SALTAIRE AND SIR TITUS SALT

Whilst up in Yorkshire we visited what we thought was going to be just an old village with a few shops in it - oh no how wrong can you be. Saltaire is actually a complete old Victorian Mill town that was built by Philantrapist Sir Titus Salt and was named after him.  This is now a world heritage site.  He knew that the mills were billowing out smoke and pollution which was not good for his workers health and so he decided to build a new mill in the country and bought some land three miles from Bradford that was on the River Bure on which to create his vision.

He built housing for his workers.

Although some of them are back to back houses Titus had the houses built to high design specs, check out those stained glass windows.

Love the back alley ways complete with their recycling bins showing that life goes on and that the village is very lived in and not just a museum piece.

He also built a large memorial hall, bathhouses, almhouses, church and hospital

There was parkland and of course walks by the river.

The mill looms have long since been silenced but the mill itself has been turned into a shopping area Salt Mills.  There is the most wonderful bookshop in there.  Being the daughter of a bookseller I could have spent hours browsing through the books, then through into a marvelous cookware/homeware shop with a breathtaking array of items for the kitchen and home, stopping for coffee in the American style diner and then through into the antique centre at the end. 

Another great plus is that the Mill has an exhibition of David Hockney paintings.


Along the streets are little individual shops, my favourites were a little vintage shop The House of Rose & Brown which I treated myself to a few bits from plus an old fashioned bakers that sold the most wonderfully tasty pasties.

All in all it is a town that is worth taking a trip to - put it on your list of places to visit.