Still standing

Snowy winters come and go but the Salts Mill complex in Saltaire has stood, through good times and bad, for over 150 years, in the Aire valley north of the city of Bradford. This photo gives a good idea of the sheer size of the mill. The main chimney on the left is 250ft (76.2m) high. To the right of it is the oldest part of Salts Mill, a six-storey building and huge 'sheds' that housed all the processes for storing, scouring, combing, spinning and weaving the wools used to produce the fine worsted and alpaca cloth Salts was famous for.

The Leeds-Liverpool canal runs behind the line of trees, providing a transport route for the mill. It cuts through the gap in the buildings (see my picture on 2 January). The New Mill, on the right, was built in 1868 as an extra spinning mill and was extended in the early 1900s.

This view is really of the back of the mills. The village of Saltaire, its church and other important public buildings lie behind and to the left of the mill complex. You can just glimpse the snow-covered roofs of some of the houses.