And this is Saltaire Station today.... Reopened in 1984, the line carries trains (now electric) mainly from Leeds and Bradford to Skipton, though some go right over to the west coast at Morecambe. It connects with the historic Worth Valley railway line at Keighley. That is a private railway, run by volunteers, which runs regular steam trains from Keighley to Oxenhope via the famous village of Haworth. Because of that we still sometimes see (and hear!) steam trains travelling through Saltaire - always a nostalgic moment. It also connects with the famous Settle-Carlisle rail line, which runs through some of the loveliest scenery in the Yorkshire Dales.
The original buildings and platforms were demolished, so the station now has wooden platforms and only a small open-fronted shelter on each side. Sadly, it is no longer the picturesque place it once evidently was, although the backdrop of the Mill remains largely unchanged. It would be nice to think that one day they might decide to improve the station. It is well-used these days, by commuters and shoppers going to Leeds and Bradford.
I was once waiting for a train one misty winter evening, all alone on the station. Suddenly I heard the unmistakeable sound of a steam train - and, to my astonishment, an engine with several carriages came through the station. It only seemed to have one passenger on board - and on the front it said "Hogwart's Express" (as in the Harry Potter books). I have never been able to find an explanation for the experience. It was decidedly surreal. I half expected to look down and see myself in costume, having slipped through a time-warp!
Good morning Saltaire! This is the view that greets me every morning when I step out of my front door. And on several mornings lately the early morning light has been wonderful, with the low sun just catching the stonework of Salts Mill and really making it glow.
I think I could publish a whole book of photographs of windows and doors in Saltaire. I am fascinated by them. Perhaps it's because they make me wonder about what's inside and the lives of the people in the houses - not just the present inhabitants, but all those who have gone before. The houses are about 150 years old, so if they had stayed in the same family, that's five or six generations. Mine is the eighth family to live in my house.
As windows go, I think this one on Albert Road is one of the prettiest. I love this style of window with the rounded top. The ivy on the outside, the lace blind and the flowers make an attractive combination.
We've had sunshine and showers for a few days now - and in those conditions I always look for rainbows. They still give me a thrill; the shimmering, ephemeral band of colour does seem sent to remind us to be hopeful and positive... after the storm comes the sun. I was glad I had my camera to hand to capture this perfect arc over Saltaire, just before it faded to nothing.
"You may grind their souls in the selfsame mill, You may bind them, heart and brow; But the poet will follow the rainbow still, And his brother will follow the plow."
John Boyle O'Reilly 'The Rainbow's Treasure'
We haven't had a shop photo for a while on Saltaire Daily Photo, so here is one of my favourites. I don't know how long this shop has been on Saltaire Road, and I've never been in it. (I often wonder if the shopkeeper is preserved in cobwebs somewhere inside.) I can't imagine they do a very good trade these days - they don't look to be exactly ready for the digital switchover! It reminds me that there was once a time (and not so long ago really) when an 'electric picture' was something novel that we didn't just take for granted. (As a teenager, I used to go across the road to my neighbour's house to watch 'The Frost Report', which became a bit of a cult programme. We felt deprived, as we didn't have BBC2!)
It is this kind of quirky little shop that eventually gets lost and we lose much more than just a little corner shop. We are losing a whole tradition of local people serving the local community; people who would know your name and, in many cases, go the extra mile to assist and give a good service. I love it - I want it to be preserved as a museum.
This is the last photo in this little series on Shipley Glen - it's a recent one, taken up on the hill above Saltaire. This is the area where the Aerial Flight in yesterday's post was sited. It's not much different now from how it was in Victorian times, though all the rides and attractions have gone. The most exciting thing on offer nowadays is Yorkshire Dales ice-cream (which is very yummy). But it is still a lovely place for a stroll, or to sit on a rock or one of the wooden seats and watch what's going on. It's a popular spot with dog-walkers and kite-flyers.
