A touch of autumn

Our weather is very Octoberish, though much warmer than is seasonal.  Mornings of mist, dull dank damp days and an occasional outburst of exuberant blue sky and sunshine.  You can see from this shot the gradual autumnal colour creeping into the trees.  For newcomers to my blog, the building is the huge Salts Mill, opened in 1853 by the Victorian paternalist Sir Titus Salt as a mill to produce fine wool worsted cloth.  He then proceeded to have an entire village - Saltaire - built around it, to house his workers.  Regular readers have seen many views of the building (for more, click the Salts Mill label) but I hope that you don't tire of its industrial grandeur.  I never do, though I see it every day.

A bridge too far

I was thinking that I've never added a picture to Louis la Vache's 'Sunday Bridges' before - and then thinking that's probably because I don't have that many pictures of bridges - and then thinking that's probably because there aren't many bridges round here... and those that exist are singularly boring and uninspiring.  This footbridge in itself is nothing much.  Kind of standard issue "we need a cheap, functional way of getting from one side of this river/canal/road/ravine to the other" stuff.  There are no doubt many others constructed to an identical design, all over the UK.  This one is called Buck Mill Bridge, crossing the River Aire near Tong Park, Baildon on the path to Buck Woods.  What I did like about it this particular day was the shadows and the way it seems to go on forever.  An 'Alice in Wonderland' kind of bridge!

To see more bridges from around the world, please click here.

Overview

(Please view large by clicking on photo)
Back in Saltaire again....  and though it was gathering up for rain, those are not extra black storm clouds at the very top of the picture - just a dirty window!  I took this from the staircase on the top floor of Salts Mill.   That level is not usually open to the public so maybe they don't clean these windows very often!  Nevertheless I liked the view from right up here.  It's interesting how you get a different sense of a place from higher up.  We are looking out over Victoria Road, towards the railway station on the left.  The building in the centre is the old Dining Hall, where the mill workers used to get their meals (now part of Shipley College).  Behind you can see the church, still shrouded in plastic and metalwork as the canopy repairs continue.  You can also see the edge of Saltaire's residential area on the extreme left.  Those houses are on Albert Terrace and were among the earliest houses in the village to be completed, in 1854.

Clouds

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now...."  was the line that came into my head when I thought about posting this photo, another shot of the lake at Harewood.  Isn't it interesting how deeply those songs we listened to in our youth become embedded in our brains? I haven't listened to Joni Mitchell for years now, but still the lyrics - from "Both Sides Now" - are there waiting to leap into my consciousness.

"Still somehow it's clouds' illusions I recall; I really don't know clouds at all."

(Hmm, isn't it interesting as well that sometimes what you end up blogging about is a complete surprise - even to you!)

For the song on a video, click here.
For more photos around the Harewood Estate, click the Harewood label below.

For more interesting and varied offerings on the theme of 'Weekend Reflections', please leap over to James's 'Newtown Daily Photo'.

Lake at Harewood

The gardens at Harewood House were originally laid out by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the mid-18th century.  One of the best known English landscape architects, his skill and vision was sought after by the landed gentry of the time.  He swept away the formal English garden style in favour of huge naturalistic landscapes of sweeping grass, clumps and scatterings of trees and serpentine lakes.  It was a style that became very fashionable and many of his gardens remain today... though if you didn't think about it, you might assume that many of the grand estates that he designed - Harewood, Blenheim Palace, Warwick Castle - had always looked like that.  The style fell out of fashion after Brown's death but gained recognition again in the 20th century.

Statue of Orpheus

This magnificent bronze figure on Harewood's Terrace is 'Orpheus' by Astrid Zydower (1930-2005). Added in 1984 when the original statue in this location collapsed, it forms part of a wonderful collection of 20th century art amassed by the present Earl.  Harewood also hosts an ongoing series of exhibitions of contemporary artwork.

Harewood House itself is a Georgian mansion finished in 1771.  Edwin Lascelles, who commissioned it, employed the finest craftsmen in the country - architect Robert Carr, interior designer Robert Adam, furniture maker Thomas Chippendale and garden designer Lancelot (Capability) Brown. (No expense spared!)

