Silk scarf printed with 'Yorkshire Royal Exhibition 1887 plus the Salt coat of arms
Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition: Welcome arch on Victoria Road
Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition site, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Early plan of the Royal Jubilee Exhibition main grounds
A portrait drawing of Sir William Fairbairn, the leading Victorian engineer, published in the Supplement to the Illustrated London News 29 August 1974 following his death.Farirbairn helped to design Salts Mill
Fairbairn, William: Courtesy of Royal Society via WikiCommons
2022.74: Saltaire's Allotments: A second draft of their history
Saltaire's Allotments: A second draft of their history
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Plan of Saltaire
A history of the various allotments in Saltaire researched by Les Brook with major contributions from Colin Coates and James Roberts. A detailed history of the provision and use of allotments in Saltaire, including many changes to their extent and location.
Content available under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence
Copyright Les Brook, James Roberts, Colin Coates
SALTAIRE’S ALLOTMENTS A second draft of their history Compiled and edited by Les Brook with major contributions from Colin Coates, James Roberts and Ian Watson 1 November 2023 2 1 In this paper, footnotes are numerical, and endnotes, alphabetical. The Club welcomes comments that query or correct any part of this paper – or adds to our understanding of the allotments’ history. Email saltairehistorymail@gmail.com 2 Aerial view of Saltaire dating from ~2005. 1 Introduction The allotments in Saltaire are amongst the many public facilities that have elevated this small ‘village’ from a Victorian curiosity to a World Heritage Site. Yet - like the engineer who designed the mill, the horny-handed sons of toil who built it, and the women whose labours at home and at their machines were crucial to its success - the allotments rarely get a mention in histories. How odd, because these “allotment gardens” are so conspicuous 3. Today, a favourite spot for photographers is on Victoria Road from which the mill’s magnificent frontage can be admired - as you look across the rhubarb, flowers, shrubs and greenhouses of allotments. Moreover, it’s odd that the allotments are neglected by historians since a principal reason for Saltaire’s global status is that it is not only “an outstanding and well-preserved example of a mid-19th century industrial town” but that it “exert[ed] a major influence on the development of the 4 "garden city" movement” . 3 Sometimes rendered as “garden allotments”, this was a common term in Victorian times. See the wording on the early maps and plans in this paper. 4 From UNESCO’s World Heritage inscription. For more on this movement, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_city_movement. (As far as I can see, there’s no evidence for UNESCO’s claim!) 2 Allotments in industrial settings and model towns In historical context, Saltaire’s allotments are far from unique. The village’s sister World Heritage Site and mill village, New Lanark, also had them, 50 years before Saltaire. Its owner/manager, the famous Robert Owen, believed that health could generally be improved by a clean living environment and fresh air and provided residents with allotments to grow their own fruit and vegetables as well as planting woodlands and laying out paths on the hillside above the village, to be enjoyed by the villagers 5. That could be the founder of Saltaire speaking. Yet the histories of Titus Salt provide no evidence to demonstrate that Salt ever visited New Lanark or supported Owen’s vision of utopian socialist communities. It would, 6 however, be very unlikely that Salt had no knowledge of Owen’s work… . Closer to home, in Leeds, during the depression of 1838-42, the sons of the pioneering millowner Benjamin Gott made “a benevolent gesture” by converting the tenter ground of their Bean Ing mill into allotments for 7 their workers . Daniels notes that Allotments were intended to promote in leisure time the industrious habits that William Chambers admired when he saw the Bean Ing employees at work in 1841: ‘Throughout the different large buildings containing the workmen you do not hear a word spoken. Every individual is busy as a bee at his own peculiar work; no such thing as straggling out is observable, and the whole system seems perfect in point of concentrated 8 industry and organization’. 5 https://www.newlanark.org/introducing-robert-owen. Notwithstanding this assertion, I have asked our New Lanark counterparts for evidence and have not received a reply. 6 https://www.saltairecollection.org/saltaire-history/saltaire-foundation-and-legacy/ 7 ‘Tenter ground’ was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth after fulling. Bean Ing was on the western edge of Leeds city centre. 8 Stephen John Daniels Moral Order and the Industrial Environment in the Woollen Textile Districts of West Yorkshire, 1780-1880 3 Daniels goes on to observe that allotments were a feature of two other 9 West Yorkshire ‘model villages’, Copley and Akroydon . These post-date Saltaire. The allotments in front of Salts Mill As we shall see later, the allotments in front of the mill are not the only ones in the past and present village - but they are the earliest and, historically, the most interesting. Their date is not known but they were certainly in place by the time Caroline Street’s eastern extension was built, 10 probably in late 1868 into 1869 , and all the indications suggest a much earlier date, maybe soon after the completion of 11 the mill in 1853 . These allotments were deliberately designed both in location and form, and that they sit immediately in front of the mill is striking. Why would they be designed and why would this location be chosen? Salt’s chosen location for his mill and small town was in the countryside, in the pristine Aire valley. The choice was deliberately rural: one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the neighbourhood of Bradford… charmingly situated on the banks of the Aire… an extensive landscape of hill and 12 dale . 9 Ibid. The Copley allotments appear to be on Copley Lane Halifax HX3 0RD. The Akroydon allotments are next to York Terrace, Halifax HX3 6LZ. Both are small scale. 10 We shall see later that Lockwood Street and (part of) Caroline Street were constructed on part of the original allotment space. For evidence of the dates here, see Les Brook 16 BUILDING CONTRACTS critical appraisal v210622 (unpublished). 11 These indications will be addressed later in this paper. They include various plans; the early foundation (1861) of the Floral and Horticultural Society; the evidence on later OS maps of a unique allotment layout which clearly preceded constructions with known dates, the dates of which are known; the date of the Garden Cottage; and the 1887 W and R Mawson plan. And why not early, since they required little effort or money to construct? 4 Creating a colossal factory in such a setting was an act of vandalism… or so it might seem. So would it not be appropriate to re-create ‘rural’ outdoor space within the village? And would it not also facilitate a splendid view of the 13 mighty mill? That the optics of this space were important and that the space was designed is evidenced by its layout. The two early plans here show the allotments organised around a symmetrical guitar 14 pattern of pathways . And what is striking is that subsequent Ordnance Survey (OS) maps confirm that this elaborate arrangement was actually built. 12 Balgarnie’s Salt with commentary and additions by Barlo and Shaw 13 A: This is not a silly question. Saltaire village has many designed vistas. Try looking down George Street to the URC Church and beyond. Glorious! B: Hopefully to be added to a future draft: material from Ruth Quinn’s PhD thesis. See summary here: https://heritageconsortium.ac.uk/current-students-2/2017-cohort/ruth- quinn/ 14 Unfortunately, these are plans and not maps. Maps are reliable sources of information, of what existed or exists. Plans may be just that: plans. For example, in the present cases: the top plan shows a layout for Saltaire Park (now Roberts Park) that was not implemented, and neither plan depicts the Sunday School. Unlike maps, plans can be very difficult to date. However, the top one is from Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867. Thanks to Jo Lintonbon for this info. The document can be read at https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/UQgtfl3kA20C?hl=en. The lower image is later than 30 October 1869. We know that because the second has Salt as a baronet, and he was ennobled on that date. 5 Here's the evidence – an extract from the 1891 OS map - that the guitar layout was adopted. By the time of this map, considerable construction had taken place on the allotments’ southern edge but this cannot hide the remnants of the more extensive, guitar-emblazoned, set of plots. Look back at the first, earlier plan. It shows the allotments to be enclosed within an area north of Caroline Street. But if we look at the later plan, and more importantly the later, authoritative OS maps like the one above, it is clear that initially these allotments occupied a greater area. The red line is a rough estimate of the original (~1853 to ~1868) 15 boundary of this larger area . 15 1868 because, in October of that year, Lockwood and Mawson sought builders for the houses on each side of the Saltaire Institute (Victoria Hall), including the eastern end of Caroline Street. The latter group of houses feature at the bottom right of the area marked within red lines above. Bradford Observer..8 October 1868. 6 That the first area of allotments was more extensive is not entirely surprising if we look back at the plots of land which the village occupied to the east of Victoria Road. The analysis that follows makes considerable 16 use of research by Ian Watson in The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt . Saltaire was built on many separate fields with multiple owners, and they 17 were purchased by Salt over a lengthy period . Indeed, much of Saltaire was built well before significant areas were in Salt’s hands. Immediately below is Ian’s map showing the first purchase. It involved many fields, was made in 1850, and is hatched in red. Fields 542 and 541 occupy the area immediately south of the railway line in front of the mill which were to host the allotments. Note the area’s roughly triangular shape. If fields 542 and 541 in front of the mill were all given over to allotments in the 10 or more years after the mill opened (1853) – and I believe they were – the area they covered would have been greater than their area in the first of the early plans above. In fact, it would have been roughly the same as the red-boundaried, rough-estimate area in the map above. Not a coincidence. There is no reason for not converting both of these fields into allotments. The implementation of the building plan (the earliest of the plans above) could not proceed until field 543 was purchased. 16 Ian’s booklet is available at https://www.saltairecollection.org/wp- content/uploads/THE-LAND-ACQUISITIONS-OF-TITUS-SALT-IW-2018.pdf. 17 Ibid. Almost all the land consisted of conventional farmland at the time of the purchases, and contained a range of arable, pasture and grass-meadow. 7 Below are two more maps from the period before Salt had purchased any land in the area. The enclosure map is not dated but clearly pre-dates the 18 OS map which was surveyed in 1848 . The roughly triangular shape is in evidence on both. The railway line is the upper boundary of these two fields and the western boundary is a track or road, Dixon Mill Lane. 18 It was published in 1852 and is usually referred to as the 1852 OS map. 8 Back to Salt’s land acquisitions. Fields 542 and 541 did not share a common owner with the land to the south, and notably, field 543. Watson shows that it took until 1866 – 16 years after the purchase of 541 and 542! – for the deal to be clinched. Over that pre-1866 period, Saltaire was being built according to the plan drawn up by Salt’s architects, Lockwood and Mawson. However, after April 1860, there’s reason to believe that they ran out of land: no 19 invitations to tender for new housing were issued until March 1866 . The conversion of the whole of fields 542 and 541 into allotments was probably not meant to last for ~13 years but that is what happened, and now we know why. Although it can be argued that this front-of-mill allotment space was a significant and deliberate part of Saltaire’s design, it was far from invincible. Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight, the first of our plans can be seen to spell out the architects’ intentions: the allotments were always destined to have Caroline Street as their southern boundary. However, this destiny was breached in the final couple of years of Titus Salt’s life when the Sunday School was erected on the allotments. The Bradford Observer reported that The Sunday schools [sic] attached to [the Congregational, now URC, Church] have hitherto been held in the day school and institute, but, with that munificent elaboration which distinguishes [Titus Salt] the founder of this model town, a distinct building is to be reared, which will also contain distinctive features and appliances specially adapted for Sunday school teaching. The building is being erected on a portion of the allotment 20 gardens in front of the factory… . 21 It seems that planning for a Sunday School , and specifically planning for its location, was poor to non-existent – and the allotments suffered from that. Perhaps a Sunday School was an afterthought, and although that seems very unlikely in the model village of a very committed Christian, it may indeed be the case, as Jack Reynolds suggests: 19 Les Brook op cit. They had issued more than 10 in the years 1853 to 1860. 20 Bradford Observer 27 May 1875. Balgarnie’s Salt confirms this report: The [Sunday] schools stand upon a portion of the allotment gardens… 21 We’re talking about a Sunday School building here. For many years before the construction of a dedicated building, the church ran Sunday School classes both under the church and in the Dining Hall. 9 The last building of all to be put up was the Congregational Sunday School, built at the corner of Caroline Street and Victoria Road in 1875. Originally, the space had been reserved for a hotel, but the idea had been abandoned and the space re-allocated for use as allotment gardens. The Congregationalists decided that the basement of the church, which they had used as a Sunday school, was cramped and unsuitable and asked Salt for a site on which to place a new purpose-built structure. Salt agreed and gave in addition £7,000, provided they raised £500 towards 22 the interior decorations. The trouble with Reynolds’ statements is that they are largely misleading or inaccurate: • This building was a very late addition to the village. “Contract 16” for “New SUNDAY SCHOOL and CLASS-ROOMS” was only published 23 in the press on 18 February 1875 and the building opened on 29 April 1876, the last building for which Salt himself was responsible 24 . • As we have shown, there is good reason to believe that the allotments in front of the mill were there right from the start – and there is no evidence of a hotel being planned, there or elsewhere. • Whilst the Congregationalists used their basement for Sunday School classes, their principal location was the Dining Hall. This means that Reynolds’ tale of pressure from the congregation may be correct, but not for the reasons suggested. 22 Reynolds Jack The Great Philanthropist 23 Lockwood and Mawson were the architects of Saltaire. Their invitations to tender for Saltaire’s buildings were usually called ‘contracts’. See Les Brook op cit. 24 In December of 1876, he died. The building was demolished in 1972. https://saltairevillage.info/Saltaire_WHS_Demolished_buildings.html 10 The Garden Cottage in the allotments in front of Salts Mill A rather odd and mysterious addition to the allotments in front of Salts Mill is the Garden Cottage. It was located in the far eastern corner and features on the second Lockwood and Mawson plan of Saltaire… … and on the 1887 Mawson plan (of 25 which more later) . 25 This is the most graphic image of construction over the allotments. Note the damage to the guitar pattern. Note also the curvature of the southern boundary of the allotments. This is entirely consistent with the southern boundary of fields 542 and 541, as is the cut-off eastern end of the triangle. 11 The cottage is much more prominent on the 1891 OS map, directly south of the mill chimney and across the railway line. And it is named. Two further images may show this same building. The first is on a well-known drawing of Salts Mill in the Illustrated London News of 1 October 1853. This is the full 1853 drawing… and this is a crop from it, showing the building, much-enlarged, to the right of the mill chimney. We know that, at some point, a signal box was constructed close by, but this is not a Victorian signal box. They were typically 2 storey and did 26 not have chimneys . This building’s footprint is also similar to that of the Garden Cottage on the 1891 map. If this 1853 building is a house, it is the first, the 27 oldest, house in Saltaire . 26 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_boxes_that_are_listed_buildings_in_England 12 But leaving aside that intriguing possibility, census records from 1861 to 1901 confirm that Garden Cottage was a house, and had occupants. The first four of these censuses show Joseph and Maria Kitchen and as many 28 as three daughters living there. Joseph was not employed in gardening . He was a power loom overlooker who had retired by 1891. Newspaper records show that he was a keen flower grower who won a number of 29 prizes . In the 1901 census, the cottage was occupied by Bramley Badland, a wool sorter, his wife Hannah and their two young children. In the 1911 census Garden Cottage is not listed. Indeed, it probably disappeared (was 30 demolished?) by 1908 as it is not shown on the 1908 OS map . UNESCO failed to recognise this corner of Saltaire when it delineated the boundaries of the historic village. That was a significant omission. The evidence shows that the cottage and the nearby allotments were part and parcel of the original village. There is a strong case for this cottage having been built as early as 1853, but even if it wasn’t, the census returns show that it was in place before a very significant fraction of the houses in the 31 village . 27 There’s no record of Garden Cottage amongst the Lockwood and Mawson ‘contracts’, most probably because contracts were for large groups of houses or single large buildings such as the Congregational Church. See Les Brook op cit. 28 Which scotches the idea that this cottage was built to accommodate an allotments’ supervisor. 