The rocks are millstone grit, a coarse gritty sandstone - and yes, they did use it to make millstones, for grinding grain into flour. Sometimes you see novice climbers practising on the rock edge that falls away to the left of my picture. The rough texture of the rock gives quite a lot of grip, so I guess it's good for beginners.
Just at the top of the Shipley Glen Tramway, if you peer through the overgrown vegetation, you can see this relic of the time, not all that long ago, when this part of Shipley Glen was a Pleasure Ground. Enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people since Victorian times, there have been many weird and wonderful attractions in the area. All are now gone apart from the Tramway, which as I said a few days ago is currently closed for repairs. The dodgems are obviously not Victorian, but ran until a few years ago (2005, I think). They seem to have been 'mothballed' rather than demolished, but one doubts whether they will ever be revived....Pity, I do like a good bash round on the dodgems!
Here's a nostalgia trip especially for Alan B.... Just on the edge of Saltaire, at the far side of Roberts Park, there is an area known as Shipley Glen - some ancient woodland on a steep hillside, then a broad ledge of rocks and scrubland, before the hillside swoops up again to Baildon Moor (see my post of October 7). I have featured one or two photos of this area (see also 26 & 27 September) but I must admit I have largely ignored its most famous feature - the Shipley Glen tramway. This is because at the moment it doesn't really exist. The sheds are still there at the top and bottom, but the tramway is under repair. The sign saying when it will reopen says a later date every time I pass it. (NB: It is open again regularly now, 2011-12 season).
The Tramway is the oldest working cable tramway in Britain (excepting cliff-lifts at the seaside) and dates from 1895. It was originally powered by gas but is now electric. It has been kept open by volunteers, but struggles financially in the present climate of credit crunch and 'elfnsafety' legislation. In its hey-day it was a very popular tourist attraction and still brings delight to children, especially at Christmas when they run 'Santa Specials'. Let's hope they get it working again in time for the run-up to Christmas this year.
Even the backyards of Saltaire's houses can provide an attractive photo, with the colour of the drainpipes and the flowers providing a nice contrast with the stonework. This is one of the streets in the oldest part of the village; cottages built for the ordinary millworkers of Salts Mill. You will notice the stone slabs covering what appear to be small storage sheds in each yard. When the houses were first built, these were an innovative feature that made the houses far, far superior to the slums of the city of Bradford... each house in Saltaire had its own private lavatory (the 'privy') in the backyard. Bathrooms have now been squeezed inside even the smallest cottages so, in most cases, the outside cubicles have been reduced in height and the plumbing removed. I keep the recycling bin in mine now, along with a few empty plant pots!
I keep coming back to this photo as being one of my favourites......not necessarily one of my best photos or the most creative of images, but still a favourite. I like the sense of the movement of the boat through the water. I also like the way the winter trees are just beginning to show green. As we are headed in the opposite direction right now, with the leaves falling, it's good to remember that new growth comes in its time. Many times I've thought I would like to hop onto this boat and chug off on a gentle adventure. "Nutmeg" is a familiar sight along this part of the Leeds-Liverpool canal - you can hire it (her?) for a holiday from Snaygill Boats. This boat even has a bath on board!!
I also include this today to wish my friend a long and happy retirement: hope you'll enjoy a kind of freedom...
I thought I'd include a monochrome shot, for a change. This is one of the twin towers on the southern frontage of Salts Mill. (For a fuller view of the frontage, see my post of 19 June). I love the extravagance of this building! This is a textile mill, built in the dark ages of the Industrial Revolution, not a palace or a cathedral...and yet Titus Salt who commissioned it and the architects Lockwood and Mawson who designed it, decided to make it a beautiful building as well as a functional one. The design is Italianate, inspired by some of the great classical buildings of Rome, Venice and Florence.
I recently enjoyed the Channel 4 TV series "Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour", which explored how Britain's architecture was influenced and shaped by ideas brought back by young men (such as Inigo Jones) making 'The Grand Tour' and studying the buildings designed by great architects like Palladio. Whilst the link with Saltaire is indirect, I think it's there.
