In my bones

As a resident of 22 years, I've lived in Saltaire longer than I've lived in any other one place during my life. It's under my skin and in my bones, in much the way that Blackpool is etched through the length of a stick of rock candy. I'd even go so far as to say that I'd be able to identify Salts Mill in most circumstances. It is so iconic and recognisable. (Long term readers of my blog may feel the same! Possibly eternally bored of the same views? There are, after all, only so many photos you can take in a square mile.)


Try these three vignettes: a reflection, the tip of a chimney and a window (though originally, I think, a loading bay to transfer goods to and from canal barges. You can see the opening has been bricked up at the base.) 

Yes, I'd recognise them anywhere.

Good afternoon, moon

One day I noticed that you could see the moon above the New Mill's tower, in the middle of the afternoon. I'm not exactly sure why the moon sometimes shows up during the day, though I've seen it before. It seemed to me an interesting juxtaposition of different elements in this one image: the Italianate chimney, the tree clothed with fresh spring green, the fluffy clouds and the mysterious moon. I liked it.

The blue hour

The time just before sunrise and just after sunset is known to photographers as 'the blue hour'. It rarely lasts an hour but it's the time when the sky goes dark blue and yet the shadows retain a little detail. Everything looks a little ghostly. It's best to use a tripod to get a good quality photo but my phone did a creditable job in capturing it as I walked home from the park one evening.

Chim chim cheree

Oh, a touch of Mary Poppins: 'chim chiminey, chim chim cheree' - came to mind as I noticed Salts Mill's chimney prettily framed by one of the dark pink cherry blossom trees on Saltaire Road. Maybe in a few more days the blossom will be even further unfurled but I wanted to take advantage of the sunshine to get the photo. It may not last!

As I walked further up the hill, white blossom trees softened the wider view. Talking of white, I've noticed the stone of the mill chimney has started to look very white lately. I think it must relate to the repointing work that was done a few years ago. I guess some of the mineral salts have started to leach out of the mortar.

Shipley Wharf

In winter, when I tend to take fewer long walks, I make a point of walking rather than taking the car if I want to go into Shipley town centre to the library or shops. If I haven't too many heavy things to carry back, I'll take 'the scenic route' back, avoiding the main road. I join the canal towpath at Shipley Wharf. The view up towards Salts Mill and Saltaire from the elevated bridge is one that I rather like; I call it the 'three chimneys view'. Two of the chimneys belong to the old mills on Ashley Lane. The third one, on the right, is Salts Mill chimney. It is much taller than the others but so much further away that perspective plays tricks.

Salts Mill yard

The walk through Salts Mill yard from the rear used to be a frequent route for me, my regular lunchtime leg-stretch circular when I was working. Since I retired, I rarely go that way, more often taking the canalside route past the mills. This day however, I was wearing a decent pair of leather boots, not my usual walking clobber, so I decided I would avoid the canal towpath as it is currently really muddy in parts.

Salts Mill always looks stunning on a sunny, blue sky day. The honeyed stone is shown at its mellow best. This route is the one you'd take as a visitor arriving from the main car park, and passes right beside the massive chimney before entering the mill through the glass portico into the 1853 Gallery on the ground floor. (Many visitors, of course, enter from the Victoria Road end of the mill, from the village, as I usually do now.)

I took a detour through the Mill itself. The soft music, calm atmosphere and scent of lilies in the 1853 Gallery is supremely relaxing. I always leave feeling better about myself and the world.

We're going on a Saltaire hunt (4)

Continuing down to the bottom of Victoria Road in Saltaire, we arrive at the bridge over the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and this iconic view along the waterway between Salts Mill and the New Mill. The mills are still connected by the remaining one of three original walkways over the canal.

Looking from the bridge in the opposite direction, we see one of the most popular spots in the village, where people can access the canal towpath or walk down to the right and over the River Aire into Roberts Park. It's a good place for people to stop for a breather, perhaps indulge in an ice-cream from the ice-cream boat, feed the ducks and generally watch the world go by. Most weekends, there is a volunteer from the Canal and River Trust, the charitable body that looks after the UK's waterways. They seek to educate and encourage people to enjoy all that our waterways have to offer, as well as to recruit volunteers to do some of the many tasks needed to maintain the network.

Looking back up the slope that leads down to the canal level, you get a beautiful view of the amazing Italianate chimney of the New Mill, a copy of a Venetian church tower.

Then down on to the canal towpath - and immediately we are transported into a cool, green, peaceful world that seems far away from the bustle of the village and its industrial heritage. Deceptive though... as it was partly because of the canal that the mills were built here, with a crucial transportation route for goods and materials to the docks in Liverpool, 100 or so miles away to the west.  At one time, it would have been busy with boats and horses - and even these days you have to keep a watch in front and behind for cyclists, as the towpath is a cycleway too.

Smoke stacks

Looking over Shipley from the heights of Northcliffe Park, I was struck by the array of chimney pots on the Victorian terraced houses in the foreground. The roofs of the more modern dwellings beyond look plain in comparison. The blackened stonework that can still be seen on some buildings locally is a reminder of how unhealthy the air must have been when all those chimneys (not to forget the mill chimneys too) were belching out coal smoke. Nowadays we have to be fearful of more hidden pollutants from our vehicles. This area is still a pollution blackspot.