29 Joseph Kitchen won “the best cultivated Cottage Garden” at the 1856 Airedale show, described below. This surely indicates that Garden Cottage was built by 1856 and adds value to the argument that the allotments were up and running by that date. 30 Thanks to Jack Hargreaves for this observation. 31 Les Brook op cit. 13 The allotment holders and others combine: the Horticultural, Pig, Dog, Poultry and Pigeon Society Within 7 years or so of the construction of the first streets in Saltaire, a Floral and Horticultural Society had been formed. Its changes of name reflect the range of uses of gardens and allotments that we have 32 uncovered above . Founded in 1861 as the Floral and Horticultural 33 Society , it was renamed as the Horticultural, Pig and Dog Society in 1873, and in 1876 became the Horticultural, Pig, Dog, Poultry and Pigeon Society. It had about 100 members, most prominent among them being long serving and skilled mill employees such as Eli Lambert, Isaac Constantine, John Hanson, James Ellis, Sam Baldwin and James Rushton. Men with local status were most likely to be allocated and to keep the allotments which the firm provided, though they could not establish a total monopoly 34 since there were 100 allotments and 38 piggeries along the canal side . It had an annual show and exhibition which was a highlight of the village social life for many years. Notwithstanding the importance to Saltaire of this local organisation and its show, it was not unique and it didn’t appear from nowhere. In 1856, the Bradford Observer ran an article on the second annual 35 exhibition of the Airedale Floral and Horticultural Society in “Mr 36 A Darlington’s park, Shipley” . At >3,000 words long, this news article is encyclopaedic and indicates that gardening and related activities were of substantial local importance well before the existence of Saltaire. 32 This short summary about the Society is based on text in Saltaire Overlookers 1830 to 1914 by Roger Clark in collaboration with Colin Coates. Roger acknowledges that much of the information is from Reynolds op cit pp303/4 33 Bradford Observer Thursday 23 June 1870. Announcement of the ninth annual show of the Saltaire Floral and Horticultural Society. 34 Bradford Observer of 27 August 1863 according to Reynolds op cit 35 Though the event was described as an “exhibition”, at its heart was a comprehensive competition. 36 Bradford Observer 21 August 1856. Mr Darlington was almost certainly John Darlington, the resident of Shipley Hall which was in the middle of Shipley, more or less where Wetherspoon’s is today. See map in endnote. The “park” is almost certainly the grounds of Shipley Hall. These can be seen on the map. 14 The author tells us that a “large and commodious marquee” was erected and it held examples of the following produce: Acacia Cauliflowers Kidney Beans Peas Stocks Achimenes Cherries Kidney Petunias Stove Plants African Cineraria Potatoes Picotees Strawberries Marigolds Coxcombs Lettuce Plums Verbenas Antirrhinums Cucumbers Lilium Potatoes White Apples Dahlias Melon Raspberries Turnips Asters Eschalots Mosses Red And White, Red, Autumn- Nectarines White Grapes Yellow and Sown Onions Ferns Green Onions Redcurrants Gooseberries Beans French Yellow Marigolds Orchid Rhubarb Turnips Blackcurrants Frontignac Pansies Roses Cabbage Fuchsias Parsley Round Campanula Garlic Parsnips Potatoes Carnations Gloxinia Peaches Spring Carrots Onions And in addition to all these vegetables and flowers, there was poultry: Bantams Fowls of the Silver Pencilled or Cochin China or Sultan Chittapratt Brama Pootro Golden Spangled Silver Spangled Dorking Hamburgh Hamburgh Ducks Polands Spanish fowls and pigeons: Common Tumblers Antwerps Jacobins Carriers Fantails Turbites 37 and game too! 37 Doyle, Martin The Illustrated Book of Domestic Poultry George Routledge & Company, 1854 is a splendid reference book on Brahma Pootros and Chittaprats! Download it free from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dgBLAQAAMAAJ&source=gbs_slider_cls_metadata _7_mylibrary 15 This remarkable range of fruit, veg, flowers and domesticated animals does not tell us what would have been cultivated and kept in Saltaire’s allotments – but it is surely indicative. It may also provide evidence of the gender balance in gardening in mid-C19 West Yorkshire. Amongst the very long list of successful competitors, only one (Mrs Sharp, a poultry keeper) appears to be female. The attendance at the 1856 event also tells a story. It drew people from across the largest county in England. Folk came from Bingley, Bradford, Leeds, Skipton, Holmfirth, York, Wakefield, and Otley. And Titus Salt was amongst the distinguished guests. An indication of what we suspect from our study of Saltaire’s founder’s allotment plans – that he was firmly committed to allotment gardening being a feature of his model village. Though we have little direct evidence that Titus was also enamoured of allotmenteering itself, one snippet does suggest he was supportive, and it is dated May 1848, pre-dating Saltaire: 38 The allotments at the Exhibition grounds By the late 1880s, the allotment gardens in front of the mill occupied a much larger area than that long thin triangle shown on the earliest plans. Here’s a drawing which dates from the late 1880s/mid-1890s. The large 39 building bottom right is Exhibition Building , constructed for the 1887 Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition. Below the drawing is an extract from the 1889 OS map. Both evidence a greatly increased area of allotments. 38 Bradford Observer 24 May 1848 39 This is its modern name. 16 It appears that the closure of the 1887 Exhibition prompted a discussion on the use of its extensive grounds which, on the map above, are to the east of the ‘Technical Schools’ (now called Exhibition Building). On 13 April 1889, the Shipley Times reported: We understand that the trustees of the late Sir Titus Salt are prepared to lay out the ground on which the greater part of the [The Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition] stood in 1887 for garden allotments. It is hoped that this will meet an admitted want amongst the population of Shipley and part of Saltaire. There are several acres of ground, and, if the desire for allotments equals the quantity of land, the trustees will proceed to enclose the land suitably 17 and substantially. Practically, it is proposed to build a stone wall from the corner of the Technical School to the boundary wall of the Board Schools [now Wycliffe CE Primary School]. The intervening space between this wall and the railway will be staked out for allotment pieces, and if required, the ground alongside the railway up to the Primitive Methodist Chapel [today, the site of a Tesco Local] will also be taken in. The ground is certainly well adapted for garden plots, and the soil is abundant and suitable for the raising of garden produce, as well as for fancy gardening. In these days of demand for allotments throughout the country, it is satisfactory to know that the growing population of this district have an opportunity keeping pace with their fellows in more distinctly rural districts. Of course we are not in a position to state the terms on which the trustees will be willing to let the allotments, but we are assured that, in keeping with the desire to meet a felt want, there is no intention of fixing terms such as would preclude cottagers taking advantage of the offer. At present the trustees leave the matter in the hands of Mr Samuel Barber, than whom no one is better qualified to know the needs of the district. Seeing that gardening operations are in their inception for the produce of the present year, Mr Barber is anxious to know as early as possible what demand there be may for the allotments in order to enable the trustees to make final arrangements. In other words, those who wish 40 to have allotments should see Mr Barber [ ] and state their wishes to him. Within two months, the Shipley Times indicated that most of the plots were taken: We are informed that there are still a few garden plots for disposal in the Exhibition Grounds, which Sir Titus Salt Bart., & Co., have laid out for allotment gardens. Mr. S. Barber has the matter in hand and is prepared 41 to receive applications. So where are these allotments now? In the decade that followed this major increase in plot numbers, Salts Mill and Saltaire changed hands. In 1892 the Salt family left the scene and a consortium took over. The four principals were Isaac Smith, John 40 From c1866 to his retirement in 1888, Samuel Barber was clerk of works at Saltaire Mills. He lived at 50 Victoria Road. He was a member of the Shipley Local Board (the local council) from 1874 to 1890. 41 Shipley Times 22 June 1889 18 42 Maddocks, James Roberts and John Rhodes . Roberts would go on to 43 become the sole owner and, by the 1901 census , three streets had been built on the former Exhibition grounds – and thus on a swathe of the 1889 garden allotments. It is worth noting that, in 1889, the decision to create these allotments would have been made by the son of Titus Salt. The new proprietors appear not to have shared the same commitment to allotment gardens as the Salt family and, unsurprisingly, two of the streets were named after Maddocks and Rhodes. A further set of allotments, between canal and river On 18 October 1870, the Leeds Mercury reported that Saltaire is noted for pig keeping, and between the river and the canal a long range of neat pig-styes have been erected, close to the allotment gardens, for the use of the residents who have a taste for home fed ham and bacon. The most plausible location for these “styes”, “between the river and the canal”, is the area behind and to the west of what is now the Boathouse 42 Maggie Smith and Colin Coates Salts Mill: The Owners and Managers 1853 to 1986 43 Based on Colin Coates’ research to be found at https://saltairevillage.info/ 19 pub and restaurant. This extract from the OS map, surveyed in 1889 and published in 1893, appears to confirm this as the location of Saltaire’s piggeries. There is what may be “a long range of neat pig-styes” directly south of the Boat Hose and immediately alongside the canal. In the Merthyr Telegraph of 8 December 1871, these allotments get a very honourable mention by a Saltaire visitor-cum-correspondent: Returning to the working man's paradise on the south bank of the river Aire, we observe that even the pigs are well cared for. They occupy what may be called a little street, if not a colony, of their own. Sty is too bad a name to apply to the clean little dwellings which the Saltaire grunters inhabit. They are so substantially and tastefully built, and withal so scrupulously clean. The Saltaire piggery is a collection of stying styes, soaring far above the filthy holes in which animals of the hog kind are usually brought up. Every sty has its own number, so that one passing along the row is almost tempted to imagine himself in a street of Lilliputians, only that an occasional grunt from some inhabitant, who probably mistakes him for a relative, wakes him from his reverie. Two years later, on 29 May 1873, the Bradford Observer described Saltaire’s allotments in some detail: Turning my eyes from the factory, I notice a square tract of allotment gardens, let out to such Saltairites as are desirous of growing their own vegetables. The gardens are fresh and bright; flowers blending sweetly with the more useful plants and roots which form so necessary a part of the British workman's dinner. 20 There is a profusion of peas, cabbages, rhubarb, gooseberries, and other vegetables and fruits familiar in the mouth of the perambulating greengrocer, and the walks and beds are kept with scrupulous care and neatness. These allotments appear to be those in front of Salts Mill, but our journalist walks on: Pushing forward still further down this main street (Victoria Road) I come upon the canal where the great iron bridge begins. Here I have a view, to the right, of the north end of the factory buildings, and to the left of another series of allotment gardens. These allotments appear to be the piggeries. That Saltaire was “noted for pig keeping” suggests these allotments had been there for some time before the earliest newspaper reference in 1870. This implies that they were a relatively early feature of the village – and maybe they were because Titus himself approved of pig (and poultry) husbandry. The newspaper snippet cited above supports this view: in 1848, he was already President of the Bradford Pig and Poultry Society. There is further reason to believe that pig-keeping in Saltaire started early. Local historian Ian Watson has demonstrated that Salt did not buy the land for Saltaire in one fell swoop. Quite the opposite, explains Ian in his excellent The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt, and he dates to 44 1851/1852 the purchase of the fields that made up the bulk of this “between the river and the canal” allotment land which housed a 45 concentration of piggeries . This is very early amongst Salt’s acquisitions, coinciding with the construction of the mill itself. Though we can’t claim to know the exact date when these allotments were established, we do have some clues as to when the piggeries expired. 44 Numbered 561 and 562 45 Ian’s booklet is available at https://www.saltairecollection.org/wp- content/uploads/THE-LAND-ACQUISITIONS-OF-TITUS-SALT-IW-2018.pdf. Ian tells me that plot 561 was owned by W R Crompton Stansfield of Esholt Hall and was part of Salt's first purchase in late 1850. The sale was finalised in 1851. Plot 562 was a small field owned by Dr John Outhwaite of Bradford. It was sold to Salt in 1852. The neighbouring plots (to the west) are 578/9. These were owned by William Wright, a manufacturer of paper at Hirst Mill. They were purchased by Salt in 1854. 21 They were reported as “rapidly disappearing” in 1901. The same 46 newspaper making that claim also spoke of “their removal” . Was this a decision of the mill which owned the land or the local authority or a court? 47 Whatever, the closure was highlighted because of the alleged stealing of a pig trough in which the protagonists were all from Saltaire or thereabouts. The Shipley Times ran the story on 13 July 1901. The victim of the crime was Whitaker Clough of Caroline Street, Saltaire, who “had rented pig- cotes, which were being pulled down”. A witness, Benjamin Read, who lived at Constance Street, Saltaire, said he was “employed in pulling down the pig cotes on 19 & 20 June”. Alfred E. Jackson, a second witness, also said that he was “employed in pulling down the piggeries”. But were the allotments closed? Or was it just the piggeries? 48 In January 1922 , the Shipley Times reported the purchase by “Sir Titus 49 Salt. Bart., Sons and Co., Ltd., Saltaire Mills” from Shipley Council of a substantial area of land including that behind the Congregational church. We shall look at this acquisition in more detail later, but for the moment we’re focusing on the “between the river and the canal” area and the report includes this: the allotments lying near the boathouse opposite Saltaire Park [ie 50 “between canal and river”] are to be done away with , and the Caroline Street Allotments will probably share a similar fate… A most comprehensive scheme for the laying-out of the land between the canal and the river Aire has been drawn up. The allotments situate near the boathouse are removed because of their unsightly appearance… Well, we know that the Caroline Street allotments (ie those in front of the mill) survived – but the first part of this quotation makes clear that the “between canal and river” allotments were still in existence in January 1922. They had survived the 1901 dissolution of the piggeries and may well have been closed completely in the early 1920s “because of their 46 Shipley Times 13 July 1901 47 Note the involvement of the police, the courts and the Salts Mill company in the stories that follow. 48 Exact date not known. 49 At this time, the Salt name was still in use, even though it was 30 years since the family lost ownership. 50 This is confirmed as the intention by the 1923 Estate Office plan (which can be seen at Endnote C). The land between canal and river is shown as landscaped. 22 unsightly appearance”. And as we shall see below, a significant number of new allotments, behind the church, would more than compensate for their demise. Clearly there was a plan in the early 20s to close these “between canal and river” allotments. But was it implemented? At this point we do not know - but fast forward to 1937. Close inspection of this aerial photo shows no allotments “between canal and river” by then. Before becoming “unsightly”, the piggeries (if not the allotments) had an unsavoury history. On 27 April 1881, the Yorkshire Post reported that An alarming outbreak of swine fever has just been discovered in the Saltaire piggeries on the canal bank at Saltaire, near the mills of Sir Titus Salt, Sons. & Co… it is feared that the disease may spread amongst the large number of pigs stored in the piggeries, which number altogether nearly 100. Further cases were reported by the Post on 2 May and, less than 2 weeks later, the Shipley Times, said that During the past week, the police authorities have deemed it necessary to 51 slaughter three pigs believed to be suffering from swine fever . The involvement of the police is notable, as is that of “the firm of Sir Titus Salt, Sons, & Co.” who 51 14 May 1881 23 have issued the following notice regarding their piggeries [my emphasis]: Pigs are not to be brought direct from any public market, but only from places ascertained to be free from disease, and where the pigs have been for at least fourteen days immediately preceding. Further outbreaks of swine fever were reported by the Shipley Times on 13 August and 3 September 1881 and “the district has been declared an infected area”. This most destructive disease still continues its direful work at the Saltaire Piggeries was the Times judgement on 1 October, and … at present there are one-third of the thirty seven styes empty. It was no better 5 weeks later: Swine Fever has once more broken out at Saltaire piggeries. This time a young pig belonging to Jabez Giles has been slaughtered, and the place 52 has been declared an infected locality . This whole episode was repeated in 1885: Information was given to Sergeant Bradbury on Tuesday (30 June), by William Walker of the dining rooms, Saltaire, that he had a pig suffering from swine fever. The animal was visited and subsequently slaughtered 53 … Constable Russell has reported receiving information about five o'clock p.m. on 11 July, from William Buck, of 32 Ada Street, Saltaire, that he had a pig on his premises at the piggeries, Saltaire, which he supposed to 54 be suffering from swine fever. The animal has since been destroyed . Further outbreaks occurred in 1887 and then in 1890. In 1887: The premises of the following persons in the Saltaire Piggeries have been declared, by a sub-committee for the East Morley Petty Sessional Division, under the above Act to be infected with swine fever - William Camm, 52 Shipley Times 5 November 1881 53 Shipley Times and Express 4 July 1885 54 Shipley Times and Express 18 July 1885 24 Martin Furnish, Samuel Hall, Holland Crabtree, Wm. Buck, Richard 55 Newsome, John Milton, Samuel Beanland, and Albert Hargreaves . In 1890: On Saturday 25 January, Mr Jonathan Foster, of Constance Street, Saltaire, night watchman at Saltaire Mills, reported to the police that one of his pigs in the piggeries at Saltaire was ill. Inspector Bielby visited the place and found three pigs in the cote, one apparently suffering from fever. The matter was reported to Supt. Symonds, and his direction Mr Collins, veterinary surgeon, of Bradford, visited the place on Sunday morning, and declared two pigs to be suffering from swine fever. On the following day both pigs were destroyed, and the stye was declared to infected area under the Contagions Diseases (Animals) Act. On Thursday the magistrates further declared the whole of the piggeries at Saltaire to be an infected area, and the owners would not be permitted 56 to remove any of the animals without a licence . By February 1890: In reference to the outbreak of swine fever at the Saltaire piggeries, reported a week ago, several more pigs have succumbed this week, and under order of the police have been buried. The piggeries within the infected area are in the occupation of the following persons: Jonathan Foster, Luke Pedley, John Milton, James Jackson, William Buck, Thomas Mawson, Joseph Pitts, William Camm, Richard Newsome, Samuel Beanland, Albert Milton, George Shuttleworth, Jonas Bower, James Brook, 57 Thomas Clarke, Jabez Giles, and Michael O'Donnell . But by April 1890, Jonathan Foster’s piggery was free from infectious 58 disease so we might assume that all was well. Unfortunately, 1892 saw disaster strike again. The Nelson Chronicle ran a piece: an extensive outbreak of swine fever has occurred at the piggeries near the allotment gardens, Saltaire. The whole of the piggeries have been declared within an infected area, and many of the animals have had to be 59 slaughtered. The consequent loss to pigkeepers is somewhat serious. 