The Blue Phone Box Library

You may remember a picture I posted some time ago (here), showing a little free library box that the Hirst Wood Regeneration Group had provided for local children beside the playground. Children were invited to borrow books and return them later, or replace them with another. It proved very successful and early incidents of vandalism were successfully dealt with by some great work by the police and local community. Recently, an old phone box has been acquired, painted and converted. It is able to hold many more books. It is now open and looks great. When I went past, there were several children using it on their way home from school. I have to say that the Regeneration Group are doing a wonderful job on the small Hirst Wood estate, which is adjacent to Saltaire but has always been a bit of an overlooked and relatively deprived area. So great to have good news stories to report.

Little Free Library

The committed group of people who make up the Hirst Wood Regeneration Group do some excellent work on the small Hirst Wood estate, a pocket of relative deprivation just outside Saltaire. Several years ago they succeeded in getting funding and Council backing for a nice play area, which is great for the many families and young people in the area. It also has this 'Little Free Library' from which children's books can be borrowed and returned. Sadly the little box keeps getting vandalised (as does the nature reserve down by the canal that the Regen Group also recently established). It's such a shame that there are those who cannot value such initiatives and seem to want to spoilt things for everyone, for the sake of a moment of daredevilry. Hard to understand such attitudes.

This is Saltaire

Just on the edge of Roberts Park, across the river from Saltaire, there is a large and well-used playground with activities for all ages from the littlest toddlers to teenagers on bikes and skateboards. It has a curving wall to separate the skatepark from the rest, which has been painted numerous times. My favourite so far was a tiger's eye. The most recent mural was designed and executed by pupils from the nearby Titus Salt School, with guidance from local artist Tim Curtis. It depicts Sir Titus Salt himself and thus reminds visitors approaching Saltaire from the Baildon side of the river that they are entering an historic World Heritage Site.

Saltaire sunshine

Another photo taken in the spring sunshine, this time in Roberts Park.  On the right you can just see Saltaire's New Mill, built on the bank of the River Aire, on the site of a much older water-powered corn mill called Dixon's Mill.  Sir Titus Salt bought Dixon's Mill in 1850, along with its small estate, to provide the green-field site he wanted in order to begin construction of his new textile mill and 'model' village.  This part of the New Mill is now offices belonging to the Health Service. (For more info and pictures please click the New Mill label.)

On the left of the photo is a new children's playground, built as part of the renovations to Roberts Park last year.  It's rather splendid and includes an area for acrobatic skate-boarding and bike-riding. (I'm sure there's a proper term for that!)  It is extremely well-used, and provides a much-needed play facility for children on the estate on the far side of Roberts Park, as well as those from Saltaire.
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Advance Notice:  The late Bank Holiday Weekend 27-30 May this year sees the Saltaire Arts Trail move to a stand-alone event, separate from the Saltaire Festival.  With exhibitions, the Maker's Fair, a Vintage Fashion show and the ever-popular Open Houses, this year's programme looks packed full of enjoyment.  I am exhibiting some photographs in a linked event: "Yorkshire - God's Own County", an exhibition by St Peter's Photography Group.  See the website for full details.

Playground mosaics

You may remember that last year I showed how the children's playground in Saltaire had been revamped.  It was a beneficiary of money that was earmarked for community projects, from the sale of Leeds-Bradford Airport to a private operator.  The new playground seems to have been welcomed by the local kids.  It is especially popular with mums of very young children, as there is a part specially for the little ones, and the mums can sit on the seats and chat while the kids play.  There is a winding path through the centre from one side to the other and at intervals there are squares of colourful ceramic mosiacs, which on close inspection are rather attractive.  Oldies like me are not supposed to enter the playgound (unless accompanied by a child under 14) and, since I don't yet have a tame grandchild, I had to sneak in when no-one (appeared to be) looking, to get these photos.  The top one is a mosaic of several of the designs and the lower picture is a close up of just one of them.

Study them closely...the more you look, the more you'll see.... animals and plants, Salts Mill, the New Mill (or maybe it's the Victoria Hall tower?), the Church, houses.....  They'd make a good project for a 'brass rubbing' technique, I would think.

New playground

Some of you may remember back to early March, when I said they were digging up the children's playground near my house in order to revamp it. It has taken all this time for the new design to come to fruition but it opened the other day - without, as far as I know, any fanfare - and since then has been very busy and popular, particularly with parents/carers with younger children. Unusually, it has been turfed and then some kind of rubber matting laid over the turf around the swings and slides, through which the grass can grow. There are a few new trees, some colourful seats (seating was almost non-existent before), lots of bright exciting equipment... the most popular appears to be a circular net that swings....and a tarmac area for ball games - just out of my picture.

Overall it is an improvement, much more cheerful looking and it certainly seems well-used. But there are large signs forbidding entry to anyone over 14 who is not supervising a younger child. That means the youths who used to play football on the old playground are no longer allowed to, and all those young students from the local college who used to come and cuddle on the one seat (!) have been left out. (And I can't go and sit there either!) Not sure what the ban is meant to achieve - any paedophile need only stand on the other side of the perimeter fence! And the older ones used to play at different times from the little ones. I don't suppose a few signs will stop the teenagers though!

(Oh and by the way, I did buy the print of the old playground, mentioned in my earlier post.)

Gone...but not forgotten

This is me being sentimental! I know this isn't a very beautiful photo, but in view of the way they have suddenly started digging up the local playground, I thought I'd put the 'before' picture on my blog. It doesn't look much, but this picture says 'Home' to me. Being painted white, this gable end beside the playground is visible from quite a long way away - you can see it from the train passing Salts Mill, so when I am coming home from travelling I am always glad to see the landmark. (I can also see it from my office window in winter when there are no leaves on the trees.)

The picture also has another significance for me. There is a local artist called Stuart Hirst, who has become well-known for his watercolour paintings of Saltaire and other towns and villages in this area. I have loved his work since I was a student in Bradford and have a couple of prints of his. He has a wonderful way of painting rainy streets - very effective. He has one painting, called "Rain stopped play" and, although it is not attributed, I am pretty sure it is a picture of this playground. (The end terrace did have two chimneys until recently, when the houseowner demolished one.) I have often wondered whether to buy the print - perhaps I will now! See what you think - you can see his profile and some of his work by clicking the links.

The Cage

I came home from work the other day to find that I had acquired a cage as a near neighbour. There has been a children's playground at the end of the street for many years. It wasn't much to look at - four tatty swings, a small roundabout, a slide and a few rocking things on springs. But it gave the kids a good place to charge around and let off steam, and the older lads played football there (using the swings as goalposts!) And from my point of view I like the open vista towards Salts Mill.

Bradford Council has apparently put £3 million from the sale of Leeds-Bradford Airport into a Community Investment Fund, and councillors are deciding how to spend this money to benefit local communities. Our local (Green Party) councillors have earmarked about £20,000.00 for a total renovation of the playground. I received a consultative leaflet through my letterbox some time ago. The plan is to provide some seating, landscaping and better play equipment, and to separate off an area for ball games, away from the play area for little children. If they can fit all that in, it should look rather more attractive, whilst still providing the kids with a much-needed play space.

So, although it looks awful right now (especially on a dull day against a grey sky) the mess and temporary disruption will, I hope, be worthwhile.