Salts Mill (sometimes spelled Salt's Mill) is a former textile mill, now incorporating an art gallery, shops, restaurant and spaces to rent in Saltaire, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was commissioned and financed by Sir Titus Salt and opened in 1853. At that point, the mill was the largest industrial building in the world by total floor area. The present-day 1853 Gallery takes its name from that date. The mill has many paintings by local artist David Hockney on display.
The Mill and surrounding village of Saltaire was financed and built by the 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Sir Titus Salt after he observed other textile factories and was disappointed by the working conditions he saw there. At the time mill working conditions were commonly poor, with most workers suffering disease, low wages and labour exploitation. Dangerous machinery and long hours, sometimes exceeding 16 hour working days, resulted in frequent accidents. Titus Salt acknowledged this and built a factory and surrounding village with which he intended to improve the working conditions for his employees. It is a grade II* listed building. [1] The mill closed in 1986 and the following year it was sold to Jonathan Silver, who began a long renovation scheme. [2]
The spellings Salts Mill and Salt's Mill (that is, with and without an apostrophe) are both commonly used. The former is used consistently by the Salts Mill website, [3] the Saltaire Village website, [4] and Visit Bradford from the official Bradford Tourist Information service. [5] Both versions are used in the UNESCO World Heritage documentation. [6]
Bradford's Peace Museum moved to the third floor of the mill in August 2024. [7] The move was paid for by the Bradford 2025 City of Culture fund and the national lottery. [8]
Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet was an English manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who is best known for having built Salt's Mill, a large textile mill, together with the attached village of Saltaire, West Yorkshire.
Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salts Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allow his workers to live in better conditions than the slums of Bradford. The mill ceased production in 1986, and was converted into a multifunctional location with an art gallery, restaurants, and the headquarters of a technology company. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
Shipley is a historic market town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Baildon is a town and civil parish in the Bradford Metropolitan Borough in West Yorkshire, England and within the historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Bradford, also known as the City of Bradford, is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden, Queensbury, Thornton and Denholme. Bradford has a population of 528,155, making it the fourth-most populous metropolitan district and the ninth-most populous local authority district in England. It forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in 2011 had a population of 1,777,934, and the city is part of the Leeds-Bradford Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), which, with a population of 2,393,300, is the fourth largest in the United Kingdom after London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Salt is a dietary mineral, used for flavoring and preservation.
Lister Mills was the largest silk factory in the world. It is located in the Manningham district of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and was built by Samuel Cunliffe Lister to replace the original Manningham Mills which had been destroyed by fire in 1871. The mill is a Grade II* listed building, built in the Italianate style of Victorian architecture.
Henry Francis Lockwood was an influential English architect active in the North of England.
The Peace Museum in Saltaire, West Yorkshire is the only museum in the UK dedicated to the history and stories of peace, peacemakers and the peace movement.
Jonathan Silver was a British entrepreneur from Bradford, Yorkshire, England; he was responsible for the restoration of Salts Mill as a thriving cultural, retail, and commercial centre.
Roberts Park is a 14 acres (5.7 ha) public urban park in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England. Higher Coach Road, Baildon, is to the north and the park is bounded to the south by the River Aire. A pedestrian footbridge crosses the Aire and links the park to the village of Saltaire. The park is an integral part of the Saltaire World Heritage site.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Victoria Hall, Saltaire is a Grade II* listed building in the village of Saltaire, near Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, designed by architects Lockwood and Mawson.
Saltaire United Reformed Church is a church at Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England. Commissioned and paid for by Titus Salt in the mid 19th century, the church is a Grade I listed building and sits within the Saltaire World Heritage Site.
Sir James Roberts (1848–1935) was a Yorkshire industrialist and businessman. He was born at Lane Ends in the parish of Oakworth, Yorkshire on 30 September 1848. He was one of eleven children of a weaver who became a tenant farmer. His parents were illiterate but determined that their children would receive an education
William Mawson was an English architect best known for his work in and around Bradford.
Drummond Mill was a complex of industrial buildings on Lumb Lane, Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire. It contained originally a spinning mill, a warehouse, a spinning shed, and an engine house with chimney and was destroyed in a fire on 28 January 2016.
Saltaire is a model village in Shipley, a ward in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The village contains 93 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, four are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. In 1850 Titus Salt started to build a textile mill, known as Salt's Mill, alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and then developed the model village to house and serve its workers. This included housing, shops, and community buildings, all of which are listed. The architects for the entire scheme, including later mills, were the Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson. All the listed buildings built between 1850 and 1870 were designed by them. The later listed buildings are a tram shed, a war memorial and a telephone kiosk.
Milner Field was a large country house near Saltaire in West Yorkshire, England built in 1872 for Titus Salt Junior, youngest son of the Yorkshire wool merchant and philanthropist Sir Titus Salt and demolished in the 1950s. The house was situated at the edge of the village of Gilstead, near Bingley, overlooking the Aire Valley in the direction of Titus Salt senior's model village of Saltaire and Salts Mill.
Thomas Milnes was an English sculptor. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1842 to 1866. He also exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the International Exhibition in 1862.
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