55 Shipley Times and Express 27 August 1887 56 Shipley Times and Express 1 February 1890 57 Shipley Times 8 February 1890 58 Leeds Times 12 April 1890 59 17 June 1892 25 Less than three weeks later the Yorkshire Evening Post announced that 60 “the number of cases of swine fever at Saltaire was decreasing”. Did these regular outbreaks of swine fever lead to the demise of the piggeries? It seems possible but not probable. The closure (in the early 20s?) seems to have happened some years after the last reported outbreak. Porcine postscript… This section of our exploration of Saltaire’s piggeries would not be complete without a twist in the curly tail. And here it is. An allotment holder from the front-of-mill allotments has just told us (June 2022) that his plot frequently yields pig bones. The allotment gardens in Albert Road, Saltaire In 1887, W and R 61 Mawson published a plan showing “The Town and Works of Saltaire”. 1887 was over 10 years after the end of the construction of the original village so we can take it that it is more of a map than a plan. 60 4 July 1892 61 The successor architects to Lockwood and Mawson. 26 In the bottom left corner was the top (southern) end of Albert Road and to its left were the Shipley School Boards Mixed and Infant schools. To their south were “Messrs Edward & Titus Salt Allotment Gardens”. This - on a plan drafted by the successor to the architects of Salts Mill, on 62 land owned by Salts Mill - surely means that the Albert Road allotments were 100% part of Saltaire. Regrettably, the 1891 OS map covering this area and which was surveyed in 1889 to 1891 fails to identify a group of allotments as such. 63 The first intimation we have of these allotments is to be found in a Shipley Times article dated 1 July 1893. A few days before 1 July, at the Bradford County Police Court, Thomas Laycock, labourer, of Saltaire, was brought up on suspicion of being concerned in the theft of pigeons from the allotment gardens in Albert Road…Constable Fuller saw the prisoner near to the Rosse Hotel [64], at 6.30 on Sunday morning. There were blood stains and other marks on the prisoner’s clothing and hat, and also marks of tar. The officer could not find the pigeons, but the prisoner’s boots corresponded exactly with the footprints in the gardens, and there was tar on the railings there. When apprehended, the prisoner said, “I know nothing of the b______ pigeons”, The prisoner denied the allegation… 62 See the later information about the successors to the Salts trying to sell this land. 63 … and of any of Saltaire’s allotments being used for the keeping of pigeons! 64 Just across the main road from the Albert Street allotments… suspicious! 27 The prisoner’s mother was called, and she declared that her son on Saturday night went to bed at 11.30, and she was quite sure he was not up on Sunday morning before 9 or 10 a.m.… The police were always on to him because he took a drop of beer. The Bench concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict and the prisoner was discharged. Two years later, the consortium which had bought Saltaire in 1892 were off-loading land in this same part of the village. …Wooller Jennings, auctioneer, of Bradford, offered for sale by auction, at the Sun Hotel, about fifty acres of land, which formed part of the Saltaire Estate, and was submitted by order of the Saltaire Syndicate. Lots 49,50, and 51… contained 6100 square yards extending from the top 65 of Albert Road to Hirst Lane, and now occupied as allotment gardens. Since no offers were made, we may assume that the allotments were spared… but not for long. In 1902, a tramshed was built towards the top of Albert Road, and some allotments were lost. The tramshed still exists, as a brewery and restaurant called Salt Bar and Kitchen. The Shipley Times’ editor was sympathetic to the allotment holders for their loss: One result of the erection of the intended tramway-car shed at Saltaire will be the displacement of some of the tenants of the gardens at the top of Albert Road, which will be a pity, as I know that these garden plots have been greatly valued, as well as been a great convenience to those residing near, who could get a fresh salad or a few tomatoes and other things in season. I believe steps will be taken to bring before the District Council the question of the provision of gardens under the Allotments Act. Several years ago, a committee of the Council was formed to deal with the matter, but nothing was done, I think, beyond making a few inquiries to suitable land for the purpose. The destruction of some of the gardens at Saltaire, however, seems likely to bring the subject once more to the front, and if a sufficient number of applicants come forward, there ought not to be much difficulty in 65 Shipley Times 29 June 1895. “There is no set standard size but the most common plot is 10 rods, an ancient measurement equivalent to 302 square yards or 253 square metres” says https://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-information/allotment- history/. This means that the Albert Road allotments consisted of ~20 plots. 28 providing ground for the encouragement of such a healthy and desirable 66 recreation. It transpired that many allotments were lost. But not all, as we can see from this extract from an October 1923 Saltaire estate office 67 68 plan. . Much later however, a housing estate was built on the area formerly occupied by allotments – and on land to the west and north. Nonetheless, two very small allotment gardens remain in the area today - at the southern (‘top’) end of Hirst Lane (H) and the western end of Carlton 69 Avenue (C) . However, only H is in the original location, ie on land labelled “Allotment Gardens” on the 1890 OS map. 66 Shipley Times 5 September 1902 67 A copy of the full plan can be found at endnote C. 68 The closeness to the school of this residual and small piece of allotment land prompts an interesting question. Had it become a school garden? After all, by 1918, 51 Bradford schools were growing potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, beans and peas. See Telegraph and Argus 25 July 2020 69 Personal observations by James Roberts and Les Brook. James thinks they may have survived because of their location, over a water main. 29 Solving the food problem in the First World War - by creating allotment gardens The 1914/18 world war demanded an increase in domestic food production and on 7 January 1916, the Shipley Times reported that The Shipley District Council have decided to put into cultivation the vacant land in the area suitable for growing potatoes and other vegetables… The Shipley Council is probably the first authority in the Riding to undertake what will doubtless be called a municipal potato supply. The experiment will be watched with a good deal of interest not only at Shipley, but in other parts of the Riding. The responsible committee, of which Coun. H. Hirst is chairman, and the officials of the Council will, we are convinced, put forth every effort to make the scheme a success. By 1917, there is evidence that Shipley District Council had a Food Production Committee. An indication that food production was becoming a pressing issue? The Clerk reported that, under the Lands Cultivation Order, the committee had taken control of 15 acres 2 roods 35 perches. Of these, 9 acres 2 roods 24 perches had been let off in allotments, leaving 6 acres 11 perches for cultivation by the Council's men under Mr. Newby. The allotments were divided as follows: Redburn Estate 78, Hirst Wood 67, Moorhead 42, Dockfield 22, making a total of 209 allotments, which are held by 160 persons. Applications for additional allotments at Hirst Wood by present allotment holders were considered, but it was decided that the land now being cultivated by the Council should be kept by the 70 Council for another year. For whatever reason, the allotments in Saltaire were not included in this inventory, perhaps because they were already established, but Saltaire was the subject of Council action by January 1918. Notice SHIPLEY DISTRICT COUNCIL ALLOTMENTS 71 The Council having acquired Land in Albert Road , Saltaire Road, and Manor Lane for Allotment purposes, The Food Production Committee are 70 2 November 1917 71 As noted elsewhere, the Council did not own the Albert Road land until 1921 – so I assume that in 1918 this ‘acquisition’ meant it was temporarily commandeered to assist the war effort. 30 Open to Receive Applications from Ratepayers for Plots for the Cultivation of Vegetables, &c. The area of each Allotment would be approximately 2OO square yards, and Applications should be forwarded to the Undersigned not later than 72 31 January. ISAAC LINDOW, Clerk of the Council… The Council’s attention to increased food production – and thus more allotment land – continued: It was reported that at meeting of the Food Production Committee 19 February the committee had before them a petition from residents at Crag End asking for allotments to be provided in that part of the district… A report was made that new areas of land had been taken over by the committee and the following allotments provided: Manor Lane, 16; Saltaire Road, 28; Albert Road, 70. There were also 45 additional plots available on the Redburn Estate. The committee agreed to place a plot of 100 square yards in Saltaire Road at the disposal of the Education Committee for a class of mentally defective 73 children... At a meeting of the Shipley Urban Council on Tuesday (26 March), the Clerk reported that there had been several meetings of the Food Production Committee, and that efforts had been made to get additional allotments in all parts of the town. The following new allotment areas had been obtained: Fernhill, 25 plots; Albert Road, 70; Kitson St„ 21; Manor Lane, 16; Saltaire Road, 28; Wrose Brow Road, 2. Altogether about 9 acres had been added for allotment purposes, and about seven eight additional acres had been ploughed for corn growing. Coun. Shakespeare said that 75 allotment holders would take up land on Fernhill Road and Coun. Rhodes said there was Kendall’s field. 74 The Clerk said he had written to Mr. Kendall that day. 72 Shipley Times 25 January 1918 73 Shipley Times 1 March 1918 74 Shipley Times 29 March 1918. The number of Albert Road allotments does not seem to square with the relatively small area that was left as allotments following the building of the tramshed so it seems likely that other land close by was being utilised. Long-time resident of Saltaire Anthony Briggs says that the Saltaire Road allotments were between the road and railway, east of what is now the Tesco convenience store. 31 A group of new allotments, behind the Congregational Church 1918 saw Sir James Roberts sell Salts Mill to a syndicate of local 75 businessmen . But when he walked away from the mill and the village, in his pocket was a significant acreage of local land. It included the Milner Field estate, Saltaire Park and a swathe of land from the Congregational Church to Hirst Wood, bordering the canal. Over the following years, Roberts disposed of it. Saltaire Park was given to the people of Bradford and became Roberts Park, in memory of Sir James and Lady Roberts’ son Bertram, and, in early 1921, Shipley Council bought the ‘Church to Hirst Wood’ swathe of land. For some weeks past the Shipley Urban District Council has been in correspondence with Sir James Bart., of Strathallan Castle (formerly of Milner Field), with regard to the purchase of certain land at Saltaire which the Council considers very suitable for public schemes, the provision of allotment gardens, sites for houses, and playing fields. The result of this correspondence was disclosed when, at a special meeting of the District Council Wednesday (12 January) evening last week, a resolution was unanimously adopted accepting an offer from Sir James Roberts under which the Council become the owners of the whole of the remaining portion of Sir James’s estate, south of the River Aire, and extending from Saltaire Mills to the boundary of the district at Hirst Wood, an area comprising approximately 95 acres… While [the purchase of the land by the Council] was receiving consideration a further letter was received from Sir James, who was anxious that the question should be settled, stating that, should the Council decide to purchase what is known as the Saltaire estate at a price which he named, he would make the Council a free gift of the estates which he purchased in 1911 at the sale of the Rosse properties. The Council… has unanimously decided to accept this offer of Sir James, and an intimation to that effect has been conveyed to him. The purchase price for what is described as the Saltaire estate is £13,000. This estate consists of certain allotment plots in front of the Saltaire Mills, in Caroline Street, Saltaire, the Albert Road allotments, the land extending from Albert Road to Hirst Lane, the land lying between the railway and the canal west of the Saltaire Congregational Church, the land lying between the canal and the river extending from Victoria Road to 75 Smith and Coates op cit 32 Hirst Mill, and the boathouse situate on the opposite bank of the river to Roberts Park. The total area of this estate is 52 or 53 acres. The portion of the Rosse estate which the Council receives from Sir James as a free gift has an area of just over 43 acres and extends from Hirst Lane to the river boundary at Seven Arches. It comprises the whole of the area between the Midland Railway and the river west of Hirst Mill… No scheme in regard to the lay-out of the estate has yet been finally prepared by the Council, and when the plans are completed the schemes will have to be submitted to the Ministry of Health, which will be asked to grant the necessary borrowing powers. The general public of Shipley, will, in the meantime, however, be gratified to know that they have secured the control of a valuable estate, a considerable portion of which will be 76 available for all time for public recreative purposes. But it was not long before the Council sold “a considerable portion” of this land to Salts Mill, who planned to use it for allotments and sports facilities. Note that the local council already thought the land “very suitable for… the provision of allotment gardens”. Which is rather fortunate since the Saltaire Times report reveals that the front-of-mill allotments were part of the Roberts’ package and that they were in the lot purchased by Salts Mill: It is announced that the directors of Sir Titus Salt. Bart., Sons and Co., Ltd., Saltaire Mills, have acquired from the Shipley District Council a considerable portion of the Saltaire Estate recently purchased by the Council from Sir James Roberts, Bart., the former owner of Saltaire Mills. The directors intend to use the land for the provision of allotments and recreation fields for their employees. The Saltaire Estate bought by the District Council from Sir James Roberts comprised: The land between the river Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Victoria Road, to Hirst Mill, an area over 21 acres. The land between the canal and the Midland Railway (9 acres). 76 Shipley Times ? Jan 1921. The article goes on to make a comment which, 100 years later, reflects a continuing debate: When Shipley possesses such lands of public usefulness [as] this estate, and the portion of the Rosse estate recently given to the town by Mr. H. Norman Rae (M.P. for the Shipley Division), it is no wonder that Bradford looks with envious eyes upon Shipley, and Sir James’ generosity should add stimulus to Shipley people to try at all costs to maintain the independence of the town, and to resist the annexation proposals of the city of Bradford. 33 The allotments facing Victoria Road and Caroline Street. The land between Albert Road and Hirst Lane (18 acres), a total of 49 acres. In addition, Sir James presented to the Council as a free gift the lands extending from Hirst Lane to the boundary at Seven Arches, comprising the whole of the area between the Midland Railway and the river west of Hirst Mill. The total area of the estate was about 83 acres. The land which the directors of Saltaire Mills have now acquired includes the land lying between the river Aire and the canal from Victoria Road bridge and Hirst Mill (17½ acres, excluding the river), and that between the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Midland Railway line from the Congregational Church to Hirst Lane (8½ acres) and the Caroline Street Allotments (1¾ acres). The purchase price, it is understood, is about £6,500. The whole of the land purchased lies on the south side of the river Aire and, in addition to the boathouse the opposite side of the river from the Saltaire Park, it includes several old buildings. Of its original 83-acre estate the Council will retain about 62 acres. The idea of the directors, in addition to the providing of recreative facilities for their employees, is to beautify the immediate surroundings of the mills. Several old buildings situated on the land acquired will probably be removed, the allotments lying near the boathouse opposite Saltaire Park are to be done away with, and the Caroline Street Allotments will probably share a similar fate. The land lying behind the Congregational Church and Hirst Lane is to be laid out as allotments. About 100 allotments, from 260 to 400 superficial yards in area, have already been mapped out, and some of these will probably be ready for occupation early in February. Each allotment will have a cold frame, and every third allotment will have a greenhouse. The whole will symmetrically be laid out by the firm, who very likely will purchase the frames and greenhouses and sell them to the tenants of the allotments at a low figure. About nine greenhouses will be 9ft. by 15ft. and the remainder 6ft. by 12ft. Certain lands, probably about two-thirds of an acre in extent, lying between the canal and the Congregational Church on the east of the church, and on the north side of the church, are to be given to the trustees of the church, and will undoubtedly prove useful for open-air functions, such as picnics. 