The Terrace (also seen on my photo of the House two days ago) was built in the 1840s by Charles Barry (who was the architect of the Houses of Parliament in London).  It is rated one of the most beautiful formal Victorian gardens in England, with fountains, statues and formal flower beds edged with clipped box hedges.  It has lovely views over the surrounding countryside and the lake. (See Paul's blog, Leeds Daily Photo)

As a complete contrast to the stunning bronze above, I also loved this smaller statue in the same garden:

Harewood Bird Garden

Harewood Bird Garden, in the grounds of Harewood House, is home to over 90 species of exotic and endangered birds, including these colourful Chilean flamingos, busily preening.  It is closely involved in conservation work in the UK and abroad.  One of the success stories has been the re-introduction of Red Kites into lowland Yorkshire.  First released on the Harewood Estate in 1999, there are now more than 300 birds in the area.  They are a wonderful sight soaring around the grounds (see Leeds Daily Photo for a picture of one).

The Bird Garden has a collection of penguins too, and daily feeding time is a sure-fire hit with little children - my daughter used to love going to watch them.  They are such sweet comical little things.

Harewood House

It's time to catch up with some more of my excursions over the summer..... one trip I made was to Harewood House, a stately home situated just north of Leeds.  They call it 'a St Petersburg palace on a Yorkshire hill' and it does have some of that kind of grandeur.  Harewood is the home of the 7th Earl and Countess of Harewood.  The present Earl, George Lascelles, (b.1923) is the Queen's cousin.  The house was built in the mid-18th century by Edwin Lascelles, whose wealth came from sugar plantations and the slave trade, and it has been in the Lascelles family ever since.  Such a significant house has inevitably had a very interesting history.  The present Earl's mother was Princess Mary (1897-1965), great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and daughter of King George V, who married Lord Lascelles and lived here from 1930 until she died.

The house sits in a huge estate which is managed very effectively, marketed as an attractive destination for tourists and family days-out and as a venue for conferences, shows and receptions.  It has beautiful gardens and a long-established Bird Garden (a collection of exotic and threatened species of bird).

Flames in the sky

The strangest weather conditions on Friday - it was chucking it down with rain all day and then, magically, just before sunset, an unexpected shaft of sunshine appeared.  And the sky suddenly burst gloriously aflame.  I wonder if the people in that aeroplane could see and appreciate it too?  I didn't go far for this photo - just stood on the seat in my backyard, to get a bit of height over next door's bushes.

The rain certainly mucked the Ryder Cup golf tournament up.  I'm not a huge golf fan but the excitement in Wales where it is being hosted was coming over loud and strong.  And then down came the rain, causing the tournament to be suspended for seven hours, and playing havoc with the schedule.

For more 'Sunset Sunday' images, please visit Scott's blog here and follow the links in the comments.

Fruits of labour

However many times I walk up and down Victoria Road in Saltaire, I never get tired of this view of the magnificent frontage of Salts Mill.  It's a monument, not only to its founder Sir Titus Salt's vision but also to the thousands of ordinary men, women and children whose labour in the huge textile mill enabled that vision.  On a smaller scale, I am equally impressed by the labour that has produced the row of leeks in the foreground, all ready for the harvesting.  Normally I try and avoid getting too much of the allotments in my photos of the mill.  This time I decided the whole view made a good picture.  I noticed the patterns the glasshouse made and the colours seemed nicely harmonious.

Weather vane

One of the interesting things about exploring the roof space in Salts Mill (see here) was being up close to the 'twin towers'.  I have shown several photos of these from the ground (see here and here) as they rank as one of my favourite bits of Saltaire.  There is just something about them that I love... it's the symmetry, the colour of the stone against the sky and, above all, how they look different in different lights and weather conditions.  And looking through the rooflights they look different again.  You can see the weather vane in detail from up there.  And this photo is typical of the weather we've been having!  Dull, grey, drizzly, misty - very autumnal.  This is a monochrome photo but the original version didn't have much more colour.

The oldest building...

