Salts Mill (sometimes spelled Salt's Mill) is a former

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

, now an art gallery, shopping centre, and restaurant complex in

Saltaire Saltaire is a Victorian era, Victorian model village in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Shipley, part of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, in West Yorkshire, England. The Victorian era Salt's Mill and associated residential district locate ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was built by

Sir Titus Salt Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet (20 September 1803 in Morley – 29 December 1876 in Lightcliffe), was a manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who is best known for having built Salt's Mill, a la ...

in 1853, and the present-day 1853 Gallery takes its name from the date of the building which houses it. The mill has many paintings by the local artist

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

on display and also provides offices for

Pace plc Pace plc was a British company who developed set-top boxes (STBs), advanced residential gateways, software and services for the pay-TV and broadband services industry. Pace's customers included cable, telco, satellite and IPTV operators. The c ...

. The Mill and surrounding town of

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 town with which he intended to improve the working conditions for his employees. When completed, the mill was the largest industrial building in the world by total floor area. It is a grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The mill closed in 1986 and the following year it was sold to

Jonathan Silver Jonathan Silver (1949–1997) was an entrepreneur from Bradford, Yorkshire, who was responsible for restoring Salts Mill as a thriving cultural, retail and commercial centre. Life Silver was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1949, o ...

, who began a long renovation scheme.

Spelling

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 and the Saltaire Village website; the latter by ''Visit Bradford'' from the official Bradford Tourist Information service. Both versions are used in the UNESCO World Heritage documentation.

References

External links

Salts Mill
Official web site.
UNESCO
World Heritage Centre * * * * http://www.saltaire.org.uk/salts-mill * http://roberts-park.org/saltaire-history-timeline-1858-1892/ * http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/england/bradford/article_1.shtml Industrial buildings completed in 1853 Buildings and structures in the City of Bradford Grade II* listed buildings in West Yorkshire Tourist attractions in the City of Bradford History of the textile industry Art museums and galleries in West Yorkshire Museums in West Yorkshire Shipley, West Yorkshire David Hockney {{WestYorkshire-struct-stub

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References

External links