Sports Day

I went to watch my two granddaughters in their school sports day, just before the end of term. One is now seven and the other four. The younger one attends the local primary school part-time at the moment and will begin full-time in September. The seven-year-old has now done two full years there. It is lovely little school, with fewer than 150 pupils. It is friendly and caring, and they have a strong ethos of helping each other. The little ones, when they first start, have one of the older children as a 'buddy' and that really seems to work, giving them confidence, particularly at break times. It's the kind of school I wish all young children had the good fortune to attend.

Sports Day, too, was organised largely in cross-school teams, with about 12 in each team, from the tiniest up to the eldest. My two were in the red team. Here you see them engaged in a game that involved transferring tennis balls from one large box to another, right down the team line, as quickly as they could. I loved how they both threw themselves into everything. The four year old, in particular, attacks life with her whole body! I'm so thankful for them both.

Brightening things up

Towards the lower end of Saltaire Road, approaching Shipley town centre, there's a very drab brick building, currently unused. I think it belongs to the local council. (I suspect they may be hanging on to possession of several buildings and a corridor of land in the area. At one time the land featured in a road scheme that I thought was shelved but now seems as though it may be resurrected.)

Sixteen colourful murals have been erected there to brighten up the area. They were designed and painted by pupils from Saltaire Primary School, with help from some local artists and the Hirstwood Regeneration Group. The scenes show various local landmarks and were designed after the children made field trips to study and sketch what they saw.

The scenes will be very familiar to local people, though I'm sure even readers of my blog who don't live locally will recognise many of them. There's the bandstand and Sir Titus Salt's statue in Roberts Park. There's the alpaca statue, the Shipley Glen Tramway and a wonderful view of Hope Hill behind.

There's the Hirst Wood Nature Reserve:

and some of the houses and chimney pots of Saltaire, again with Hope Hill and Shipley Glen in the background:

I hope they brighten your day!

Snowy Saltaire

More snow photos... but no apologies. It's not every year that we get so much down here in the bottom of the valley, though it didn't last more than half a day before it melted in the rain. So pretty though, and it completely transforms the familiar views around the village. Above is Albert Terrace, the cobbled street, brightened and lightened by the snow.

The corner of Amelia Street, where it joins Albert Terrace, has an even more timeless air in this weather. Amelia was Sir Titus Salt's eldest daughter, who acted as his personal secretary until she married in 1873.  

The lion statues all had a little covering of snow, making them stand out against the backdrop. The building above is the old school, now part of Shipley College.

School Room

On the Haworth film set, they have also built a replica of the old School Room, which occupies the lane beyond the Parish Church and leading up to the Parsonage. Rev'd Patrick Brontë was a passionate social reformer and he fought for and eventually built a school to educate the poor children of Haworth, which in the early 1800s was a dreadful, disease-ridden and impoverished village where people's life expectancy was well below that of the rural area around it. Almost half the children born there died before reaching their fifth birthday. The school opened in 1832. All of the Brontë sisters taught there at one time or another. It was also the venue for the wedding celebration when Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854. It closed as a school in 1903 and has since been used as a community hall. It (the real one!) was hosting a sale of vintage clothes and wedding dresses on the day I visited. 

Calverley walk 3

Nearing the end of the towpath stretch of the walk at Apperley Bridge, Woodhouse Grove School can be seen across the fields. Originally founded in 1812 for the education of the sons of Methodist ministers, it is now a fee-paying co-educational boarding and day school.

The walk route doubles back at this point up the interestingly named Parkin Lane and crosses a bridge over the canal. There are a few old properties and a lot of very new townhouses being built in this area. It is a popular residential area, located very conveniently for commuting to both Bradford and Leeds, especially since a new rail station has just opened nearby.

The photo below shows some very desirable Victorian houses, on a quiet lane leading to Calverley Wood. One of them - a five bedroom semi-detached dating back to 1860 - is currently for sale (see here) at around £850,000.

The route then enters Calverley Wood, which surrounds some old stone quarries that perhaps supplied the sandstone for some of Bradford's buildings.  Apparently there was once a WWII Prisoner of War camp here and then later, a fireworks factory which in 1957 suffered an explosion that killed three workers and injured others. Nowadays it is a peaceful wood, with a well-marked path that was at one time a packhorse route, so I didn't get lost this time. 

At the southern exit of the wood there is a lodge house, which suggests there must at one time have been a larger house in the area. It seems there were grandiose plans in Victorian times to build a small estate of fine houses, but it never came to fruition.

