Philippe Starck.
• Restaurants and cafes.

The "New Mill," located on the other side of the canal, is used for office spaces by local National Health Service Trusts and for residential apartments.

Media

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

• A Is For Acid (TV Movie)
• Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (BBC TV drama)
• An Inspector Calls (BBC TV Movie)
• Countryfile, 25 May 2015 (BBC TV Series)
• The Hunter's Prayer (film starring Sam Worthington)
• Funny Cow (film starring Maxine Peake)
• The ABC Murders (BBC TV Series starring John Malkovich)
• The English Game (Netflix series written by Julian Fellowes)
• Countryfile, 13 December 2020 (BBC TV Series)
• Gentleman Jack (TV series)
• Our Great Yorkshire Life
• The Choral (film starring Ralph Fiennes and Mark Addy)

Notable residents

• Martha Brown (servant to the Brontë family)
• Arthur Raistrick (geologist and archaeologist)
• Tony Richardson (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 had three parliamentarians, each serving in a different parliament: Chris Leslie MP in the House of Commons, William Wallace, Baron Wallace of Saltaire in the House of Lords, and Richard Corbett MEP in the European Parliament.

Notable businesses from Saltaire

• The Scott Motorcycle Company had its headquarters at Hirst Works, Hirstwood Road, during the early 1900s.
• The main office of Pace plc is located in Salts Mill.

Photographs

• Victoria Hall, Saltaire Village
• Salts Mill
• Salts Mill and River Aire
• Salts Mill
• Inside the Congregational Church