34 A most comprehensive scheme for the laying-out the land between the canal and the river Aire has been drawn up. The allotments situate near the boathouse are removed because of their unsightly appearance, and most of this site will be laid out as a sort of pleasure garden or little park. Following this, tennis courts will be constructed, while the central portion of the land will be laid out as a cricket field, which will be larger in area than that of the Saltaire Club. In addition, hockey fields, etc., will be provided. The District Council is laying a footpath from Victoria Road near Saltaire Bridge to Hirst Mill on the south side of the river Aire and intend fencing off a strip of land 15ft. wide for this purpose, the length of the river to that point, at the centre of this 15ft. strip they intend laying a footpath 4ft. wide. The scheme is being drawn up and supervised Mr. William Rhodes Minn, M.S.A., architect and clerk of works Saltaire Mills, and will be proceeded with as soon as the land can be secured from the existing tenants. When completed, through the generosity the Saltaire firm, the playing fields and allotments will doubtless enhance the spirit of goodwill which already 77 exists between the employers and workpeople of Saltaire Mills. The fact that the present-day allotments behind the Congregational Church were brought into existence suggests that Minn’s plan was implemented. An aerial photograph from 1937 shows both the allotments by the church and the original front-of- 78 mill group . 77 Shipley Times ?January 1921 78 From https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW054197 35 However, this does not tell the whole story. Remember that the Shipley Times reported that “About 100 allotments, from 260 to 400 superficial yards in area, have already been mapped out” and that “the remaining portion of Sir James’s estate, south of the River Aire [extended] from Saltaire Mills to the boundary of the district at Hirst Wood, an area comprising approximately 95 acres…”. It transpires that what was proposed was far, far bigger than the ~28 allotments which now exist behind the church. The Salts Estate map dated October 1923 reveals all. The proposal was for no fewer than 95 allotments stretching from the church to Hirst Lock! At the time of writing, we have no evidence that this very ambitious plan was implemented but text and other features on the 1935 OS map suggest that it was not, and that all that was created in ~1923 was what we see today. 79 79 1934 revised 1935 published. Unfortunately this area is split across two OS maps which does not help the researcher. 36 The history of Saltaire’s allotments continues to evolve History never ends, and in recent years there have been developments in communal gardening that deserve a mention here. Concerned that the land on Caroline Street, formerly occupied by the village wash house, was neglected, the Saltaire Village Society used the 2008 Saltaire Festival to ask people what they thought should be done with it. The idea of a Wash House Garden emerged from this and around 2011, funds were made available from a pot of money managed by ward councillors – and the result was, and is, this delight. Three raised beds in the garden are now maintained by Veg on the Edge, a new mode of communal gardening which made its Saltaire entrance in 80 2012 . Local volunteers work together to create opportunities for community food growing. A key objective is to reclaim areas of underused land. Today the group also look after the Sunday School Garden in Caroline Street car park, raised beds at the junction of Caroline Street and Baker Street a plot at the railway station, and the Japanese Edible 81 Garden on Exhibition Road, supported by Shipley College . 80 https://vegontheedge.org/ 81 Thanks to Caroline Perry, Molly Kenyon and Rob Martin for much of the information in this section of the paper. A deadline for publication prevents the author from including information in this draft about the important role of the College in horticulture education and in a significant part of the front-of-the-mill allotments. 37 Saltaire continues to have a significant number of traditional allotments - in front of the mill and to the rear of the United Reform Church. As a result of the creation of a Shipley Town Council, governance of the former has recently transferred from Bradford District to Shipley. The ‘behind the church’ land is owned by Hartley Properties, the property vehicle of Alan Lewis, formerly chair and chief executive of Illingworth Morris who owned 82 and then closed Salt Mill in 1985 . Lewis’s ownership of the land echoes Roberts’ in the period after 1918. As we said above, “when he [Roberts] walked away from the mill and the village, in his pocket was a significant acreage of local land”. 82 Maggie Smith and Colin Coates op cit 38 ENDNOTES A 1852 OS map of the old halls of Shipley C October 1923 Saltaire estate office plan 39 40
Saltaire's Allotments: A second draft of their history: Second draft
A research document from local historian Les Brook on the history of Sir Titus Salt before the move of his business to Saltaire in 1853. In four parts: Part 1: The investigation starts with snippets of evidence […in Part 2 onwards, I try to make sense of these] 3 Part 2: The Salts’ Early Years in Bradford 12 Part 3: Titus Salt’s Bradford mills 16 Part 4: A Cartographic Summary of Titus Salt’s Bradford before Saltaire
Salt, Titus, Sir: Portrait photograph of Titus Salt in later life
Sir Titus Salt Bart. Sons & Co Limited: Front of Silver Jubillee booklet
Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Coat of arms
SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 1 Salt before Saltaire Notes on Salt’s Bradford mills and other Salt-related locations in the city 1 Les Brook Saltaire History Club April 2024 These notes were motivated by a question. “Titus Salt had five or so mills in Bradford, but where were they?”. Then it grew: “What other places were important to Titus in his Bradford years?”. And then it grew again, but this time veering sidewards: “What’s the story of this goit alongside which so much of early industrial Bradford developed?”. This may explain any tendencies to rambling that the 2 reader might notice. > SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 2 Contents Part 1: The investigation starts with snippets of evidence […in Part 2 onwards, I try to make sense of these] 3 Part 2: The Salts’ Early Years in Bradford 12 Part 3: Titus Salt’s Bradford mills 16 Part 4: A Cartographic Summary of Titus Salt’s Bradford before Saltaire 36 THANKS and POSTSCRIPT 37 APPENDIX: THE BRADFORD GOIT AND GOITSIDE 38 ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES 41 SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 3 Part 1: The investigation starts with snippets of evidence […in Part 2 onwards, I try to make sense of these] Daniel Salt, father of Titus Salt, from numerous sources 3 1822: “In the year 1822, Titus Salt came with his parents to Bradford, he being then about nineteen years of age” . 1822: 4 “[Bradford]… [List of] Woolstapler[s]... Salt Daniel, Market street…” . But was 1822 the year the Salts arrived? Hannah Salt, the youngest child of Daniel Salt, Sir Titus’ father, and sister to Sir Titus, was baptised at Horton Lane Congregational Chapel on 27 June 1821, having been born on 14 October 1820. The abode of the parents is given as ‘Bradford’. So the Salts were in Bradford by June 1821 at the latest. Turning to Baines’ ‘History and Gazetteer of The County of York’, the dedication to which is dated by the author as 1 January 1822, Daniel Salt is listed as a woolstapler in Market Street, Bradford. The data in the Gazetteer must have taken at least a whole year, probably more, to 5 assemble and print, so it is possible that Titus Salt arrived with his parents in Bradford as early as 1820 . 6 7 1829: “[List of] Woolstapler[s]... Salt Daniel & Son, 20 Cheapside” . “There is some evidence that the firm went into yarn spinning about 1829 in order to demonstrate to conservative customers the suitability of [Donskoi wool from Russia]” 8. 1834: 9 10 Daniel retired . 1843: died . 1845: “Salt, Daniel and Son, worsted spinners, Lilly croft mill, Manningham, warehouse, 11 Piccadilly, res[idence]. North parade [sic]” . 12 From the Saltaire Collection Salt and his father had started a spinning department of their wool stapling business, using rooms in Thompson’s Mill at 13 Goitside, Thornton Road, Bradford . They had been joined in the business by Edward Salt in 1834 and shortly after this Daniel Salt retired. Within a few months Titus had also left the firm and started to work on his own account. The family partnership was dissolved in 1835. Titus Salt started his new venture at Hollings Mill and quickly acquired premises on or near Hope Street. In 1836 he took over a large mill in Union Street, whose previous owner had been Daniel Illingworth, and this 14 became the headquarters of his rapidly expanding Alpaca manufacturing. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 4 15 William Cudworth Round about Bradford Daniel Salt afterwards settled in Bradford as a wool dealer, and was for many years one of the most extensive dealers in that trade. In this business he was joined by his son Titus, the firm thenceforward being " Daniel Salt & Son". Donskoi wool was at that time exclusively used in the woollen manufacture, and the Salts were very large dealers in it. It occurred, however, to Mr. Titus Salt that it might with equal advantage be introduced into the worsted trade. He accordingly went round to the Bradford spinners, but they " turned up their noses" at it; at any rate, none of them could be induced to believe that what would make cloth was equally applicable to other descriptions of goods. Nothing therefore remained but to give up the scheme altogether, or else undertake it himself, and this Mr. Salt resolved to do. He accordingly commenced business as a spinner and manufacturer at Thompson's Mill, Silsbridge Lane, Bradford, subsequently occupying Hollings' Mill, Brick Lane Mill, Beecroft Mill, and Union Street Mill, besides giving out weaving by commission. It will thus be seen that Mr. Salt's commercial experiment with the Donskoi wool led to most important results, inasmuch as on leaving Bradford he had become one of the principal employers in the worsted trade. 16 Balgarnie’s Salt with commentary and additions by Barlo & Shaw What was to be done with the [Donskoi wool] on hand, was the problem that perplexed the [Daniel Salt] firm, and which Mr. Titus set himself to solve. He resolved that instead of asking the manufacturers to purchase it, he would utilise it himself. For this purpose he took “Thompson’s Mill,” Silsbridge Lane, Bradford, and having fitted it with suitable machinery, he proceeded to spin the Donskoi wool into yarn, and weave it into fabric. The result of the experiment was entirely successful; the fabric produced was such as to astonish and convince the most sceptical of its commercial value, and to place him in an enviable position before his fellow-townsmen. Successful in this first experiment, he added a larger factory in Union Street. Trade grew so rapidly under his hands that in a few years he was carrying on, not only the two mills above mentioned, but also Hollings’ Mill, Brick Lane Mill, and one in Fawcett Court. His intention when he commenced the manufacturing business, was to confine himself to spinning. This course he pursued for some time, and disposed of his yarns to the Messrs. Fison; but some misunderstanding having arisen with that firm, he, with his characteristic decision, resolved “to spin and weave for himself.” This is probably the source of the commonly quoted assertion that Salt had five mills in Bradford before moving to Saltaire. However, I have found no evidence that Salt used five mills simultaneously. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 5 Moreover, I have found no evidence that Salt owned all the mills referred to. (It is clear from general reading about the mills in Bradford at this time that it was commonplace for industrialists to use mills owned by others and indeed, that several mills were built in order to be let). An 1871 article by James Burnley includes the statement that, before Saltaire, “[Titus Salt] was carrying on at two or three 17 18 small factories in Bradford”, not five . This ties in with reports in two 1849 editions of the Bradford Observer . They tell us that “The Workpeople of Mr. Titus Salt, at Holling’s Mill…”, at Union Street Mills and at Beecroft’s Mill had made donations to Bradford Infirmary. No mention of Thompson’s or Brick Lane or Hope Street. However, in Collinson’s West Riding Worsted Directory of 1851 (see below), Hope Street is added to the list. 19 1849: Salt instals smoke-reduction apparatus in two mills According to a Bradford Observer correspondent, these improvements were made to Salt’s mills in Union Street and Nelson Street. 1851 Collinson, Burton & Co’s West Riding worsted directory ALPHABETICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE WOOLSTAPLERS, SPINNERS, MANUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS, DYERS, MACHINE MAKERS, &c., &c., RESIDING IN THE BOROUGH OF BRADFORD, AND OTHERS ATTENDING THE BRADFORD MARKET... Salt Titus, spinner, mohair, alpaca, and stuff manufacturer: works, Union-street, Hope-street, Beecroft and Hollings' mills : office Union-street, res. Crow-nest, 20 Lightcliffe. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 6 21 Jack Reynolds The Great Paternalist 22 In summary, Reynolds tells us that Daniel Salt (aged 41) moved to Bradford in 1822 . House on North Parade. Had money to invest from sale of 100 acre farm at Crofton, Wakefield. Woolstapler: took office in Market Street. 1823: with brother (Leeds 23 24 ironfounder) bought land in Cheapside and built warehouse in Cross Street . Later built another warehouse in Piccadilly. 25 His was one of the largest in Bradford . Later (after 1834) had house further out on Manningham Lane (a continuation of North Parade). 26 After Titus’s marriage (1829 ), Caroline and he also had a house in North Parade, “a continuation of Manor Row, quite near to his father’s house”. Then, between 1836 and 1843, they had a home at the junction of Thornton Road and Little Horton 27 Lane . 28 Titus Salt came to Bradford in ~1821 after working in Wakefield with woolstapler “Mr. Jackson” . He then spent 2 years working for William Rouse and Sons under the instruction of John Hammond. Balgarnie is eloquent about the very close 29 30 relationship between Salt and Hammond, and with the Rouse family . William Rouse and Sons 1815: partnering with James Wade and Son, William Rouse and Sons built Bradford’s ninth mill (in this context, ‘mill’ means 31 32 ‘factory powered by steam’), at Canal Side . In 1829, Pigot records “Wade James, Son & Co. Mill street, Canal side” . Mill Street is later linked to Rouse. It was located close to the Bradford Canal – so we can take it that the 1815 mill was in Mill Street. 1822: “Wm. Rouse & Son”, located at ‘Canal Side’, appears in the 1822 Baines’ Gazetteer. This also records “Manufacturers attending the Piece Hall with their Inns houses [sic] in Bradford… 33 Rouse William & Son, Nag's Head… Salt, Daniel Do. [ie Nag’s Head]” 1824: the 18th mill in James’ list of 1833 mills is a Rouse mill: “When built: 1824-26. Situation: Canal Side. Occupiers in 34 1833: William Rouse & son… [Mill]18.-built and occupied by William Rouse & Son” . 1829: “Worsted Manufacturers… Rouse William & Son, 36 Commercial street” “Worsted Spinners… Rouse William & Son, 36 35 Commercial street” . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 7 1833: “in the Factory Commission report of 1833 data was collected from three Rouse Mills [my emphasis], the oldest at 36 Canal Side being built in 1815” . 1845: “Rouse, William and Sons, worsted spinners and stuff manufacturers, Mill street, res[idence]. Eastbrook House… 37 38 39 Worsted Spinners, &c… Rouse, Wm. and Sons, Mill street, Canal road, and Market st.” . 1847: “in the 1840s, after the death of old William Rouse, a long and costly Chancery suit, following a dispute between the three remaining Rouse brothers, caused the mill to be closed down for two years and created much distress among the hands. By order of the Court the mill was divided and auctioned in 1847, the larger part being knocked down to Titus Salt who, to everyone's surprise, was found to be simply bidding on behalf of William Rouse Junior. The mill once again flourished and 40 James Hammond became William Rouse's partner” . 41 Bradford’s “unconsidered trifles” records this about old William Rouse and his successors: William Rouse snr. (1765-1843) was a significant name in Bradford textile history. He developed a wool combing factory in the years before this process was mechanised. With his son John (1794-1838) he employed hundreds of hand combers who worked for him producing the wool ‘tops’ that were needed for the worsted process. By the time of William’s death the writing was on the wall for the poorly paid hand combers whose trade was effectively destroyed by mechanical combs in the 1850s. It is known that the business continued despite the deaths of William and John. The 1853 White’s Leeds & the Clothing District Directory does not record Holdsworth Street as a Bradford thoroughfare name, but does mention a William Rouse, spinner & manufacturer, of West Lodge, Great Horton Road. His company is Wm. Rouse & Sons, Old Market & Canal Road. So there clearly was a William Rouse jnr. (1809-1868) who succeeded his father. In the 1851 census Rouse reported employing 400 combers, 100 boys & 150 girls… By the time of the 1879 PO Bradford Directory Holdsworth Street did exist but an unnamed ‘mill yard’ is the only relevant entry it boasts. Wm. Rouse & Sons, manufacturer, are still trading and are now placed at North Brook Street Mills… North Brook Street joins Canal Road… North Brook Mills are mentioned in Yorkshire Textile Mills 1779-1930… Unfortunately it had already been demolished when the mill survey was undertaken in the early 1990s. