Saltaire

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See also Saltaire, New York, United States.

Template:GBthumb Image:Saltaire from Leeds and Liverpool Canal.jpg

Saltaire is the name of a Victorian era model village in the metropolitan borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

It was founded by Sir Titus Salt in 1853. He had moved his entire business from Bradford to a rural site near Shipley to provide better sanitary arrangements for his workers than could be had in Bradford. He also built better houses, a park, a hospital and wash-houses with running water, as well as an Institute for recreation and education, with a library, a reading room, a concert hall, billiard room, science laboratory and gymnasium. There were also almshouses, allotments, bathhouses and a boathouse. The Mausoleum adjacent to the Saltaire United Reformed church houses Sir Titus's body; he died in 1876.

Similar projects had been started a few years earlier by Edward Ackroyd at Copley and as early as the beginning of the 19th century in New Lanark, Scotland by Robert Owen (amongst others).

There is controversy as to whether Titus Salt was a philanthropist or simply a very astute capitalist. There is little doubt that the quality of life for the workers in the village of Saltaire was better than that of many of their counterparts elsewhere. However, it was also very highly regulated. Whether this was a cynical business decision or a paternalistic one based on Salt's Christian beliefs is uncertain, but it was claimed that the lack of a pub, while Salt himself owned a wine cellar, was to inhibit the formation of trade union, which Salt forbade.

When Sir Titus Salt's son, likewise Sir Titus Salt, died, Saltaire was taken over by a partnership which included James Roberts from Haworth who had worked at the mill since the age of twelve, and who would travel to Russia each year, speaking that language fluently. Sir James Roberts came to own Saltaire but invested heavily in Russia, losing his fortune at the Revolution. He endowed a chair of Russian at Leeds University and bought the Bronte's Haworth Parsonage for the nation. He is mentioned in T.S. Eliot's Wasteland. He is buried at Fairlight in Sussex.

Nowadays, the mill complex contains a variety of businesses, with the old mill containing a shopping centre with a major art gallery housing works by the Bradford-born artist David Hockney. Its industrial use continues, as it is also home to the electronics manufacturer Pace Micro Technology. The Institute houses the Victorian Reed Organ Museum, while the new mill contains the Offices for the local NHS Trusts and apartments.

In December 2001, Saltaire was recognised as a pioneering model village by being designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It 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 now held every year for a week in September.

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