Embellishments

You only have to look at this photo to realise how much money was spent and how much thought was expended in the original design of Saltaire. Taken from the rear of what was originally the Factory schools (now part of Shipley college), it shows - from left to right - the chimney of Salts Mill, now plain but originally crowned with an elaborate top, the school bell tower and the Saltaire Institute (now Victoria Hall) tower, interspersed with the ornate ventilation cowls that top the school building. Add to those edifices the distinctive rounded windows and the overhanging roof with its little stone props and you can see why the buildings are 'listed' and treasured as fine examples of Victorian design and craftsmanship.

Smart school

Even though it has been open about six years now, Titus Salt School still looks pretty smart and ultra-modern. It has such clean, graphic lines that even a photograph looks, to me, like an architect's drawing, complete with those spindly birch trees they always add. (NB: the photo was taken a few weeks ago, so I imagine those trees have a few leaves now). It is a school for students from age 11 upwards and specialises in Maths and Computing, though of course students study a whole range of curriculum subjects. It sits on the far side of Roberts Park, technically in Baildon rather than Saltaire. It's on the Coach Road, at one time the carriage drive to the grand house that Titus Salt Junior built (now demolished). I wonder what he would have thought of this 'on his doorstep'?

28. The Factory Schools

Sir Titus Salt was a conscientious employer and a politician: former Mayor of Bradford and, for a short-time, an MP. He was concerned to provide his workers and their families with all that they needed. Shortly after his mill opened he provided a school in the Dining Hall, to comply with legislation to limit the hours worked by children and to provide them with education, but in opening the Factory Schools in Saltaire in 1868, he went, I think, beyond what was minimally required. The two schools (one for boys, one for girls) were advanced in their facilities and provided a foundation of education in Saltaire that was further extended by his son, Titus Jnr, after Salt's death.

The Factory Schools, now part of Shipley College, are opposite and complementary to the Victoria Hall, forming a pleasant focal point at the heart of Saltaire.

Cosy glow

From the steps of Saltaire's Victoria Hall, looking across Victoria Road towards the nicely symmetrical old Factory Schools (now part of Shipley College).

You get a sense from this photo of the glow at the heart of our village on a chill winter night. The public buildings have warm-toned floodlights illuminating the stone work. Along with the street-lighting, which is not too harsh and modern, it makes it all seem really cosy.

Traffic calming measures

Since the Bingley by-pass was completed a few years ago, traffic around Saltaire has reached nightmarish proportions at peak times. Saltaire Road, the old turnpike road that bisects the village and heads towards Leeds, is often a solid, slow-moving traffic jam in the morning and evening rush hour. (My photo was taken on a Sunday.) It drives everyone mad and many hours have been spent trying to find a solution. Proposals have even included a tunnel under Saltaire!  They have now decided to turn the roundabout at the top of the road into a traffic-light controlled junction, which will probably make it safer though I doubt it will improve the traffic flow.  They have also introduced 'traffic-calming measures' throughout the village, including a 20mph speed limit and various speed bumps across the side roads.  I can testify that, so far, these measures have made no discernable difference whatsoever! Traffic shows no signs of slowing down when it's not busy and when it is busy 20mph would be an aspirational speed anyway...

The building in my photo is Wycliffe Primary School.

Cowl

This is another of the cowls that decorate the roof of the Shipley College building, formerly Saltaire's Factory Schools, that I showed yesterday.  It's the kind of detail that you only tend to notice after a while but which, to my mind, adds to the charm and interest of our historic village.  I am not sure but I assume this was a chimney for a fire or boiler in the school.  When they were built in 1868, the school's facilities were advanced, with central heating, gas lighting, fitted cupboards and playgrounds to the rear.  It is another demonstration of Sir Titus Salt's determination not only to provide for his workers but to do so handsomely.  Cynics often point out that within his altruism was a thread of self-interest, as a happy, healthy workforce tends to be more productive.  That's true but it doesn't really explain why he was so keen to see his workers and their children become well-educated, nor why he spent such a lot of money making Saltaire so attractive.

(Picture first posted in September 2009)

Famous sons

Otley is famous as the birthplace in 1718 of Thomas Chippendale, the cabinet-maker and furniture designer whose Georgian designs are still popular.   His statue (well camouflaged!) stands next to the former Prince Henry's Grammar School, which he attended.  It's an attractive building, dating back to 1614 but extensively altered in 1790 in the Elizabethan style.  It is no longer a school. It was used as a courthouse and I think is now offices.

Otley was also the birthplace of Mike Tindall, the English rugby player who recently married Zara Phillips, daughter of the Princess Royal and granddaughter of the Queen - our second royal wedding of the year.  Reputedly the Queen asked him if he was going to get his (famously bent) nose straightened out before the wedding - but he said no! ("Off with his head!" she was then heard to mutter.... er, no, I'm only joking.)