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 8 42 Jack Reynolds The Great Paternalist (again) In summary: Salt and his father started a spinning department of their woolstapler’s firm in rooms in “Thompson’s Mill at the Goitside” where they shared facilities with Jowett and Smith and Robert Waud. Shortly after, Daniel retired and soon after that, Titus Salt started up on his own account (probably) at Hollings Mill in the Goitside. He quickly acquired further premises in or near Hope Street. By 1836, he had taken over a large mill in Union Street, just inside the Horton township. “It became the headquarters of a rapidly increasing alpaca empire to which were added three other mills before 1850”. ”He seems to have concentrated the work of the various mills by process or by product”. “… preliminary processes, including sorting and machine and hand combing, were controlled from Union Street where administration and financial matters were also seen to”. 43 Bradford Council’s Goitside Conservation Area Assessment The area around the goit and beck formed the site of Bradford’s earliest industrial development, which was the basis of the settlement’s wealth, influence and prestige during much of the 19th century. Holme Mill, the first factory in Bradford, was 44 constructed alongside the goit , on a meadow known as the Holme, at the turn of the 19th century. Following this a number of mills, factories and foundries, along with associated housing, were constructed in the vicinity… 45 According to James, Thompson’s Mill is likely to have been the second mill built in Bradford . This was constructed on the piece of land between Silsbridge Lane and the mill goit, which was purchased by Matthew and William Thompson in 1800, with the mill opening in around 1803. The Thompsons were the nephews of Benjamin Peile, who owned a dyeworks on Bradford Beck. The mill was originally a spinning mill, though expansion and redevelopment of the site over the course of the 19th 46 century mean that nothing of the original spinning mill remains (Sheeran, 2005 ). Thompson’s Mill, and consequently the goitside, had a strong association with Titus Salt. The weaving shed to the south of the goit provided room and power for the 47 weaving department of Salt’s firm, when it was still based in Bradford proper . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 9 48 John James History of the Worsted Manufacture in England James gives us this wonderful table of Bradford’s early mills. In addition: * “On the 25th of March, 1804, Messrs. Ramsbotham and Swaine's extensive worsted-mill (the first 49 erected at Bradford) was nearly destroyed by fire” . Re-built, it was sold to Richard Fawcett soon after. * Thompson’s Mill was built by the dyer Peile “at two different periods, being in fact two mills”. * “3.- Union Street mill, built by Mr Richard Fawcett, and occupied by him until about the year 1832. The mill built in 1830 adjoins to the other, and was erected by Messrs. Illingworth & Murgatroyd”. *“11- Union Street mill was built by Messrs. Wroe and occupied by them” * Note that this means there were three ‘Union 50 Street mills’ * Note also that William Rouse & Sons’ Canal Side mills appear in the table. * The 1826 “Silsbridge Lane” mill is Holling’s Mill. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 10 51 Ibbetson’s Directory 1850 “Worsted Spinners and Manufacturers… Salt Titus, spinner (mohair and alpaca), and stuff manufacturer, Brook street; works Union street, and Silsbridge lane ; house Crow Nest, Lightcliffe”. 52 Reports of the 1851 Great Exhibition’s juries . Occasionally, sources (such as Ibbetson) make minimal reference to raw materials (eg alpaca) used by Salt as well as some broad product categories (eg worsted), but in 1851, just as the construction of his Saltaire mill commenced, an external body summarised and assessed Salt’s principal products. 1851 was also the year of the Great Exhibition, the Exhibition of The Works of Industry of All Nations, at the Crystal Palace in London. Salt submitted a range of products in Class XII, Woollen and Worsted Manufactures. Subsequently, the reports of all the juries were published. The Class XII jury said this about the entry of Salt, Titus, Manufacturer, Bradford, Yorkshire: For a complete series of alpaca and mohair manufactures - (a branch of business carried on almost exclusively in England, - which illustrate, very strikingly, the great capabilities of these materials. The articles are of much variety, including fabrics composed of alpaca with cotton warps, and with silk warps yarn-dyed, and dyed in the piece: they are plain, twilled, figured, and Chinés, or made with printed warps. There are, also, goods composed of mohair with similar combinations. All are characterised by peculiar lustre and brilliancy, equal in many cases to silk; they are also remarkable for regularity of texture, softness, and fineness. It may be confidently stated that similar goods have never before been produced; and the great increase in the consumption of articles of this description among all classes of the community, renders the display an interesting and important one. Mr. Salt was one of the first to introduce alpaca wool into the Bradford trade, and by his enterprise and skill has mainly contributed to the extent and perfection which this department of industry has attained. In addition to the articles already mentioned, Mr. Salt exhibits an assortment of moreens used for furniture hangings; one series being made from English wool, and the other from the Russian Donskoi fleece wool. Both are worthy of notice for the perfection of their manufacture; the latter, especially so, considering the difficulties in the way of successfully working up so coarse a material, which had never been combed prior to Mr. Salt having effected that object. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 11 Not quite ‘Salt before Saltaire’… After Salts Mill was built, Titus Salt and Sons Co maintained a 53 warehouse at Well Street in the centre of Bradford which was close to, and to the SW of, St Peters Church/Bradford Cathedral (see 54 map, right ) In 1861, we know that Salts shared number 30 with several other firms, including the Fosters of Black Dyke Mill (see 55 below) . 56 Below right is 30 Well Street today though the buildings pictured 57 are likely to be those designed by Eli Milnes in ~1865 . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 12 Part 2: The Salts’ Early Years in Bradford In this, and Part 3, I will now try to make sense of the evidence presented so far. Titus Salt at William Rouse and Sons and Daniel Salt and Son 58 As we have seen , Daniel Salt, woolstapler and Titus’s father, moved to Bradford around 1820. Reynold says that his office 59 was in Market Street . Titus probably came to Bradford in 1820 and worked for the Rouses before joining his father’s firm two years later. It seems reasonable to assume that the 17-year-old Titus lived with his family at their house, no doubt the one on North Parade where we know Daniel and Grace were living 60 when they first arrived and where they 61 were still living in 1829 . After their marriage in 1829, Titus and Caroline took a house in North Parade, quite near his parents. By 1836, they were living at the junction of Thornton Road and Little Horton Lane. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 13 In 1823, Daniel and his brother bought land. In this same year, there is a reference to Daniel purchasing land in Cheapside, and he is 62 said to have built a small warehouse in Cross Street . It seems likely that these all refer to just one land purchase, by the Salt brothers, in one location: as the map (right) shows, Cross Street and Cheapside are connected. Daniel is recorded as working at number 20 Cheapside in 1829. Nine other woolstaplers and many other trades were amongst his 63 64 neighbours . By 1845 , when he had been retired for ~11 years, his company “Salt, Daniel and Son, worsted spinners” was at Lilly 65 Croft Mill, Manningham , with a warehouse in Piccadilly. This warehouse seems to have been built well before 1845 and was his major business location. I suspect this was the warehouse which Reynolds says “was one of the largest in Bradford at the time”. We can be confident that Daniel’s son Titus would have been familiar with all of these locations. William Rouse and Sons, the company that Titus joined, was well established. In 1815, they already had a factory, at Canal 66 Side. When Titus joined, the company was “rapidly rising into prosperity” . This was Bradford boomtime and by 1824 the Rouses would be building a further mill, Bradford’s 18th. It too was at Canal Side. This place name appears to refer to the Bradford end of the Bradford Canal where there are four locations linked to their firm. These are Canal Road, Holdsworth Street, Commercial Street and North Brook Street, the latter three being streets near the canal’s terminus and close to Bradford city centre. All three adjoined Canal Road, a major thoroughfare which still exists today. Titus must have spent much of his two Rouse years at Canal Side which was only a 10 minute walk from his North Parade home. He may also have worked at Old Market (the company’s office?), in effect the junction of Westgate and Kirkgate, right in the centre of the city and only 5 minutes from home. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 14 Titus retained a great regard both for the Hammonds and William Rouse jr. Early in his solo career he offered John Hammond a partnership. Later, when the Rouse family were at war, he put his own money on the line to secure significant Rouse property for Rouse jr, who then brought John Hammond into partnership. The Salts’ Congregational Chapels 67 “On coming to Bradford, [Titus Salt’s] family connected themselves with Horton Lane Chapel” says Balgarnie and for both 68 Daniel and Titus, this was not mere churchgoing. Both were very active lay members of congregations that became pivotal in Bradford’s political and municipal development. Both chapels were cornerstones of their Bradford lives. (Little) Horton Lane Congregational Chapel (?1782 - ~1960s) Little Horton Lane Congregational Chapel was opened in 1782 and demolished in the 1960's. Glyde House (below left) was originally the 69 Sunday School with the Chapel immediately to its north-east . 70 A rare image of the church is on the right , looming above Queen Victoria’s statue. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 15 Salem Chapel (built 1834-6) “The increase of the congregation in Horton Lane Chapel and the consequent insufficiency of accommodation had been long felt before, in 1835, a new chapel was resolved on. The building was opened in 1836, by sermons from Rev. R. W. Hamilton, 71 Theophilus Lessey, and Dr. Raffles. The cost of the building was about £7,000” . “Salem Chapel opened in 1835 and among 72 its first members were the Salts…” . At the junction of Manor Row and Salem Street, Salem Chapel is now Kenburgh House. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 16 Part 3: Titus Salt’s Bradford mills Thompson’s Mill This was the Salt family’s first mill, the location of Daniel Salt and Son’s spinning department. Whilst it was the first mill that they used, there’s no evidence that they owned it. The date of the Salts’ move to Thompson’s is not known, but Reynolds says it was probably around 1829 - and it was certainly before 1834 because that was when Edward Salt joined the family firm at 73 this same mill. Around 1835, Titus left both the firm and Thompson’s Mill . Curiously, I have not been able to find ‘Thompson’s Mill’ on any Bradford maps. Nor does it appear in the many lists that name, and then explain in some detail, the location of mills that are often of much less historical significance than Thompson’s 74. However our search for Thompson’s gets a helping hand from the sources quoted above and from Cudworth’s piece on the history of Thompson’s below. The mill was 75 • on Silsbridge Lane, Bradford 76 • at Goitside, Thornton Road, Bradford 77 • at the Goitside 78 • on the piece of land between Silsbridge Lane and the mill goit 79 • in the fields on the high side of the Goit . These references are not at odds. The goit runs along land with a pronounced incline. Silsbridge Lane was on the high side of the goit. However, the distance between goit and Lane is over 150m in most places 80 so the mill could have been situated some distance from the Lane – and actually much nearer to another significant thoroughfare, Thornton Road. Whilst our sources are not identifying the location of the mill precisely, the area in which it will be found is clear and it is not large. Moreover we have a detailed description of the mill’s origins. William Cudworth - the local historian writing about C19th Bradford in the C19th - identifies Thompson’s Mill in his Round About Bradford and tells its story. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 17 Matthew and Benjamin Thompson were the sons of the Rev. John Thompson, incumbent of Castleford… At about the 81 ages of fourteen and twelve respectively, the brothers Matthew and Benjamin were sent to Bradford , there to take part in the active business of life, being entrusted to the care of their uncle, Mr. Benjamin Peile, who was a dyer. To this business Matthew Thompson was brought up, while his brother Benjamin was apprenticed with Mr. Richard Fawcett to the worsted trade. That business, which has since so conduced to Bradford's greatness, was, however, then in the "day of small things." [sic] The work, such as it was, was done by hand, and there was not a single factory in the town! In 1798 Messrs. Ramsbotham & Co. erected one in Thornton Road of fifteen-horse power, and three years after one was erected in the Holme for Mr. Richard Fawcett. In 1803 the brothers Thompson, having acquired a knowledge sufficient to justify them in "setting up" business, commenced worsted spinning in partnership with their uncle in a mill built for them by Mr. Peile, who, being a bachelor, had in a measure adopted them, and chose this mode of furthering the interests of his charge. The mill was of twenty-horse power, and was situate in the fields on the high side of the Goit. These premises, still called Thompson's Mill [in 1876], have been greatly extended by the present owner, Mr. M. W. Thompson 82 . There is much overlap here with what is said in the Goitside Conservation Area Assessment. Not surprising, because Cudworth is a much-quoted, unique and trusted source. But the Assessment adds that “… Thompson’s Mill is likely to have been the second mill built in Bradford” and not the third as Cudworth implies. Early historian John James certainly identifies Thompson’s 83 Mill as second which makes it historically significant. And the fact that the mill was so early means that, if there are maps of the early 1800s when Bradford was very small and large factories were few and far between, we are likely to gather some helpful prompts from them. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 18 This is from a map of Bradford 84 dated 1800 . Silsbridge Lane is marked 1, the “MILL RACE OR 85 GOIT” 2, and Bradford Beck 3 . On Silsbridge Lane, there are a few buildings. On the top side of the goit, there’s a solitary building (or buildings?) G, and a further building or buildings B on the Beck. We will explore Thompson’s Shed next but at this stage note that its future site shares with G a distinctive rectangular parcel of land, most likely a farm field and perhaps, “the piece of land between Silsbridge Lane and the mill goit” referred to in the Goitside Conservation Area 86 Assessment ? Reader, please note… This map and its numbers/letters will be referred to again later. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 19 Thompson Shed In the evidence presented above, no mention is made of Thompson Shed – but since we have so little to go on to pin-point Thompson’s Mill, the name ‘Thompson’ and the location of the Shed cannot be ignored. It is a large building which is named on the 1908 25” OS 87 map . It stood on Silsbridge Lane, by this time re-named 88 as Grattan Road. What do we know about the Shed? Not much, though a couple of sources identify it 89 as a mill . And we know (from the ~1800 map) that it shares the same, distinctive, rectangular parcel of land as G - but the Shed was not there in ~1800 whilst G was. 90 On this 1908 map, G (immediately south of the Shed) is identified as “Woollen Mills” . The original parcel of land stretched from the Lane to the goit, the line of which is here named (in the tiniest of letters) as “GOIT SIDE”. The parcel would likely have been purchased as a unit and therefore there’s a chance that the Shed and the building immediately to its south originally had 91 common ownership . We may be closing in on the location of Thompson’s Mill! SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 20 Because it (uniquely?) features Thompson’s Shed, we have already looked at the 1908 OS map. Now we need to look at an 92 earlier OS map (~1850 ) to see what this area was like when Salt’s entire business was located in Bradford. The area is heavily urbanised, much changed since ~1800. The known location of Thompson Shed (red block, on Silsbridge Road in green) is occupied by several buildings which are not identified. Immediately to the south of that red block is B, Thompson’s Mill. It is labelled Mill with what I take to be Wor, an abbreviation for 93 ‘worsted’. Also worthy of note on this map is a mill immediately across the goit to the south of Thompson’s Mill (B). Watch out for WS below! SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 21 “Salt and his father had started a spinning department of their wool stapling business, using rooms in 94 Thompson’s Mill at Goitside, Thornton Road, Bradford” The Saltaire Collection’s website gives “Goitside, Thornton Road” as the location of Thompson’s Mill. In Salt’s day the course of Thornton Road was much as it is now - between the 95 goit 2 and Bradford Beck 3 . No doubt the Collection found this address in John James’ list (on the right) identifying all the 96 mills that existed in Bradford in 1833 . James has the “SITUATION” of Matthew Thompson’s mill not on Silsbridge Lane but on “Thornton Road”. This is plausible because of what was said earlier. Silsbridge Lane is on the high side of the goit but the distance between goit and Lane is over 150m in most places. So Thompson’s Mill may have been situated some distance from the Lane. Indeed, if it were on the goit itself, the mill would have been closer to Thornton Road than to the Lane. This adds weight to the proposition that the solitary building or buildings at location G on the goit itself on that very early (1800) map, is Thompson’s Mill. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 22 Holme Mill: Bradford’s first There appears to be no connection between Salt and Bradford’s first mill, Holme Mill, but whilst undertaking this research it was difficult not to discover information about Holme. And as it happens, that information may help us to firm up the location of Thompson’s Mill. James’ list of mills (copied above) is spectacularly unhelpful in identifying where Holme Mill was. Holme Mill’s “SITUATION” is said to be ‘Holme Mill’! But James also tells us that “the land adjoining between the Mill-race and the Beck was anciently called the Holme (signifying a piece of 97 ground enclosed by water) [sic]” . “Enclosed by water” does not describe location G: there is no water to the north of G. But it does describe B which sits on the Beck with the goit to the north. Unfortunately, that conflicts with what the Assessment says: that “Holme Mill, the first factory in Bradford, was constructed alongside 98 the goit” . However, the Assessment is in turn contradicted by a further source, a list of mills which supplies co-ordinates for what it believes is the 99 actual location of Holme Mill . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 23 The left-hand image applies those co- ordinates, the blue teardrop pin-pointing the alleged mill site. Note that it is south of Thornton Road and on the Beck not the goit. But then the Assessment says that “Holme Mill was constructed by Messrs Ramsbottom [sic], Swaine and Murgatroyd in 1800, close 100 to the present Holmfield Street” and, as the right-hand map shows, that suggests Holme Mill’s location is north of Thornton Road! The right-hand map also shows that there are two ‘Holme’ streets. Westholme Street is south of Thornton Road and close to the Beck. Moreover, ‘close to the present Westholme Street’ is consistent with the location shown on the left-hand map. It seems to me that the blue teardrop is likely 101 to give the best indication of Holme Mill’s actual location not least because of the existence on the ~1800 map of a literally outstanding building (B) in exactly that position – and no building at all in the location favoured by the Assessment. Metaphorically outstanding too. Bradford’s first mill would surely have a claim to a place on that map. But perhaps the most telling evidence for the Assessment being wrong is that, fixed to the Culture Fusion building (see right- 102 hand map above), there is a heritage plaque commemorating Holme Mill ! Having rejected some of its account, I am not above cherry-picking one further Assessment statement which sounds plausible: “Following [the building of Holme Mill] a number of mills, factories and foundries, along with associated housing, were 103 constructed in the vicinity” . And if Bradford’s second mill, Thompson’s was located at G, it would appear to be very much “in the vicinity”. 104 G is only ~125m from Holme . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 24 Thompson’s Mill continued: “when [Salt’s firm] was still based in Bradford proper”, “Thompson’s Mill, and consequently the goitside, had a strong association with Titus Salt. The weaving shed to the south of the goit 105 provided room and power for the weaving department” This statement has the potential to give us the final piece of the Thompson’s Mill jigsaw. The Assessment indicates that part of Thompson’s Mill - the weaving shed - was south of the goit. This is plausible, not least because the 1852 OS map on the right shows there is a large building (marked WS by me on this extract to the right) south of the original site of Thompson’s Mill (G). It stands between the goit and Thornton Road. If Thompson’s had the need to expand, what better than doing so next door? There is therefore this possibility: that in the early 1830s, the spinning department of Daniel Salt and Son was located in Thompson’s Mill (G) and that, at a later unknown date, Titus Salt’s company occupied the building (WS) next door to Thompson’s Mill for the purposes of weaving. After ‘discovering’ this, I found that others had gone before me: [Thompson's Mill] was built over two separate periods, the first, a worsted spinning mill was built to the North of the mill goit and commenced production in 1803. The second half was a worsted weaving shed and built [later] to the South of the spinning mill on the opposite side of the mill goit… [Titus Salt] leased part of Thompson's spinning mill, whilst working for his fathers [sic] business, and successfully spun the [Donskoi] wool…Eventually he would spin it under his own name at Hollings Mill…, his first mill when he went into business on his own account following his father’s retirement in 1834…Titus went on to weave worsted cloth at Thompson's Mill weaving shed under a 'Room and Power' agreement before eventually moving his entire workforce out of Bradford to the new model industrial village of 106 Saltaire... . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 25 107 Moreover, the 1852 OS town plan of Bradford seals the deal as it were. Both ‘Thompson’s Mill (Worsted)’ and ‘Thompson’s Mill (Worsted) Weaving Shed’ are marked on either side of the goit, and even more important ‘Thompson’s Buildings’ is splashed north to south along the rectangular parcel of land. It could not be much clearer that, earlier in the century and/or late in the last, the Thompson dynasty purchased the lot as they became key players in the founding of Worstedopolis. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 26 Thompson’s Mill: Summary We now return to the ~1800 map with a cartographic summary of what has been found. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 27 Thompson’s Mill: A researcher’s lament I started the Thompson’s section of these notes with this statement: Curiously, I have not been able to find ‘Thompson’s Mill’ on any Bradford maps. Nor does it appear in the many lists that name, and then explain in some detail, the location of mills that are often of much less historical significance than Thompson’s. As a result, I have spent a great deal of time using multiple scraps of information to identify the mill’s location to my satisfaction. As soon as that was completed, a fellow local historian wrote to me about the goit. Rose Reeve included a document in which 108 she described what she found when walking the goit west to east in 2012 . And when she reached the neighbourhood of Tetley Street, formerly Prospect Street, the western boundary of that early C19th, small, rectangular parcel of land, she recorded this: At Soho Street walk down to Thornton Road, turn left, and then left again into Tetley Street, where the other end of the gated stretch [of the goit] can be found. Opposite this is the site of Thompson’s Mill, which burned down in October 2011. This site is being demolished and cleared, and the works have exposed a length of the goit between Tetley Street and the NCP car park which is at the top of Goit Side. The goit is gated at Tetley Street The goit is visible on the Thompson’s Mill site SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 28 So author Rose not only visited Thompson’s Mill (G, on the high side of the goit) in 2012 but (unlike me) she knew precisely where Thompson’s Mill was – and that it had been destroyed in 2011. This in turn led to further searches, this time for images of Thornton’s Mill . And what a bonanza, starting with a heritage plaque! Photographer Mark Davis took a series of photos just before arson assassinated G 109.The plaque was on the northern side of 110 the mill, on Sunbridge Road . Mark’s interior photos paint a vivid picture of the workplaces that launched Bradford on the road to Worstedopolis. And you are looking at an actual room in which young Titus embarked on the road to legendary status! In this image, Thompson’s is the taller, darker building to the left. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 29 111 And finally, a fellow historian then drew to my attention a 1936 aerial view of Goitside on which I was able to identify Thompson’s Mill (G) and show it in a context which will be reasonably familiar to today’s Bradfordians. The other features in the photo are • three principal streets, 1 Grattan Road (formerly Silsbridge Lane) 2 Sunbridge Road 3 Thornton Road • and two significant buildings that still exist, O the Odeon cinema, now re-purposed as Bradford Live WW Woolston Warehouse (now flats). For non-Bradfordians, the Odeon is very much part of central Bradford. Its frontage (to the right in the photo) is at the very end of Thornton Road and you can walk from there to City Hall in less than 4 minutes. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 30 In search of Union Street… “In 1836 he took over a large mill in Union Street, whose previous owner had been Daniel Illingworth” “[Titus Salt] added a larger factory in Union Street… Trade grew so rapidly under his hands that in a few years he was carrying on, not only the two mills above mentioned [Thompson’s and Union Street], but also Hollings’ Mill, Brick Lane Mill, and one in Fawcett Court” 112 “He quickly acquired further premises in or near Hope Street” Union Street features three times in James’ list of Bradford’s oldest mills. These include the third oldest in Bradford 113 (construction started 1807), the eleventh (1818), and finally one in 1830 . It seems clear that it is this last Union Street mill that Titus Salt occupied. It was built and initially occupied by Illingworth and Murgatroyd. Salt had strong political connections 114 with both . 115 Reynolds says that the premises in Union Street became “the headquarters of a rapidly increasing alpaca empire” . 116 Ibbetson’s 1845 directory confirms Salt to be at Union Street in that year . In 1856, an advertisement in the Bradford Observer shows Salt offering some of these 117 premises “TO BE LET” . This indicates that a significant amount of Union Street property - an 80 horse power factory, “extensive warehouses” and a “large new” warehouse - was owned by Salt. The last two premises were “lately in the occupation of Messrs. Titus Salt, Sons and Company”. So now we have evidence that, 3 years after the completion of the mill at Saltaire, Salt had “lately” been operating a mill and 118 warehouses in Bradford. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 31 Not only that but the advert makes clear that ‘Union Street’ was big, and the maps of the time suggest that the term ‘Union Street’ may well have been used to refer to part or all of a large, more or less self-contained, industrial estate. On this extract from the 1852 OS town map Bradford 119, I have outlined it in yellow. It was big enough to include: 3 worsted mills at least 3 chimneys warping rooms 8 combing rooms a sorting room a wash house 2 weighing machines 2 reservoirs a cistern a boiler shed a timber yard stables and a large building called Bolton’s Place, plus the Neptune Inn and the Sion 120 chapel and school! This map also reinforces that ‘Union Street’ was very close to other Salt mills - at Fawcett Court (F), Nelson Street (N), and 121 “in or near Hope Street” (H) . It was also close to Titus Salt’s family house in the 1830s (in the area marked TS) and his 122 beloved (Little) Horton Lane Chapel (HC) . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 32 But Union Street may have had even greater significance for Salt than simply being his Bradford HQ. In May 1845, the Bradford Woolcombers Society set up a committee to report on their trade’s housing conditions. In June 1845, the Bradford Observer wrote about the meeting at which the evidence was presented 123. As can be seen from this cutting, it included references to Union Street and Nelson Court, locations closely connected with Salt - and its content was stark. The report had an immediate effect. Several prominent men called for a town meeting and from that a committee was established. Salt was a member. Regrettably, concerns over other matters, such as the proposed 10-hour Bill, were to steal the subsequent 124 headlines . But, for Salt, it was conditions like these that were a key factor in his migration to Saltaire – and most importantly, in the construction of a ‘model village’ which was the polar opposite of Bradford’s appalling conditions. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 33 125 Hollings’ Mill or Holling's Mill or Hollings Mill? Firstly, Hollings’ Mill. This version of the name is found in Balgarnie but elsewhere I have only been able to find references to Holling’s Mill and Hollings Mill. So, to Holling’s Mill. The location of this mill, north of Legrams Lane 126 (see map to left ), does not commend it as a Salt’s mill. It is in a very different part of town from the Union Street complex. 127 Thirdly, Hollings Mill, pictured right . This is highly significant in Titus Salt’s career as an entrepreneur: his first mill working on his own account. Moreover, as the 128 photo above shows, it still exists – the only Salt’s mill left in the City of Bradford! It is on Lower Grattan Road, ie part of . 129 what was Silsbridge Lane, the latter being the “SITUATION” quoted by James . If more evidence were needed, the area it inhabits adds to the conviction that this is the Hollings Mill used by Salt. It is in Goitside, sitting only 0.5m from those Salt’s mills in Bradford the locations of which we can identify with some confidence. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 34 The view of Hollings Mill above, seen from Lower Grattan Road, belies its size. The mill is uphill from Thornton Road, and looking at it from there (right) shows it to be very large indeed. However, the mill has changed significantly since the mid-C19th. The 1852 OS map of Silsbridge Lane (above) suggests that the western end of this complex was not the rectangular building we see here. And there is a problem with this being a Salt’s mill, in 1845 at least. Adolphus Tremel, stuff manufacturer and a resident of Eldon Place, occupied Hollings Mill in that year, which might suggest that Salt did not. Moreover, in that year, Salt is recorded in Ibbetson’s directory as 130 occupying Union Street and only Union Street . This does not seem plausible and a report in an 1849 edition of the Bradford Observer tells us that “The Workpeople of Mr. Titus Salt, at Holling’s Mill…” (and at Union Street Mills and Beecroft’s Mill) made donations to Bradford 131 Infirmary . In addition, we learn from the testimony of Henry Stolworthy that his father John was working for Salt at Hollings from ~1843 right through to ~1853. Moreover, Henry tells us that from 1843 his family actually “lived in the [Hollings] mill yard, and the keys of the mill used to be left at our house”. The Stolworthy/Salt link was not broken in ~1853. Both John and Henry went to 132 work at Saltaire and the family moved there . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 35 Brick Lane Mill 133 Brick Lane Mill, pictured right , is marked on the 1852 OS map below. Although close to Thornton Road, it was further out of Bradford than any of Salt’s mills, half a mile from Hollings, and just under a mile from Union Street. We have the two statements above indicating Salt used this mill – but there is no evidence in support of them. 134 Beecroft Mill I cannot find this mill. Could it be Beehive Mills? This was very close to both Hollings and Thompson’s, but it was not a Salt’s mill. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 36 Part 4: A Cartographic Summary of Titus Salt’s Bradford before Saltaire 135 This summary map can be viewed in greater detail by following the link in this endnote . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 37 THANKS and POSTSCRIPT Many people have helped me put this together. They include Derek Barker, Colin Coates, Mark Davis, Chris Hand, Mark Hill, Rose Reeve and Dave Shaw as well as the authors of the numerous books/booklets/websites etc that I’ve consulted. Thank you! A couple of issues arose as I learned more about Bradford in the C19th and, in an ideal world, they would have been tackled in these notes. The first is that there were innumerable warehouses in Bradford at the time and that they were of considerable importance. For example, woolstaplers like Daniel Salt were key players in the city’s textile industry and operated from warehouses, not mills. But (as we have seen) the great millowners like Salt also had warehouses. In the case of Salts Mill which was a vertical mill – meaning it encompassed all the clothmaking processes - warehousing was a feature of the mill itself, and I can’t imagine that was any different to a very significant number of the later, second and third generation mills. The second issue that I haven’t tackled is the multi-occupation of mills, and warehouses for that matter. It’s common to come across mills in multi-occupation – and that links to a further issue: that use and ownership are not one and the same. James knew this: it is reflected in his table of the earliest of mills which includes an ‘Occupied by’ column. And it has become clear to me that, as the C19th progressed, many entrepreneurs went into industrial property – and that included buildings factories specifically to rent. It would also be valuable to identify those locations that were of significance to the public Salt… the philanthropist, the campaigner, the mayor, the MP etc etc. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 38 APPENDIX: THE BRADFORD GOIT AND GOITSIDE The Bradford goit or mill race is a fascinating feature that makes an appearance several times in our search for Salt’s Bradford mills. It deserves its own section in this story. The goit is mediaeval in origin. Its purpose was to redirect water from Bradford Beck to power the water wheels of one or more manorial water 136 mills. The ‘soke mill’ which was later called Queen’s Mill “stood above Aldermanbury for centuries”. This was in the very heart of old, and new, Bradford. Remarkably, given C19th Bradford’s dramatic urbanisation, it was not until 1870 that Bradford Corporation bought out the feudal rights from the Ladies of the Manor, Mary and Elizabeth Rawson. The 137 138 mill was only demolished in 1871 . This 1828 map shows a building clearly marked ‘Soke Mill’. However, Industrial Heritage Online says that there was a fulling mill alongside – and we shall see later that this is correct. The map shows the tailrace returning water back to the Beck. And it is, I think, unique both in identifying the mill’s dam and that the 139 Soke Mill was built on the mill pond . SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 39 Unfortunately for the researcher wishing to present a consistent picture, two other maps from the period just before and after 140 the Soke Mill was demolished, do not fit neatly with the 1828 map . 141 The left-hand map shows the ‘Queen’s Mills’ to include ‘worsted’ and ‘corn’ which confirms there were two mills. However, it is difficult to work out the relationship between mills and mill race/goit. The ‘Soke Mills’ map to the 142 right shows the mills below the wide ‘Soke Mill Goit’ which looks to be the dam on the earlier map. It is not known precisely when the first water mill was built in Bradford but the manor’s accounts show repairs were made to a 143 mill in 1295 . It is plausible that the mill was built in the C13th since in 1246 Edmund de Lacy obtained a charter for holding a market. This was ratified in 1251 and thus Bradford gained manorial status. With that came feudal rights, for example the right of the lord to have a ‘soke mill’, a cereal-milling monopoly. The 1277 inquisition for the Hundred Rolls does not mention 144 a mill . This evidence implies that the first mill may have been built between ~1280 and ~1290. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 40 Within ancient Bradford, I’m not aware of any water mill locations other than that above Aldermanbury. Nor of any that get their power directly from the Beck. So if there were a mill in that location in ~1280 to ~1290, it was presumably getting its water power from the goit – which must therefore be a C13th century creation. The early existence of two mills supports that. 145 By the 1311 inquisition, there was a ‘water mill’ and a fulling mill in the parish of Bradford and Empsall agrees that by the 146 C14th there were two mills, one for corn and the other for fulling cloth . This challenges the proposition by Ared and Brown that the goit was constructed to power a mill built around 1530 in Millergate, ie above Almondbury. The prior existence of two 147 mills suggests that the goit was constructed much earlier and it seems probable that the 1530 creation could be a 148 replacement . After all, the original mill was likely to have been over 200 years old. The goit was (is!) more than 800m in 149 length and as we have seen above, the ~1800 map of Bradford shows it clearly as it largely runs through farmland. But even as Bradford grew exponentially, it could still be recognised as the 1852 OS map shows. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 41 Today, it has been swamped by buildings, culverted over virtually all of its length, and many stretches have been gated and rendered inaccessible . But its route can still be seen occasionally as this GoogleMaps satellite image shows. The top middle car park has been identified as the former location of 150 Thompson’s Shed and the aerial shot exposes the line of the ancient goit in the blocks to the south and south-west of the Shed site - and 151 especially on the grass in the southern block , the upper part of which was the site of Thompson’s Mill (G). But this exposure is unusual. More numerous and obvious indications of the goit’s route are the streets, ginnels, boundaries and building lines that pay homage to a feature that may be 800 years old. One example which can also be seen on this map is ‘the top of the T’ in the T-shaped street called Goit Side. That top aligns almost perfectly with the goit’s route. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 42 ENDNOTES and REFERENCES 1 Don’t be afraid to get in touch with the author with comments. Additions, criticisms and corrections will be welcomed. Email les.brook@yahoo.com 2 http://www.mark-davis-photography.com/explore/thompsons-mill-bradford/. Big thanks to Mark for allowing me to use his excellent photos. The image to the right is of Thompson’s Mill. Read on and all will be revealed! 3 Balgarnie’s Salt with commentary and additions by BARLO & SHAW 2003 p28. The original publication date of Balgarnie’s book – Sir Titus Salt Baronet His Life and Lessons - was 1877. 4 Edward Baines Baines’ Directory: History, Directory & Gazetteer of Yorkshire Vol. I: West Riding 1822 p155. A woolstapler (or wool-stapler) was a dealer in wool. 5 David King Who was your grandmother, Titus, and when did you arrive in Bradford? https://saltairevillage.info/saltaire_history_0070_Debunking_myths_concerning_Sir_Titus_Salt_050620.html. I think David may be wrong to assume Titus “arrived with his parents”. I also think there is no evidence for the 1820 arrival of the entire family, and good reason to think that Titus might have been otherwise engaged: in 1820, he was 17 years of age and recently employed by a Mr Jackson in Wakefield. 6 Pigot and co.'s national commercial directory for 1828-9: extracts to be found at https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Bradford/Bradford29Dry 7 The locations in red in these early, reference pages are those I will seek to identify. I return to each of them later. 8 Jack Reynolds The Great Paternalist Titus Salt and the Growth of Nineteenth-Century Bradford 1983 p47 John Reynolds, always known affectionately as Jack, was one of the most highly respected of Bradford's twentieth-century local historians. Keith Laybourn Jack Reynolds (1915-1988) First published in 1991 in volume 5, pp. 91-93, of the third series of The Bradford Antiquary, the journal of the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society https://www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/reynolds.html 9 Ibid p70 10 Balgarnie op cit p58 11 Ibbetson's General and Classified Directory of the Borough of Bradford 1845 p71 SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 43 12 Website of the Saltaire Collection https://www.saltairecollection.org/portfolio-item/sir-titus-salt-1803-1876/ 13 The goit and Goitside will appear many times in these notes. A goit or mill race is a small artificial channel carrying water taken from a stream or river. This water is then used (usually in mills or factories) for power and/or for water-hungry processes like washing raw wool. In the present case, ‘the goit’ is a specific channel from Bradford Beck at a point to the west of the centre of Bradford. It passed through an area that became known as Goitside. See the APPENDIX for more, including a map. 14 On the Saltaire Collection’s website, this information is presented without a reference so the sequence of mills may not be accurate. 15 William Cudworth Round about Bradford A Series of Sketches 1876 p310 16 Balgarnie op cit p46. On this page, Barlo and Shaw have a footnote. In summary, they observe that an ~1854 map by Rapkin (in Bradford libraries’ Local Studies department) shows the location of all the mills mentioned in the extract. They go on to indicate these locations in broad terms. I failed to spot this before embarking on my research but have rectified that mistake by contacting the department. I’m told in an email from them that on the map catalogued at BRA 1854 RAP “there are no specific mills indicated or mill names”. 17 James Burnley A Yorkshire Colony in All The Year Round Vol.5 Charles Dickens (ed) January 21 1871 p185. Burnley was a prolific Bradford writer working in the second half of the C19th and contributing many articles to local newspapers. Amongst other books, he wrote Sir Titus Salt And George Moore. https://biblio.co.uk/james-burnley/author/79834 18 Bradford Observer 19 July 1849 and 23 August 1849 19 This letter appeared in the Halifax Guardian on 20 January 1849 but refers to its previous publication in the Bradford Observer 20 1851 Collinson, Burton & Co’s West Riding worsted directory https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dple2AjuarcC&pg=PA363&dq=samuel+ellis+ossett+cloth+manufacturer&hl=en&sa=X& ved=0ahUKEwjxvPOlz8rpAhUQM8AKHYIgBXk4HhC7BQhDMAM#v=onepage&q=samuel%20ellis%20ossett%20cloth%20manuf acturer&f=false 21 Reynolds op cit pp 41 onwards 22 Reynolds follows Balgarnie’s lead 23 Later, we’ll see that Reynolds got this wrong. It was Daniel’s father who supported the purchase. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 44 24 It seems very likely that Cheapside and Cross Street refer to the same location. On the 1852 OS map, Cross Street runs at a right angle, eastwards from Cheap Side. 25 But which one of his warehouses was the largest? 26 Reynolds op cit p47 says the marriage was in 1829 but Balgarnie says 21 August 1830 (op cit p43). It was 1829. 27 Reynolds op cit p47 28 Thompson identifies Salt’s first employer as “Jo Jackson”, “an important woolstapler”, who had a warehouse in King Street. W J Thompson (ed) A Brief Guide to the Industrial Heritage of West Yorkshire (1989). Joseph Jackson appears in Baines's Directory and Gazetteer Directory of 1822 which can be found at https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Wakefield/Wakefield22Dry 29 Balgarnie op cit p 30: “For his practical knowledge of wool-sorting he was chiefly indebted to John and James Hammond, two brothers, in the employment of the firm. He once acknowledged this in our hearing, when the name of Hammond was mentioned. “It was John Hammond,” he said, “who taught me to sort wool.” As evidence of the value attached to the services of these two brothers, by the firm, they were both remembered in Mr. John Rouse’s will, and one became afterwards a partner in the business”. Balgarnie op cit claims that the Hammond connection continued after he left the Rouses to join his father’s business, Salt frequently travelled to buy wool: “To him was entrusted the duty of attending the public wool sales in London and Liverpool, and effecting purchases from farmers in Norfolk and Lincolnshire, after the season of sheep-clipping. John Hammond, who travelled on behalf of the Rouse’s [sic], was frequently his companion in these journeys, and his judgment was sought in any emergency” p31. Little wonder then that, not long after Titus left his father’s firm, he “made overtures to John Hammond to join him in partnership… But these overtures were respectfully declined on the ground that the Rouses having always treated him with kindness and liberality, he must remain in their employment as long as he lived. It was in Garraway’s coffee rooms, London, that these two early friends had the interview for the consideration of the above proposal, which ended by Mr. Titus Salt saying “Well, John, I am going into this alpaca affair right and left, and I’ll either make myself a man or a mouse” ”. Balgarnie op cit p49. 30 Titus Salt’s son Edward would marry Sarah Amelia Rouse, daughter of William. 31 John James History of the Worsted Manufacture in England 1857 [hereafter James 1857] available free at https://archive.org/stream/historyofworsted00jame/historyofworsted00jame_djvu.txt James’s list of mills and his comments on that list will be referenced throughout these notes, often in detail. On p 592 of James 1857, he uses the words “wrought by steam” to describe the mills in the list. The table and comments are repeated in other James books and other editions of these books. His The History of Bradford and its Parish 1866 [hereafter James 1866] is particularly useful. Can be downloaded from SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 45 https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qad8i94XjtYAeaOC2lCkeNs5i9DsMTChudW5WRrylteALUEiOjFY fONSlGJACoiKv0XDDqH2N5iz8DhJaq_lmy7bRiOcFmB1VkRRMv_- NYhdcYQ2hkL059rn_201QMQv0xMc1x3UOP0C12T5TZ0x9etfkwTRdlFc-77zKnM_Ls7- jXr06EPLHbqLgeUjm9hOVrtLVDvjcEHazQOmvkUpHfKIon8sRMSar8LDaTbOZ8HwPQ4jlh_NksrwySeR1GzZnjrmhRGaFA8IakbG- lVXB6BrHoiqzVqhZt1_vC1prHqnbtNWMYQ 32 Pigot op cit 33 Baines op cit p157. ‘Inn houses’ refers to the pubs that they used for business meetings 34 James 1857 p605 35 Pigot op cit. Commercial Street no longer exists but it appears to follow the route of today’s Valley Road, to the east of Forster Square station and sharing a junction with Canal Road. Very close to many other Rouse addresses. 36 https://bradfordlocalstudies.wordpress.com/tag/industry/ 37 Ibbetson’s op cit p70 and p131 38 Mill Street was parallel to Commercial Street and only metres away. Holdsworth Street was very close and all shared a junction with Canal Road 39 Eastbrook House was located east of Bradford Cathedral and close to the extant Paper House. With extensive grounds, it is clearly major and is probably the grandest house close to the city centre. It stands out on the 1852 OS map. For more, see https://bradfordunconsideredtrifles.wordpress.com/2018/04/11/eastbrook-house/ 40 Catherine Thackray Brunswick Place – Bradford A study based on the Census 1841 to 1881 in The Bradford Antiquary 1986. Available at http://www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/brunswick.html. It is unclear in Thackray’s account which of the Rouse mills was being auctioned. 41 https://bradfordunconsideredtrifles.wordpress.com/tag/bradford/ 42 Reynolds op cit pp 69 on 43 Bradford Metropolitan District Council Goitside Conservation Area Assessment (hereafter, BMDC GCAA) 2005 https://www.bradford.gov.uk/media/3237/goitsideconservationareaassessment.pdf 44 This is incorrect. It was built by Bradford Beck as we shall see later. 45 In James 1866, it is also reported that “in 1798 Messrs. Ramsbotham , Swaine, and Murgatroyd erected [a worsted mill] in the “Holme.” [sic] The engine which supplied the propelling force was of fifteen horses' power”. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 46 46 George Sheeran The Buildings of Bradford: An Illustrated Architectural History 2005 47 This is not an explicit statement that the weaving shed was part of Thompson’s Mill – but I think that is implied 48 The table and the statements made on this page are from James 1857 pp605-606 unless stated otherwise 49 James 1866 op cit p161 50 XXX 51 Ibbetson's General and Classified Directory, Street List and History of Bradford, 1850 52 The full title of this document is Exhibition of The Works of Industry of All Nations 1851 Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided. London. Printed for the Royal Commission, by William Clowes & Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. MDCCCLII. Available online at https://library.si.edu/digital- library/book/reportsjurieson00grea 53 The Builder 19 February 1898 54 OS 1852 map. Image is from GoogleMaps 55 White’s Directory and Topography of the Borough of Bradford 1861 available at https://www.bradfordfhs.org.uk/_resources/tradedirectories/white-directory-for-bradford-1861.pdf 56 Image from GoogleMaps street view 57 See Bradford Heritage Trail at https://mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/YS- Brad/cms/pdf/Bradford%20Heritage%20Trail.pdf 58 See evidence presented earlier. In this section, I have duplicated some of the info already given but not all of the references 59 Baines op cit seems to confirm this 60 Reynolds op cit p42 61 Pigot’s op cit 62 Thackray op cit “Among the many Deeds relating to the Cousen & Thackray quarries is one of 1823 recording the sale of land to Titus Salt of Hunslet and his son, Daniel, grandfather and father of Sir Titus, respectively. The Salts had opened a small warehouse in Bradford in 1822”. It seems this transaction might have been for the Cheapside/Cross Street land. Thackray’s reference to Titus’s grandfather is a mistake. At this time, the grandfather would have been ~100 years old. The error probably occurred because the grandfather and Daniel’s brother were both called Titus. It was brother Titus who put money into the 1823 transaction. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 47 63 Pigot op cit 64 Ibbetson’s op cit p71 65 BMDC GCAA op cit “In 1837 Ellis Cunliffe Lister [father of the more famous Samuel Cunliffe Lister] built his last mill, a factory in Manningham, Manningham Mill (known as Lilly Croft Mill on some maps) for Lister and his elder brother John. Lister supervised the on site building and the quarrying of the stone from his father’s quarry at Daisy Hill. The mill opened in 1838 and had been fitted out by James Ambler who was made a partner with Lister and his brother John, the company being named Lister and Co. There are no clear records of what this mill looked like, although it was large by local standards…. Ellis Cunliffe Lister then built a row of 12 cottages to the east of the mill and a year later added another row facing onto Heaton Road …. The mill and two rows of housing are clearly visible on the Ordnance Survey Map published in 1852 as an island of development to the northwest of Manningham village”. See extract from 1852 OS map after the conclusion of these endnotes. 66 Balgarnie op cit p 30: “The manufactory of Messrs. Rouse and Son had commenced in 1815, and was rapidly rising into prosperity”. 67 Balgarnie op cit p32 68 Reynolds op cit pp 42 and 47 69 https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2669351/congregational-chapel 70 https://photos.bradfordmuseums.org/view-item?i=2402 71 https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Bradford/Bradford-SalemChapelCongChurch 72 Thackray op cit 73 There are some differences between the sources on which was the first mill Titus occupied when working on his own account. Balgarnie quoted above does not explicitly say that Titus struck out on his own and moved into Thompson’s, but that’s certainly implied. In the passage quoted at length above, Cudworth appears categorical - He accordingly commenced business as a spinner and manufacturer at Thompson's Mill. Since there is considerable agreement that Daniel Salt and Son started their spinning business at Thompson’s and that this was several years before Titus set up a business of his own, I’m inclined to think that Reynolds is right: Titus certainly worked for Daniel at Thompson’s but Hollings was the son’s first mill. 74 However ‘Thompson’s Shed’ does appear… more of that later 75 Balgarnie op cit 76 Website of the Saltaire Collection op cit and Cudworth op cit 77 Reynolds op cit SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 48 78 BMDC GCAA op cit 79 Cudworth op cit 80 Calculated using GoogleMaps 81 I have not found dates for these brothers – but the tale of their setting up business in a new mill in 1803 suggests that they may have been born around 1780. So they probably came to Bradford at the very start of its factory era. 82 Cudworth op cit pp424-425 83 James 1857 p606 84 From Bradford and District Libraries Map Collections https://bradfordlibrariesmap.wordpress.com/ and see Bradford Local Studies Library Local History from Maps and Plans at https://www.bradford.gov.uk/media/2926/local-history-from-maps-and- plans.pdf The map here was actually published much later than 1800 with some additions (notably, more buildings) but these do not alter the specific area in which we are interested. 85 I have marked the approximate route of Thornton Road which is not on the original map. This is odd because it surely existed by 1800 as it is on the Jefferey map of 1775. John Jefferey made the first large scale map of Yorkshire, published 1771-72. The map’s new edition of 1775 which I rely on is in the Bradford Local Studies Library. 86 BMDC GCAA op cit 87 This map contains the first (and only?) documentary mention of it. 88 This paragraph needs some qualifying (and perhaps further research). It is highly unlikely that this is one building. Firstly, because the map shows the outlines of several smaller buildings. Secondly, because we know that later maps show several buildings on the site, most if not all of which were built before this 1908 map. And thirdly, because the goit goes through the parcel of land, and certainly at a date most likely before 1908, there were two separate buildings above and below the goit. Why then does the map show a single building? Simply because it is a small scale map. So what was Thompson’s Shed? Probably a local name for a bundle of buildings on a distinct parcel of land that was owned by Thompson. 