I just loved the colours in this particular spot. The autumn colours seem especially rich this year... or is it that I'm in an appreciative mood? The photo is taken from the drive of Saltaire URC, just in front of the church, looking down towards the Leeds-Liverpool canal. The building just seen on the right is the Stables. And in the background are the woods that skirt Shipley Glen.
I posted a picture of the outside of the church - Saltaire Congregational Church (now known as Saltaire URC) - on July 3, but it is worth another look. I'm always fascinated by how different things appear in different lights and seasons. We are so fortunate in the UK to have such varied seasons. We all moan about the cold and the rain, but in truth that's the lifeblood of the country. I often imagine it would be lovely to wake up and know, without even looking outside, that it was going to be a warm, dry day - every day. But in reality I love the changing seasons and the natural rhythm that gives to the year. Although the evenings are dark and the days getting shorter, autumn is a lovely time...gentle light, misty mornings and all the wonderful fruitfulness of nature.
The Salt Family Mausoleum, shown yesterday, is in a little annexe off the nave of (what is now) Saltaire United Reformed Church, formerly the Congregational Church. I posted a photo of the interior of the church itself on 22 June, and the photo above shows some of the decorative detail of the ceiling. It is very ornate, but very attractive, I think.
The photograph below is of one of the two elaborate Victorian chandeliers, which are made of glass and ormolu (gilded brass). I used to think they were totally OTT for a church, but as time goes on I have come to rather like them.
I'm a bit annoyed with myself that this photo is not precisely symmetrical. I lay on the floor to take it and obviously was not quite positioned under the centre of the light. I've been back many times to try it again, but I have never found the lighting conditions to be as good as they were on this occasion. It doesn't work when the lights are on, and often the interior of the church is a little too dark for this kind of photography. That will teach me that I have to be less self-conscious as a photographer - but it was hard not to be, with tourists stepping over my body as I lay in the aisle!
[PS: Grateful thanks to my friend Sixstars in New Zealand for his hints on how to get two photos interwoven with text on a blog post, which I hadn't been able to do before. The trick is to download the photos first and type second. Isn't the blogger community wonderful, that someone right the other side of the world can help in an instant?]
Yesterday I showed the inside of the Salt Family Mausoleum attached to Saltaire URC. Today's photo shows the outside. You can see how it's tacked onto the church as an afterthought. The church was completed in 1859 but Sir Titus must have had second thoughts and had the Mausoleum added in 1861.
He had already lost two of his children, Whitlam and Mary, by then. Whitlam died of measles aged 4 and Mary died only five weeks later, aged 2, of 'congestion of the brain' (would that be meningitis?). They were initially buried in Lightcliffe, where the family were at that time living. By 1860, the Salts were living at Methley Hall in Leeds and Fanny was seriously ill. It was at that point that Sir Titus must have resolved to have the Mausoleum built, perhaps feeling that he did not want his children buried in different locations. In fact Fanny died before the vault was completed and was laid in a temporary vault in Saltaire church until the Mausoleum was finished. The other two children's bodies were exhumed and moved to Saltaire.
The remains of Sir Titus himself, his wife Lady Caroline, his son Edward's first wife Mary Jane, Titus Jnr and the cremated remains of Catherine, widow of Titus Jnr were all later laid to rest in the Mausoleum.
It must be remembered that the Victorians took their dying very seriously. It was, sadly, a frequent occurrence: many children, even in well-to-do homes - failed to thrive, diseases like TB were rife and common childhood illnesses like measles could not be effectively treated. One in every three babies failed to reach their first birthday and the average life expectancy was 40.
Aristocratic funerals were a major sight, involving elaborate hearses, horses with black feather plumes and long processions of mourners. Sir Titus Salt died in December 1876 and was laid to rest on 5 January 1877 in the Mausoleum he had added to the church in Saltaire. The hearse left the family home, then Crow Nest near Halifax, escorted by mounted police and there was a large funeral procession from Bradford Town Hall, with a military band. The cortege was followed by representatives of clubs and groups with which Sir Titus had been involved and the procession was watched by over 100,000 spectators along the route. In Saltaire, the Mill was silent and the whole village gathered to mourn 'the father' of their community. After the funeral the church was kept open for several days and special trains were run from Bradford to Saltaire so that people could pay their last respects.
