Saltaire Books

a bibliography of books on Saltaire

with notes by DB

Saltaire Trail 1996 (available from the Tourist Information Centre - telephone: 01274 774993, fax: 01274 774464 [international code: +44 1274 ])
Despite some silly errors this is best available guide to the village with a brief biography of Salt, a map and notes on thirty buildings.
As an alternative there is:
Jack Reynolds Saltaire an introduction to the village of Sir Titus Salt Bradford Metropolitan Council Art galleries and Museum(in print)


There are many books on Titus Salt's model village but only a few which provide original information.

The first of these,in every way is:

Abraham Holroyd

Abraham Holroyd
Saltaire and its Founder Sir Titus Salt Bart 1873 91pp printed by Harrison of Bingley.(the edition of 1871was only 40pp)
Holroyd,poet, biographer,publisher and Bradford historian, was a book- and newspaper seller at Saltaire.
"Mr Holroyd although an old Bradford tradesman, may now be considered an "institution" of Saltaire.In addition to being a collector of the notabilia of the district, he is himself a dictionary of district antiquities, proverbs, and local history." William Cudworth 1876
Cecil Stewart writing in 1952 noted that of his bibliography of Saltaire: "it was found that though they are ascribed to different authors, most of the material was direct reiteration, generally without acknowledgement, of the pamphlet by Abraham Holroyd"(Stewart p167). However that is not the case for ...

Rev. R. Balgarnie
Sir Titus Salt,Baronet, his life and its Lessons London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1877
(which was republished as a partial facsimile - without all the illustrations but with an index - as:
R.Balgarnie Sir Titus Salt Baronet Settle, Brenton 1970 {printed by the Scolar Press})
Robert Balgarnie, the minister of the South Cliff Church ,Scarborough, seems determined to turn every quirk of his subject's personality into a universal maxim of conduct and an example of Christian witness, but he does not allow his thesis to get in the way of the history and, as a family friend ,frequent guest at Crow Nest and frequent host at Scarborough,his anecdotes are authoritative and give us some insight into Salt's personality. The frontispiece is the best known image of Salt as the Yorkshire Patriarch - this is also to be found in Cudworth 1881(see below)

Jim Greenhalf
Salt and Silver: a story of hope 2nd edition Bradford Bradford Libraries 1998(The Bradford Libraries web page does not seem to have caught up with the second edition yet; the correct price is £9.95)
The first edition, published in 1997 went through two printings in a year; this, the last edition, so the author says, brings the story up to Jonathan Silver's death and is a fine example of book design including colour illustrations of David Hockney's pictures at the mill.This book is partly reportage and partly a prose poem in praise of the two men most associated with Saltaire.
Greenhalf, poet and a journalist on the Bradford Telegraph and Argus newspaper provides an account of the rise, decline and rise again of the village and the role of two unusual entrepreneurs: Salt, the founder, and Silver the saviour - the man who bought the closed down mill and in revitalising it brought new life to the whole village.

.Greenhalf's anecdotal approach recalls that of Balgarnie and provides much material for later historians; particularly interesting is his account of the differences between Silver, a painter as well as a millionaire, and his former partner, Sir Ernest Hall. a pianist of professional standard. Although Greenhalf does not ask this question I wonder whether the contrast between Hall's Dean Clough Mills at Halifax and Silver's Saltaire is related to the difference between an interpretative and a creative artist.

Jack Reynolds
The Great Paternalist: Titus Salt and the Growth of Nineteenth Century Bradford London Maurice Temple Smith /New York St Martin's Press in association with the University of Bradford, 1983
Reynolds, who trained a generation of Bradford historians, produced this book towards the end of his life attempting, successfully, I think, to place Salt in the context of his time, and particularly that of the shocks of the 1840s: unrestricted urban growth, disease and working class political action in the form of Chartism. Although the book as a whole would have benefitted from proof-reading its account of the building of the village is the most complete that we have. Future historical research must start here.

J.Horsfall Turner Historical Notices of Shipley,Saltaire,Idle Windhill,Wrose Baildon,Hawksworth,Eccleshill,Calverley, Rawdon and Horsforth Idle 1901 (pp33-52) Although much of the section on Salt reads like a paraphrase - no a copy - of Balgarnie there is some original material which justifies its inclusion here.

J.Horsfall Turner
Airedale Historian


The Stewart work mentioned above is:

Cecil Stewart A Prospect of Cities: being studies towards a history of town planning London Longmans,Green and co 1952In which there is a chapter on Saltaire including a most useful map which is also reproduced in
Leonardo Benevolo The Origins of Modern Town Planning London, Routledge and Kegan Paul,1967(translation of Le Origini dell'Urbanistica Moderna Bari , Editori Laterza, 1963) This is a most important work investigating the relationship of town planning and the poliitics of the 19th century: "....the technical proposals of the Utopians were to be easily separated from social innovations and utilized by paternalistic reformists precisely to conserve the social balance threatened by the revolution."
William Ashworth The Genesis of Modern British Town Planning London Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954

Other books which mention or describe Saltaire or Sir Titus Salt:
William Cudworth
Round About Bradford a series of sketches (descriptive and semi-historical) of forty-two places within six miles of Bradford Bradford Thomas Brear 1876
(reprinted as a two volume paperback with running pagination) Queensbury, Mountain Press, 1968
on pp307-319 (in vol 2 of the 1968 ed) there is a description of Saltaire in the year of Salt's death.


