What an accolade! It reflects his reputation across Europe as an enlightened industrialist who cared about his workers. At his funeral in 1876 local crowds thronged the streets in appreciation of his legacy.
Salt had moved his various woollen factories downwind from smoke ridden Bradford four miles away where outbreaks of cholera kept resurfacing, to a single mill he had built. The river Aire, the Leeds Liverpool canal and the new Midland railway line were nearby. All processes involved in woollen cloth manufacture from washing and carding the raw wool (often silky alpaca from Peru that was unknown at the time so was selling cheaply!) to the 1,200 weaving looms were concentrated on one site that became the largest mill in the world when it opened in 1853. It confirmed our status as ‘the workshop of the world.’
Salt did not stop at that achievement but went on to instruct renowned architects Lockwood and Mawson to design houses for his workers – a village for them in an Italian Renaissance style soon known as Saltaire. Unlike what was on offer in Bradford these houses had separate rooms for living sleeping and cooking, a water supply, an outside toilet, and gas lighting. They were in terraces but not the dark crowded ‘back to back’ types found elsewhere. The foremen had slightly larger houses as did the managers! The obvious downside was that the final number of houses did not meet Salt’s original ambition. However, a school, hospital, alms houses, park, allotments, churches, and an Institute for social activities were also provided. Rents, shop prices, regulations about washing lines and proper behaviour on visits to the park reflected that Victorian philanthropists like Salt were all paternalists who wanted to keep a level of control over their workers. There were never any pubs to be found in Saltaire for instance and the street you lived on was likely to be named after one of his 11 children!
Others were building to a good standard for their industrial workers In Yorkshire like Akroyd in Halifax or Fitzwilliam at Elsecar but it is only Saltaire that was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2001 to reflect its survival as a progressive Victorian settlement which a new generation still enjoy. Titus Salt did deserve his award from the French and his knighthood from Queen Victoria!
Article contributed by Louise Fawn, https://yorkshiresbestguides.co.uk/project/louise-fawn/