School's out

(Photo taken with my compact)

Aha... yes, you were right, scaffolding planks (who knew they could be so colourful?).... part of a spider's web of metalwork engulfing the local primary school.  It's summer: school's out, repairs are IN!

There are several local elementary schools.  There's one at the top end of the village called Saltaire Primary School, and this one at the bottom end is Wycliffe CE (Church of England) Primary School.   This school was until relatively recently a 'middle school' taking pupils from 9 years old to 13.  Now it takes children from the the age of 4 through until they go to secondary school at 11.  But it was first opened in the 1890s (I think) as a Board School, at a time when education in Britain was going through major changes.

A hotch-potch of governesses, private schools, church (National) schools and factory schools like Salt's schools in Saltaire became a much more organised system of education for all children.  This was thanks to various Education Acts passed by reforming Victorian politicians - notably the 1870 Education Act introduced by the Bradford MP W E Forster, which set up School Boards to establish and administer primary schools.  As you can see, many of these original Victorian buildings have given good service, and in most cases have happily adapted to the ongoing changes in style and emphasis in our children's education.

School desk

In common with the rest of Salts Mill, Saltaire, the Bookshop is filled not only with books but also with unusual treasures.  I am deeply fond of this old child's desk.  It reminds me of the desks we used at Primary School, though our chairs were separate, not linked as this one is.  But we had wooden desks with lids that lifted for storage inside - and they still had holes for inkwells, though we didn't use them (fountain pens had moved on to ink cartridges by then!)  I remember that at the end of every term half-an-hour was dedicated to polishing our own desk lid - with real beeswax polish.  You can imagine the fun we had!  I have often wondered if this particular desk has found its way into the Mill from the Victorian Factory Schools that Titus Salt introduced into Saltaire.  Haven't we come a long way?  I haven't been into a Primary School for a while but I would not be surprised to see suites of computers these days.

Heritage Trail 20 - The Factory School

'You will soon reach two of the finest buildings in Saltaire - the School on the left and the Institute on the right'   Sir Titus Salt chose to place the two Factory Schools - one for boys and one for girls - in pride of place in the middle of the village.  The Factory Act 1844 had required that children (8-13) should not be employed for more than 6½ hours per day and must receive 3 hours of education per day.  Education was initially provided in the Saltaire Dining Hall.  The Schools opened in 1868 and provided places for 700 children in very well-equipped facilities which had central heating, gas lighting and playgrounds at the back.   With gardens at the front, and the four stone lions on guard, the Schools and the Victoria Hall opposite provide a very attractive arrangement at the heart of the village.  The school building still provides education, now being part of Shipley College.

In the 1870s primary education became the responsibility of local School Boards. Titus Salt Junior was the first Chairman of the Shipley School Board and a new elementary school was built on land at the edge of the village on Albert Road.  In 1876, these existing schools in the village centre became a High School for older students.

[No 10 on the street plan]

Beckfoot School

This is the upper school, on the outskirts of Bingley, that my daughter used to attend.  (She was in the same year as Kimberley Walsh, who is now famous as one of the Girls Aloud pop group.)  In those days we lived right opposite the school gates - very convenient.  (Although, as is often the case, living close meant J was frequently late setting off, running across the road with a slice of toast in her hand!)

It's a school with a good reputation and it has steadily expanded.  The original buildings - on the left with the clock tower - must date back to the 1930s, I think.  There have been two or three phases of new building work, and now they are building a entirely new school on what were originally the sports fields.  It is scheduled to open around Easter next year.  I feel slightly guilty that the people who bought our old house have had to contend not only with the building of the Bingley by-pass just down the road but also the new school.  I feel I had a lucky escape at just the right time!

Titus Salt School

A recent late afternoon ramble brought me home past the new Titus Salt School. It is situated at the far side of Roberts Park, across the river from Saltaire. It opened in September 2008, one result of Bradford's £400m Building Schools for the Future programme. It replaced an older school - Salt Grammar School - on the adjacent site. I have not been inside (though I hope one day to have an opportunity to) but from the outside it looks an exciting building. It's a school for 11-18 year olds and specialises in Maths and Computing. It is, no doubt, packed full of new technology. I hope its students appreciate it!

This photo has not been heavily processed in Photoshop. The strong sunshine has rendered an almost poster-like effect to the building, which is long and low and rather art-deco in its design. The school was designed and built by a consortium called Integrated Bradford. Looks like they did a good job.