James Parker Illustrated History from Hipperholme to Tong: 30 villages etc....including the opening of the Bradford Exhibition by T.R.H. the Prince & Princess of Wales, opening of the Cartwright Hall by Lord Masham, Life of Lord Masham and History of the Lister family, Life of Dr Cartwright and also an interesting history of the Bradford Trade Bradford Percy Lund Humphries/The County Press 1904 From Hipperholme to Tong, to give it its short title, is one of those amazing books which transcend their unsystematic nature by the sheer accumulation of out-of-the-way facts. Amongst its 500 odd pages and uncounted - at least I haven't counted them - illustrations pp470-479 are devoted to the history of the Crow Nest estate
William Cudworth
Historical Notes on the Bradford Corporation with records of the Lighting and Watching Commisioners and Board of Highway Surveyors Bradford Thomas Brear 1881
This gives details of the administration of the town from from the act of 1803 onwards and thus gives information about the group from Horton lane chapel of which Salt was part before his withdrawal from Bradford. As Mayor Salt is given a biography but it adds nothing to the above. However there is a magnificent photograph of him (which you can view on the History 1page)- this also forms the frontispiece to Balgarnie 1877(above).

B.Allsopp
The Late Sir Titus Salt Bart, Founder of Saltaire, a brief resumé of his life and works Saltaire 1887

Monthly Tract SocietyThe Late Sir Titus Salt London (nd)

Rev T.Nicholson The Late Sir Titus Salt,Bart Bradford, nd

William Cudworth Saltaire, Yorkshire, England: a sketch history Saltaire 1895

William Cudworth
Bradford historian

Local studies department, Bradford Central Library Saltaire the origins of a model industrial community Bradford Metropolitan Council Libraries Division nd
Long out-of-print this was a folder containing photographs and facsimiles of original maps and plans of the village and of the mill. It did not live up to itsinteresting title but did contain some worthwhile materialfor example: a radical attack on an industrialist named Pepper.


R.W.Suddards(ed)Titus of Salts Idle Watmoughs 1976
this was an uneven set of essays on various aspects of Salt and Saltaire: the most important is the one on Salts after the Salts. Donald Hanson (with research by J.Stanley King)The Growth of the Company ( This was also reprinted in Salts Mill and Museum a short history and guide np, nd(Saltaire /early 1980s) produced by Salts of Saltaire when it was part of the Illingworth Morris Group and had a small museum in the mill.
W.C.E. Hartley Banking in Yorkshire Clapham Dalesman 1975 Reveals(p85) Sir Titus Salt's role as one of the original subscribers to the Yorkshire Penny Bank set up to encourage thrift.

Magazine and Newspaper articles
The Times 22September 1853
The Illustrated London News 1st October 1853 and 2nd October 1869
J.M.Richards Sir Titus Salt in Architectural Review vol LXXX 1936
R.K.Dewhirst Saltaire in The Town Planning Review VolXXXI 1960 pp133-144
R.Driuff Saltaire,Pioneer Factory Village in Town and Country Planning May 1965

W.H.G.Armytage Heavens Below: Utopian experiments in England 1560-1960 London Routledge and Kegan Paul 1961
Armytage provides no new material but places Salt in the context of others who wished to create ideal communities

D.G.Wright The Chartist Risings in Bradford Bradford Bradford Library and Information Service 1982 This is a pamphlet but one which documents the political events which made the rulers of Bradford afraid.
Chartism is a vast subject but perhaps this site will be of some help

Mechanization and Misery:the Bradford Woolcombers Report of 1845 introduction by J.A.Jowitt Krumlin Halifax, Ryburn 1991 Facsimile of 'the Report of the Bradford Sanatory(sic) Committee appointed at a numerous meeting of Woolcombers' on living conditions in Bradford in the 1840s. Detailed reports on the streets and dwelling houses of the town showing the situation from which Salt felt that he had to rescue his workers. The fact that the secretary of the Committee was George White a prominent Trades Union leader and Physical Force Chartist may be significant.
'Back Adelaide Street, Manchester Rd "The visitors give a heart-rending description of this neighbourhood - extreme destitution and suffering appears to be the result of their crowded and unhealthy dwellings"'
In 1848, after the rejection of the Chartist Petition Adelaide Street became a no-go area for the police where the blacksmith Isaac Jefferson made pike heads . Eventually it had to be re-taken by the military the inhabitants fighting desperately to defend their fortress( see Wright 1982 above)

The Journal of Dr John Simpson of Bradford 1st of January to the 31st July 1825 Bradford City of Bradford Metropolitan Council Libraries Division - Local Studies Department, 1981 Edited version of Simpson's diary. It is perhaps a misnomer to talk of him as John Simpson of Bradford for although he was the Senior Surgeon at the Dispensary he got out of the town as soon as he could - that is when he inherited his Uncle's estate in the North Riding. But his diary gives us some idea of what life was like in Bradford in the years when Titus Salt first lived there. Quite apart from its value as an historical source it is delightful to read; Simpson was most defintely the Pooter of the Professional classes.