I am taking you on another trip beyond Saltaire... some 20 miles (32kms) SE as the crow flies, a bit further by road - to a little village called Ledsham. Saltaire, built in the 1850s, is historic - but in Ledsham stands the oldest church (and the oldest building) in our county of West Yorkshire. What is now All Saints Church was first built over 1200 years ago, in the early 8th century (900 AD).

The bottom part of the church tower, shown above, is part of an Anglo-Saxon porch. The doorway, the little window and surrounding wall are thought to be part of a large stone building that was an important centre of Christianity, perhaps a monastery. The church has been altered many times since but parts of the earliest building are still clearly visible. You can see from the picture below that the porch was built upwards in Norman times (12th century). There is an area (around where the clock now is) of random stonework and then a Norman belfry with the distinctive rounded arch.

The carving around the door was done in Victorian times but may be a copy of what was there originally and the spire was added later too. The groundplan of the church was extended several times, with many of the tiny Anglo-Saxon windows replaced by larger ones in the 13th century and still larger ones (like the gothic pointed arch that you see on the right) in the 15th century. (If you make the picture larger, you can see the outline of an older, smaller window to the left of the large window.)

 
I got so excited exploring this place - such history.... The village of Ledsham itself is interesting too. It had a school and an orphanage endowed by Lady Elizabeth Hastings (1682 -1739), both of which have been converted into very desirable homes.  Ledsham is now a quiet little commuter village, not far from Leeds and the motorway network. (And it has a very nice gastro-pub, The Chequers Inn, which unusually is closed on Sundays because of an old tradition).

A shady seat

A shady seat in Alexandra Square, Saltaire.  This attractive little square is surrounded by Saltaire's 45 almshouses, built by Sir Titus Salt in 1868 to provide accommodation for the elderly and infirm.  It was originally enclosed by cast iron railings (on top of the little wall).  These were no doubt removed and melted down for munitions in WWII.  In providing these houses for the elderly poor, Salt was copying other local industrialists like Francis Crossley in Halifax, taking on a role which had previously been played by landed gentry.  He offered not only rent-free housing but also a small weekly pension to the residents, who were personally selected by him during his lifetime and then by a board of trustees.  The houses are still occupied, some in private ownership and some managed by a housing trust for Bradford Council and still providing homes for older people.

Summer tree

There begins to be the hint of autumn around ... chilly temperatures in the mornings, an abundance of berries - rowan, elderberry, blackberry and of course those magnifient conkers (horse chestnuts)  - and hints of red and gold visible on a few trees.  I want to hang on to summer for a bit longer!  A walk in my local woods shows that green still dominates.  I love the way the sunlight filters through the leafy canopy.  Hirst Woods is a patch of semi-ancient woodland and has a good mixture of trees including oak, beech, sycamore and birch.

The other cricket pitch

I have shown several photos of the picturesque cricket pitch in Roberts Park, but Saltaire actually has two cricket pitches.  This one is just a little further to the west, between the canal and the river.  It belongs to Salts Sports Association.  In 1924, Salts (Saltaire) Ltd (the company who then owned Salts Mill) bought back from the local council 31 acres of land, which it converted to playing fields for tennis, bowls, cricket and football.  By 1937 they had built up very good facilities including a club house and social centre. These facilities are still well used today.  Very often if you get tired of watching one cricket match you can stroll over and watch another, or maybe a bowls match if you want a change.

This field is lower than the level of the canal and used to be screened by a big metal fence.  That was removed earlier this year, so there is now a lovely view over the field from the canal towpath.  I have fond memories from a few years ago, when our church used to hold a series of annual cricket matches here against other churches  - much fun, fellowship and friendly rivalry.  It will soon be the end of the cricket season - another sign of the gradual change from summer to autumn.

Hirst Weir

 
We've stopped at this spot - Hirst Weir, just outside Saltaire - before (see 4 December) but it looks much more benign on a summer's day, and the water level is currently not that high. Nevertheless the River Aire still rushes over the weir. There was once a corn mill here, dating back to the 17th century, and power was supplied by a water wheel. The mill was rebuilt in the 19th century and became a paper mill. It is now a private residence.

