 |
Home
Saltaire Heritage: Where you can find out more….
Forthcoming Events
News Page
Sir Titus Salt and Saltaire
|
|
|
|
Sir Titus Salt and Saltaire
Location: Bradford
This page is dedicated to the founder of Saltaire, Sir Titus Salt; describing the main events during his time creating Saltaire.
1803: Titus Salt born at Morley, near Leeds
Morley was an important centre of religious Nonconformity, and the young Titus was brought up in a family where Congregationalism was a fundamental part of life.
1822: Titus Salt moves with parents to Bradford
Titus’ father Daniel Salt brought his family to the now rapidly developing town of Bradford, where he started a woolstapling business. Titus worked for Messrs. Rouse & Son, where he learn the skills of wool sorting, combing, spinning, and weaving – skills which were to lay the foundation of his own commercial success. In 1824 he joined forces with his father, under the name of ‘Daniel Salt and Son’.
1836: Titus Salt makes first purchase of alpaca wool
This proved to be the basis of Salt’s fame and fortune, and allowed the mills that he had by this time acquired in Bradford to produce a worsted cloth of unusually fine lustre at an acceptable price.
1850: Salt acquires land in Saltaire, starts planning development
By the late 1840s Salt’s enterprises in Bradford had grown to the point where he had five separate mills in various locations. Anxious to consolidate on a single site, and to get his workers into a new, cleaner environment, he selected a site with good water and rail facilities, upstream of the now polluted Bradford, on the banks of the River Aire…..….the name ‘Saltaire’ was given to this new venture. Salt’s plan was to build an industrial plant on an unprecedented scale, using the latest methods of smoke control and structural design. The local partnership of Lockwood and Mawson was appointed as architects, and a leading engineer of the day, William Fairbairn, given the responsibility for the structural design of the mill and its power plants.
1853: Salt’s mill opens
The mill was the first of the new buildings to be completed on the site. With 1200 looms producing 18 miles of worsted cloth per day, the scale of production became a national marvel. The opening ceremony was held on Salt’s 50th birthday – 20 Sept 1853 - and included a banquet for his 3000 workers in the mill’s combing-shed.
1854: House building in Saltaire starts
Salt’s original plan for his Saltaire enterprise had envisaged the building of not merely the mill, but a complete community of housing and other social provisions for his workers. It was to take 20 years to complete, but a start was made shortly after the opening of the mill. Starting near the bottom of the valley, the development gradually progressed up the hillside. The names given to the streets are a reflection of what Salt held dear – his allegiance to the Crown, his wife and his children. Later in the development, the architects Lockwood and Mawson were to be honoured in the same way.
1868: House building in Saltaire completed
After 14 years of building, the town’s (800+) housing development had been completed. Some of the community buildings were to follow later, but by 1868 Salt had achieved his ambition to provide a quality of housing for his workers that was unrivalled at the time. Weekly rents varied from 3s (approx 6p) for a standard two-bedroom house, to 5s (10p) for a larger, three -bedroom house with garden.
1868: New Mill opened, north side of canal
This building housed a new spinning-mill and dye-works, and was erected on the site of the much earlier Dixon’s mill (a small mill which predated Salt’s developments). One purpose of the new undertaking was to utilize the water-power which was running to waste. A horizontal turbine was introduced at the time, but the water supply proved too irregular for it to be efficient, and the turbine was later replaced by other machinery. The main architectural feature of the New Mill is its chimney. To soften its visual impact, its architectural style follows that of the campanile of the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa, Venice. In 1995, the New Mill was converted into offices and apartments.
1876: Sir Titus Salt dies
After some months of declining health, Sir Titus died peacefully at his home at Crow Nest, aged 73 on 29th December. On Friday, 5th January, 1877, the funeral took place. The cortege carrying the coffin progressed by horse drawn carriages from Crow Nest firstly to Bradford Town Hall, where the Salt statue had been draped with black cloth. Enormous crowds had gathered to line the route as the cortege moved, with due pomp, to Saltaire, where the body was interred in the family mausoleum. 120,000 people had paid their last respects to the Great Paternalist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