Histories of Bradford
To understand Saltaire it is important to know something of the region in which it was built
Gary Firth A History of Bradford Chichester, Phillimore, 1997- This is the most recent History of the city - a synthesis of the latest research.(In print)

David James Bradford Krumlin,Halifax Ryburn Publishing 1990 an excellent and compact interpretation of Bradford history since the Industrial revolution.

Gary Firth Bradford and the Industrial Revolution: an economic history 1760 -1840
Krumlin,Halifax Ryburn Publishing 1990

John James The History and Topography of Bradford (in the County of York) with Topographical notices of its Parish London Longmans,Brown,Green, and Longmans1841
This was reissued as a one volume hardback/two-volume paperback with running pagination Queensbury Mountain Press 1967. James is the beginning of Bradford Historiography

John James The History of Bradford and its parish with additions and continuations to the Present Time London Longmans 1866 This was the earlier work reissued with important extra material added. The extra material was reprinted by the Mountain Press as three slim paperback volumes.

Horace Hird How a City Grows: Historical Notes on the City of Bradford Bradford published by the author 1966 Alderman Hird, Lord Mayor of Bradford in 1951 was a compulsive writer of historical notes with a prose style which can best be described as municipalese yet this volume contains so much information that it is an indispensible continuation of Cudworth 1881

C Richardson A Geography of Bradford Bradford University of Bradford1976(revised edition 1977) Clem Richardson's book although almost a quarter of a century old is indispensible. "All cities have their unique personality Bradford's is remarkable."(p xiii)

Jubilee Album of Old Bradford Views Bradford 1897 (reprinted Queensbury, the Mountain Press,1977) This Album compiled by Cudworth to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of incorporation is probably the best source for images of the town that Salt would have known in the 1820s, '30s and '40s.
Images of Bradford1860-1970 Derby Breedon Books 1990 Part of a series of such books it is probably the best modern collection of old pictures of the city. Includes (p71) one of Salem Chapel Burial Ground, where Daniel and Grace Salt were buried, before it was cleared for use as a car park.
Jane and John Ayers Bradford Old and New East Ardsley EP Publishing Ltd 1976 Historic Pictures of the city compared to the same views in the 1970s i.e. after the post-2nd World War redevelopment

The Region

The Halifax historian T.W.Hanson likened the inhabitants of the South Pennine Dales to people living on the roof of a building while history (kings, armies - those sort of things ) passed up and down the streets on either side. This book gives some insight into the local background of textile production and religious non-conformity against which the international Alpaca and mohair industry and Saltaire itself stand out.

John Porter The Making of the Central Pennines 1980 (pb1993) Some people would see this as being mainly about the South Pennines but the name is not important. What is important is that the author takes both the Yorkshire and Lancashire sides and considers their development from the middle ages onwards as a whole. Chapter 5 includes a short introduction to the subject of industrial villages including both Copley and Saltaire

This book gives is a detailed study of Airedale a few miles above Saltaire. It gives much detail about the development of the local economy and in particularly the origin of the sense of independence which local businessmen had; perhaps we can find here some of the sense of self which Titus Salt possessed.
M.L.Baumber A Pennine Community on the Eve of the Industrial Revolution Keighley and Haworth 1660 to 1740 Keighley Published by the author nd (1977)
The Continuation of this:

M.L.Baumber From Revival to Regency a history of Keighley and Haworth 1740-1820 Vol.I Keighley published by the author 1983 is also important. The study of Joseph Stell, sometime partner of John Kay, inventor of the 'flying shuttle', and later overextended businessman who turned to coining to save his fortune gives a different view of Yorkshire entrepreneurs - at an earlier stage than Salt. (Stell was arrested at Sheffield for passing counterfeit coins and hanged at York in 1768.) The chapter on the development of Mills in the Worth Valley gives a useful picture of an earlier stage of textile capitalism in the West Riding to that which associated with Saltaire
(I understand that the author completed the second volume of this work but has not published it.)

And Finally.........
Throughout this site there are quotations from
John Hartley Seets I' Yorkshire and Lancashire or Grimes' Comical Trip from Leeds to Liverpool by Canal London and Wakefield W Nicholson and sons nd
That is Sights in Yorkshire and Lancashire.....a comic tale in Yorkshire dialect published in the late nineteenth century as a 'yellowback' - a small 8vo volume produced to be sold at railway stations. Hartley a Halifax man who spent many years in the United States before returning to run a pub in Bradford was famous in the West Riding for his comic recitations and as a publisher of the popular Clock Almanac.

Holroyd's Bookplate

I would like to thank Clive Woods of the Saltaire Village Society
for lending me this image and the portrait of Holroyd (above)DB

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