Talking of water, the Leeds-Liverpool Canal has been reopened again after being closed for nearly two months due to low water levels (see here and here).

Sunset reflected

Another lovely sunset, this time reflected in the windows of one of the big semi-detached houses on Albert Road, Saltaire.  These houses were completed in 1868 and marked the final phase of the building of Sir Titus Salt's model village.  At that time, this road was the western boundary of the village and enjoyed an open outlook over the fields.  Since then a newer estate has been built opposite so they don't enjoy such lovely views, but it's still a good place to see the sun set.  For more Weekend Reflections, courtesy of James at Newtown Area Photo, click here.

(How annoying - Blogger has bullied me into using the new post editor and I can now only get the font size bigger or smaller than the old post editor made it.  I don't like either.  I liked it how it was before! Boo!)
PS Thanks to all those who have given me helpful hints in comments and emails on altering the font size.  I have experimented as suggested and changing the size in Design 'advanced' does of course change the font size.  But there is still a difference in size between posts composed using the old post editor (yesterday) and those composed using the new one (today's) even though both were composed with the font set to 12px.  I am getting used to the difference - it's only my personal preference, and a bit of a perfectionist streak!!

It's the BBC again!

(Click picture to view large)
As I said yesterday, there's always something new and different to see in Saltaire. I was walking hobbling (my back still pretending to be 20 years older than it really is ..) home yesterday and noticed a number of film company vans in Salts Mill car park. It didn't take long to find out where the action was. They are filming the period drama "South Riding" for BBC TV. It's an adaptation, written by Andrew Davies, of a novel by Winifred Holtby, set in 1930s Yorkshire. Read more about it here. It's to be screened in the autumn, so we can all have fun trying to spot the familiar locations.

There didn't seem to be much actual filming going on when I was there, but they were taking a lot of trouble to 'dress' parts of Saltaire and the Mill to suit the period. There were also a number of actors around. I'm not familiar with the key actors listed, so I couldn't say if I saw any of them. I suspect most were simply extras - a job which seems to involve more hanging around waiting than anything. (Check out the lady standing on top of her shoes - ouch!)

Saltaire has been the backdrop to a number of films and TV dramas, most recently the BBC's "Spanish Flu - the Forgotten Fallen", screened in 2009, which saw the Victoria Hall transformed into a hospital dealing with the 1918 flu pandemic. Bradford is the world's first UNESCO City of Film, honouring the rich tradition of film and film-making in this area.

Green tea?

As I've observed before, there is always something new and different to see in Saltaire, no matter how many times I walk through the village. As I was on my way out of the "Ghosts" exhibition I mentioned a couple of days ago, I spotted (sorry!) this cheerful container. The plant is perhaps a little past its best but it still made an eye-catching display. You may also note the rare (for this area) brick outhouse in the background. They wouldn't allow that to be built nowadays, in the conservation area.

Roof space

(Best viewed large)
Normally the roof space of Salts (West) Mill is not open to the public. But it was used as gallery space for the Saltaire Festival. So I had two good reasons for exploring up there on the top floor - to experience the enormous space (over 190 meters long - that's nearly the length of two football pitches!) and to enjoy the exhibition and a talk by the photographer Asadour Guzelian.

'The Art of News' showed photographs from the archive of Asadour Guzelian, who runs the Guzelian Picture Agency from premises in Little Germany in Bradford. Prior to moving to Bradford, he had an office on Victoria Road in Saltaire for 15 years, so he counts as something of a 'local'. Some of the images in the exhibition are shown on the Guzelian website. His talk was a fascinating insight into photojournalism.

I was encouraged to hear that on a 'shoot' he might normally take between 70 to 90 photos, discard 90% of them, and only really be pleased with one or two. That about equates to my experience too! He also said that many of the pictures that appear spontaneous are not really 'candid' shots but that he does set them up to an extent - so that was encouraging too, as I'm never very pleased with the candid shots I take. There's always something that could have been improved if I'd dared to 'manage' the situation a bit more.

(Thank you all for your kind good wishes - I am pleased to report that my back is much better today. I discovered Voltarol gel - magic!)