The no longer perfect tree

Those who've been following my blog for a while may recall me talking about my favourite 'perfect tree', a rowan that stands just across the railway lines from Salts Mill's huge chimney. Not only does it carry pretty white blossom in spring, red berries and leaves that turn a vibrant orange in autumn but it was an absolutely textbook 'child's drawing' shape. (See HERE). Well, no longer. Someone (presumably from the local council) in their wisdom (?) came along some while ago and trimmed the lower branches, which has utterly ruined the shape. I'm actually feeling quite cross about it. I can't see that it was dangerous. The branches didn't hang low and they looked strong. There are big sycamores and ash trees across the road from my house that seem a lot more dangerous, with their branches well overhanging the road and whipping about dreadfully in high winds. Just corporate vandalism, I feel.

Misty February

Misty February days, when the top of Salts Mill chimney disappears into the clouds...

Every cloud...

More subtle reflections, this one in the window of ArtParade, the art shop and gallery at the corner of Albert Terrace and Victoria Road. I am not quite sure how it is possible (miraculous diffractions of light) but the reflection is of the New Mill chimney at the bottom of Victoria Road.

Normally you would not see the shop window looking like this, with one blind down and the other up, so that is what made it interesting to me. (Every cloud has a silver lining...) Sadly, the shop appears to have become a victim to the incessant rain. Water must have been leaking in above the window. They had had to put buckets and towels along the window sill to catch the water and strip away some of the window surround - to see where the leak was coming from, I assume. Leaks tend to be difficult to trace in these old buildings, as I know to my cost!

A grand gesture

Another photographic variation on the theme of Saltaire's New Mill chimney, such a splendid Italianate gesture. It was one of the last parts of the township to be constructed, the New Mill being built in 1868 as an extra spinning mill to increase the manufacturing capacity. It seems almost to be Sir Titus Salt's 'proud moment', finishing off his mills and his village with a flourish.

I'm rather pleased with the split-tone effect on this image. It seems to suit the subject.

New Mill chimney

Pale winter light on Saltaire's New Mill chimney seems to really emphasise the ornate design of the stonework.

I don't know if you can see them but there are always gulls perched on the roof of the Health Services offices. It must be warm up there.

The holly bush in the foreground is one of several planted at the bottom of Victoria Road. It seems the village founder, Sir Titus Salt, was a bit of a collector of them and there are a lot of holly bushes growing all around this area.  I note they have been threaded through with strings of lights recently, as part of Saltaire's Christmas decorations. I don't think they have been decorated in previous years. I must remember to go and see what they look like lit up. It might be rather pretty.

Timeless

I am really enjoying experimenting with textures and layers these days. This is the same photo that I showed yesterday, with an added texture that gives it a painterly quality and a sense of timelessness.

Salts and light

My habitual lunchtime walk a week or two ago yielded a photo of Salts Mill that I am quite pleased with. It was taken on my iPhone so the quality isn't perfect. However, the light was beautiful, with sunlight glancing off the mill's stonework and a brooding storm cloud behind.

Spring comes to Saltaire

A few sunny days have seen the apple blossom bursting into bloom and a definite feel of Spring in the air. Though I am still finding it quite cold and have not yet shed my padded jacket, others apparently disagree. There were many folk enjoying the sunshine in Roberts Park, clad only in shorts and T shirts.

Salts Mill chimney has developed a strange, white, powdery look to its stonework after a longish spell of dry weather. It must have to do with the type of pointing they used when the chimney was repaired a few years ago. I don't think it has really improved its looks. Though it's quite probable that a bit of repointing wouldn't improve my looks either, at this stage...

Tall order

More maintenance going on, this time repairs to the ornate mill chimney of Saltaire's New Mill. It has scaffolding up one side and a scaffold framework at the top. I don't know what they are doing - pointing the stonework possibly? I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't clearing out all the bird droppings from the lantern at the top. Birds obviously roost and possibly even nest in the tower and there are always some flying in and out. I don't suppose it does the structure a lot of good over a long period of time.

Over the bridge

If you're 5'5" like me, this is a view of Saltaire's Salts Mill that you never see... To take it, I had to balance my camera above my head on the parapet of the railway bridge and pretty much experiment in order to get the right composition. I guess the bridge has been built so high precisely to discourage photographers from climbing up to take the iconic shot of the Mill's long south frontage. It is, however, a view well-known to millions of TV viewers, since a similar shot appears in the opening video sequence to the nightly 'Look North' local news programme on BBC1.

Looking up 3

Possibly my favourite spot in Saltaire for looking up, just to marvel at the size of the great chimney at Salts Mill. Observed from close to its base, it seems to soar upwards right to the heavens. I find it breathtaking - and to think that at one time it went even higher because it was originally crowned with an ornate top, which had to be removed when it became unsafe.
Equally breathtaking is the view from the top.... See my series of pictures posted in October 2012, here.

Puddled?

Sometimes I get childishly excited about my photos!  Like this one - just a quick iPhone snap on my way home from work on Friday night. Salts Mill chimney in a puddle alongside the wet pavement seemed to have a certain attraction/attractiveness. I then came home and had an exploratory and contented few minutes applying different effects to it (on my phone using the Snapseed and DistressedFX apps). There were several versions I liked but this was my favourite. Sometimes when you export the pics and look at them on a full-size monitor they lose a bit in translation but I think this has stood up well. I'm happy now... ready for the weekend. :)