This photograph is taken looking east along Albert Terrace, Saltaire at its junction with Fanny Street. Albert Terrace runs alongside the railway line and has Salts Mill at its far end (you can see the mill chimney). Still surfaced with its original cobbles, it is one of the most photographed streets in Saltaire and in many ways, embodies the spirit of the village. The far end nearest the mill is the more familiar view (see my very first post for 17 June). This end of the street is much quieter and has a very villagey and charming feel to it.
Fanny Street was named after Sir Titus Salt's second daughter (1841-1861), who sadly died of a lung disease, at the family home of Methley Hall, just before her 20th birthday. One of Salt's biographer's, Rev.R.Balgarnie wrote (in typically Victorian melodramatic fashion): '[Fanny had] such a spirit of gentleness, calm resignation and simple reliance on the merits of Christ that it seemed...she was fast ripening for the better land. When the time of her departure came it was very sudden but she was ready. On a summer evening in August 1861 she was seized with alarming symptoms in the library, from which she was unable to be removed. There on a couch she lingered, till her gentle spirit returned 'unto God who gave it.' Fanny was interred in the family mausoleum in the church in Saltaire.
Talking of perfect things, this may be the most perfect door in the whole of Saltaire... well, certainly one of the smartest. It belongs to one of the houses at the top end of Victoria Road. Since that is the main thoroughfare into Saltaire - the way most people arrive into the village - I think it's very good that someone has taken the trouble to make the outside of their house so attractive to the eye.
I don't know if the door is the original design for the house. It's not like the four-panelled door I featured on June 27, but then the house doesn't have the characteristic round arched entrance like so many in the village. A lot of the houses in this part of Saltaire do have these vertically-panelled doors, and it is a Victorian design, so maybe it is orginal. The little white sign at the top of the door says "Chat lunatique"!
Is this the perfect tree? I think it has an amazing shape. It is quite natural - no-one trims it; it just grows every year in this very contained way, like a tree from a child's picture book. I'm pretty sure it's a type of rowan or mountain ash, though it's not quite like the usual variety. It has white blossom in spring, red berries in the autumn, then it changes to lovely autumnal shades before it loses its leaves. Against the backdrop of Saltaire's famous Salts Mill, I think it's rather special.
There's a Scottish song that goes : 'Oh Rowan tree, oh rowan tree, Thou'lt aye be dear to me.' Very apt. Apparently the rowan tree has a lot of folklore attached to it - it used to be thought that it protected against witchcraft. (Maybe it does - I haven't noticed many witches in Saltaire!)
In a small and compact village like Saltaire, it's hard to hide things. I imagine that must have been even more the case in Victorian times. The 1871 census suggests there were on average five people living in every house. I don't know what services were provided then - there would no doubt have been lamplighters to light the gas street lamps. Did they have people who emptied the dustbins? I suppose there would have been much less waste thrown away - certainly not so much packaging and no plastics of course. Nowadays, the smaller terraces in Saltaire have special compact wheelie bins for rubbish and 'blue bags' for waste paper recycling. I'm in two minds as to whether all the rows of dustbins detract from or add something to the back alleyways. They are a fact of life, and can't easily be hidden.
(I think this photo looks better if you click on it to make it a bit bigger.)
And this is Saltaire Station today.... Reopened in 1984, the line carries trains (now electric) mainly from Leeds and Bradford to Skipton, though some go right over to the west coast at Morecambe. It connects with the historic Worth Valley railway line at Keighley. That is a private railway, run by volunteers, which runs regular steam trains from Keighley to Oxenhope via the famous village of Haworth. Because of that we still sometimes see (and hear!) steam trains travelling through Saltaire - always a nostalgic moment. It also connects with the famous Settle-Carlisle rail line, which runs through some of the loveliest scenery in the Yorkshire Dales.