89 http://yorkshire.u08.eu/bradford/62494/ and https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=List_of_mills_in_Bradford&params=53.79476_N_1.75874_W_&tit le=Thompson+Shed 90 Given the dramatic developments in Bradford during the C19th, it is highly likely that the building on this map is not that on the 1800 map – and in any event the shapes of the buildings are different. On the 1893 6” OS map, the buildings that are here “Thompson’s Shed” and two “Woollen Mills” appear much the same as on this map but they are not named. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 49 91 I say “likely have been purchased as a unit” because of what I’ve learned from Ian Watson’s research published in The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt in 2011. Ian describes how one major capitalist (Salt), driving the transformation of agricultural into industrial land (in what became Saltaire), did so field by field. In Bradford, a ~1800 plan of the area (which we shall see later) shows the land south of Silsbridge Lane to be a patchwork of narrow rectangular fields, each stretching from north to south. 92 Published 1852 but surveyed from 1847 to 1850, ie it shows the area as it was before Salts Mill’s construction started. It is available from the National Museum of Scotland’s website, https://nls.uk/maps/. The town plan is especially large-scale and detailed. For Goitside, see Bradford Sheet 4 at https://maps.nls.uk/view/229405260 93 Though it does not prove or disprove anything, it is not possible to reconcile what we see here with James’s statement that Thompson’s Mill was built “at two different periods, being in fact two mills” – though later (on the 1908 map) two mills can certainly be seen on the original parcel of land. 94 12 See endnote 95 A very short stretch to the northwest does not run between them and beyond that, the road leaves both behind. 96 James 1857 p606. Whilst in this list Holme Mill is said to have been built in 1800, as we have seen elsewhere (James 1866) 1798 is also given. 97 James 1866 p288 98 BMDC GCAA op cit. My emphasis. 99 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mills_in_Bradford#Bradford 100 BMDC GCAA op cit. The 2007 BMDC Goitside Conservation Area Appraisal repeats the ‘near Holmfield Street’ proposition. 101 … and BMDC GCAA op cit was wrong when it stated that “the Holme Mill, the first factory in Bradford, was constructed alongside the goit”. 102 Sighting reported to me by Rose Reeve 103 BMDC GCAA op cit 104 Calculated using GoogleMaps 105 BMDC GCAA op cit 106 www.industrialhistoryonline.co.uk/yiho/shortform.php?Trans_ID=WYK02352 Note ‘leased’ - an indication that Salt did not own the mill. 107 https://maps.nls.uk/view/229405260 SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 50 108 Rose Reeve Tracing the Bradford Goit 2012. Unpublished report. 109 http://www.mark-davis-photography.com/explore/thompsons-mill-bradford/. Davis quotes from the Telegraph and Argus 10 October 2011: “A blaze which destroyed one of Bradford’s oldest mills was started deliberately, fire chiefs confirmed today. The fire ripped through the five storeys of Thompson Mill in Tetley Street, off Thornton Road, last week, leaving it so badly damaged that it had to be demolished. Traffic was brought to a standstill as firefighters fought the blaze last Tuesday night. Crews were able to prevent it spreading to nearby properties but could not save the mill”. 110 Personal communication from Mark Davis 111 Thanks go to Chris Hand. The photo can be found at https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW052165 112 These three quotations are included in earlier parts of this paper, and they are referenced there 113 Copied from the text above: “3.- Union Street mill, built by Mr Richard Fawcett, and occupied by him until about the year 1832. The mill built in 1830 adjoins to the other, and was erected by Messrs. Illingworth & Murgatroyd”. “11- Union Street mill was built by Messrs. Wroe and occupied by them”. James 1857 pp605-606 114 Based upon other research undertaken by myself. 1837 Dec 28 Bradford Observer (BO): death near Salt's dam in Union Street. 1838 Apr 19 BO: ref to death at work of washing machine engine tender in the employ of Messrs D Salt & Son in Union St. Caught in belts. 1839: room&power ad for Providence Mill by D Illingworth also mentions Edward Salt acting as one of assignees of bankrupt James Holdsworth. 1839: Salt's employees have Blaize 'do' at Union Street pub. 1851: "Titus Salt, Esq., it is rumoured, is about making most extensive improvements, in regard to his property in Union Street". 115 Reynolds op cit 116 Ibbetson's op cit: “Salt, Titus, Union street mill” and “Salt, Titus, spinner of mohair and alpacha [sic] yarns, and manufacturer of moreens, Union st. mill, res. Hipperholme [sic].” Hipperholme is very close to Salt’s beloved Crow Nest. 117 Bradford Observer 19 June 1856, 118 The advert also tells us that there are “TWO good PIECE ROOMS in Peel Place” to let. My guess is that a ‘piece room’ was a place where customers could inspect pieces of material produced by a textile firm. So, some years after his move to Saltaire, Salt was still keeping hold of this Bradford property too. But we knew that. See what was said about Well Street above – and after consulting the maps of the time, I have concluded that ‘Peel Place’ and ‘Well Street’ refer to the same location. 119 OS Bradford town map published 1852 but surveyed in 1848 120 I am not arguing that Salt occupied, let alone owned, the entire Union Street complex. Indeed, the 19 June 1856 ‘to let’ advert suggests just the opposite. SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 51 121 On this map, close to N and F, there are two images labelled ‘Worsted Mill’. It is tempting (and maybe correct) to identify these as Salt’s Nelson Street and Fawcett Court mills. 122 Reynolds op cit p42. The connection with this Chapel starts with Titus’s father. There are many other refs in Reynolds. 123 Reynolds op cit p126-127. I find the alleged speed of compiling/publishing the report unconvincing, but there is no doubt that it was published in June 1845. 124 Reynolds op cit p128 125 Hollings appears to be a well-established Airedale, landed-family name. It appears in Cudworth op cit on p102 (dated c1660) and on many other pages. It is closely associated with the Aire valley in locations including Shipley, Baildon and Cullingworth. In the 1800s, the Hollings were also linked to the worsted trade. Cudworth calls Hollins Hill, one of Baildon main roads, Hollings Hill, and https://www.bradford.gov.uk/media/2046/tongparkdamwalk.pdf tells us that close by it is Hollings Head. Later note: more or less parallel to Hollins Hill is a road called Old Hollings Hill. 126 https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=List_of_mills_in_Bradford&params=53.79308_N_1.77378_W_&tit le=Holling%E2%80%99s+Mill 127 The mill is identified by James as the 19th mill built in Bradford. James 1857 op cit p606. It dates from 1826 and was most likely the work of Thomas Hollings and Sons since James says they were occupying it in 1833. 128 … though it is highly likely to have been amended in the last ~170 years! 129 This location is also confirmed by https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=List_of_mills_in_Bradford&params=53.79441_N_1.76163_W_&tit le=Hollings+Mill and https://www.thebradfordsockcompany.co.uk/ 130 Ibbetson's op cit The directory offers a further variation on Hollings – Hollings’s. It also tells us that William Maud was the mill manager for “A. Tremel, worsted spinner &c., Holling [sic] mill, Silsbridge lane [sic]” 131 Bradford Observer 23 August 1849 132 Shipley Times 31 August 1923. The Stolworthys’ house “in the [Hollings] mill yard” also still exists! Further information on the Stolworthys can be found at https://saltairevillage.info/Mill_workers_biography_S.html 133 This image is from https://www.flickr.com/photos/93176113@N03/8666027826/in/album-72157633124214092/ and there is a brilliant set of photos of the derelict Brick Lane Mills at https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/threads/brick-lane-mills- bradford.17752/ SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 52 134 Beecroft is a family name. Cudworth op cit references a couple of Beecrofts and they are associated with Leeds/Pudsey. G S Beecroft was MP for Leeds in mid-century. 135 To see this map in all its glory, go to https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e3i157rznjq1mtdplosbr/1852-OS-MAP-Bradford-crop- feat-Salt-mills-v33-cropped-annotated.jpg?rlkey=7gqolmwan3x2sgcdwkp4qt6zn&dl=0 This version can be enlarged significantly without losing clarity. 136 “the right of soke – that is, the right to charge the villagers for grinding their grain”. Mills were owned by the monarchy, although day-to-day control was delegated downward, eventually resting in the hands of the lord of the manor http://www.castlefordheritagetrust.org.uk/TheMill.php. Local people were bound by law to take their corn to the soke mill for grinding, giving a portion of the grain in payment to the Lord of the Manor. HTTPs://www.ossett.net/beyond/Horbury_Junction.html 137 https://bradfordunconsideredtrifles.wordpress.com/tag/bradford/ 138 The illustration is from William Scruton Pen and Pencil Pictures of Old Bradford 1889. Thanks to Derek Barker. 139 www.industrialhistoryonline.co.uk/yiho/shortmedia.php?Image_ID=WYK02339.877: “Extract from a map of the land belonging to the Rev. Godfrey Wright drawn by Joseph Smith, Land Surveyor of Bradford in 1828. This shows the Soke Mill and goit very clearly. Many thanks to Bradford Libraries for permission to reproduce this”. 140 “after”, because an older map which show the mills was used as a base for illustrating planned highway changes 141 https://bradfordlibrariesmap.wordpress.com/2020/01/11/the-development-of-late-nineteenth-century-bradford/ 142 https://bradfordlocalstudies.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/map-of-the-week-goitside/ 143 Kathleen Ared and Jean J K Brown Manorial mills of Bradford and the people connected with them 2006. I am relying on notes made by Rose Reeve when she read this book. 144 Ibid 145 Scruton op cit 146 T Empsall Bradford in the middle of the 14th century 1888. http://www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/fourteenth.html. However, there were places where two mills occupied the same building: “two mills of Castleford under one roof” (http://www.castlefordheritagetrust.org.uk/TheMill.php) 147 Ared op cit says that the new 1530 mill was a second mill which seems to be contradicted by the evidence for two earlier mills. They also say that it involved creating a dam at Brownroyd, ~1.2 miles further along Thornton Road out of central SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 53 Bradford. This seems to be confusing the goit/dam for the Bradford mill(s) with the goit/dam for Manningham soke mill? This was very close to Brownroyd. 148 www.industrialhistoryonline.co.uk/yiho/shortform.php?Trans_ID=WYK02339 has it that the mill demolished in 1871 was that built in 1530. 149 Calculated using GoogleMaps 150 http://yorkshire.u08.eu/bradford/62494/ 151 I have picked out the route by adding three blue marks SALT BEFORE SALTAIRE April 2024 v1 54
2024.34: 1872: When samurai came to Saltaire
A research document from local historian Les Brook on the visit in 1872 of the Japanese Iwakura Embassy visit to Saltaire. The Iwakura Embassy was a high-level governmental group from Japan who toured the world to investigate the latest developments in industry and technology. They visited Saltaire to view the renowned Salts Mill and the model village of Saltaire. Contents include: What was the Iwakura Embassy? The Embassy’s historical backstory The members of the Embassy The Embassy in the USA Four months in Britain The visit to Bradford and Saltaire DAY 1: Thursday 24 October 1872 DAY 2: Friday 25 October 1872 DAY 3: Saturday 26 October 1872 DAY 4: Sunday 27 October 1872 DAY 5: Monday 28 October 1872 From Yorkshire to London The Embassy in continental Europe, and beyond
Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE The Iwakura Embassy’s visit to Bradford and to Titus Salt’s model village Compiled and edited by Les Brook with support from members of the Saltaire History Club Special thanks to Colin Coates and to Tomoe Murai of the Iwakura Mission Society March 2024 1 Leaders of the Iwakura Embassy photographed in San Francisco in 1872 L-R: Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Masuka aka Yamaguchi Naoyoshi, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi, Ōkubo Toshimichi 1 https://www.historyofjapaneseinny.org/blog/artifacts/iwakura-mission/ 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 2 CONTENTS PREFACE ................................ ................................ ......................... 3 What was the Iwakura Embassy?................................ ........................ 4 The Embassy’s historical backstory ................................ ..................... 5 The members of the Embassy ................................ .......................... 14 The Embassy in the USA ................................ ................................ . 16 Four months in Britain ................................ ................................ .... 18 The visit to Bradford and Saltaire ................................ ..................... 20 DAY 1: Thursday 24 October 1872 ................................ ............... 20 DAY 2: Friday 25 October 1872 ................................ .................... 22 DAY 3: Saturday 26 October 1872 ................................ ................ 30 DAY 4: Sunday 27 October 1872 ................................ .................. 31 DAY 5: Monday 28 October 1872 ................................ .................. 32 From Yorkshire to London ................................ ................................ 32 The Embassy in continental Europe, and beyond ................................ 33 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING ................................ ................... 37 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 3 PREFACE This paper summarises what we know of a remarkable event that occurred in 1872, when Titus Salt’s now universally-celebrated Saltaire 2 played host to a group of Japanese dignitaries. However, Saltaire’s ‘remarkable event’ was just one small episode in the extraordinary story of the Iwakura Embassy. Whilst I shall set out the details of the Embassy’s visit to Bradford and Saltaire, it is essential that readers understand what the Embassy was and the context of its many visits, in order to appreciate the high significance of the Embassy, for Japan and for the world. The original account of the Iwakura Embassy’s global odyssey was compiled by Kume Kunitake (pictured), secretary to the Embassy’s leader and chronicler of its travels. In 1878, it was published in Japanese in five volumes under the title Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki 「特命全権大使米欧回覧実記」. In this paper, Kume’s account is often mentioned or quoted and this invariably refers to text from the full English translation, also in five volumes. A full translation into English was published by The Japan Documents in 2002. It was edited by Graham Healey and Chushichi Tsuzuki and entitled The Iwakura Embassy 1871-73. A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary's Journey of Observation through the 3 United States of America and Europe . The translators were Andrew Cobbing, Martin Collcutt, Graham Healey, P F Kornicki, Eugene Soviak and Chushichi Tsuzuki. Japan Rising, Cambridge University Press 2009, is a one-volume abridgement of the English translation. It was prepared by Chushichi Tsuzuki with the assistance of R. Jules Young. It includes an introduction 4 by Ian Nish. 2 now universally-celebrated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 3 I believe this to be a faithful translation of the original title. 4 I acknowledge a heavy reliance on Nish’s introduction in drafting The Embassy’s historical backstory. I have not made multiple individual references to that work. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 4 What was the Iwakura Embassy? ‘Iwakura Embassy’ (or ‘Iwakura Mission’) refers both to a group of leading Japanese statesmen and their support staff, and also to their round-the- world diplomatic voyage that lasted for more than 20 months, from 23 December 1871 to 13 September 1873. The aims of the Embassy were threefold: • to gain recognition for the new Japanese imperial dynasty under the Emperor Meiji • to begin preliminary renegotiation of unequal treaties with the dominant world powers and • to make a comprehensive study of modern industrial, political, military and educational systems and structures in the United States and Europe. ‘Iwakura’ refers to Iwakura Tomomi, the Embassy’s leader. He was 5 Japan’s Foreign Minister . He was also Minister of the Right: in effect, the 6 Deputy Prime Minister . For the purposes of the Embassy’s journey, he was ‘Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Europe and the United States’. 5 When the Embassy set out, Taneomi Soejima was made Japan’s Foreign Minister. Thanks to Tomoe Murai for this information, and for that in the next footnote. 6 At this point in history, the most senior ministerial post was the Daijō-daijin (Grand Minister) and his deputies were the Minister of the Left (Sadaijin) and Minister of the Right (Udaijin). The Sadaijin was the more senior of the two, but the post was vacant. As a result, Iwakura was second in command of Japan’s government. His importance and qualities are made plain in the following, from https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e- culture/sannomaru/zuroku-79.html : The young Emperor still in his teens, was to face many difficult situations, supported by [Grand Minister] Sanjo Sanetomi… and Iwakura Tomomi… [Iwakura] was from a family not so highly ranked [as the Grand Minister], but he stood out with his brilliance and became a close advisor of [the Emperor]. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 5 The Embassy’s historical backstory 7 The Embassy’s backstory is one of national revolution. Until 1867-1868 - and for 700 years!- Japan was governed by the shōgun 8 based at Edo, later called Tokyo. The shōgun was the representative of a warrior family which kept Japan under strict control. Not the same family: there were three distinct periods in which different families held sway. At the time of the revolution, the Tokugawa family was at the helm – as it had been since 1603. The shōgun was the lord at the apex of a feudal system (the han system) of roughly 280 hereditary land holdings (domains or fiefdoms) throughout 9 Japan . Power was split between the shōgunate in Edo and the feudal lords. The lords had a degree of local sovereignty in exchange for loyalty to the shōgun who was responsible for foreign relations, national security, coinage, weights, and measures, and transportation. The extent of Japan’s revolutionary change can be gauged from the fact that the han system was abolished. Roughly 280 fiefdoms were turned into 72 prefectures, each under the control of a nationally-appointed governor, not a local lord. The dramatic incident which precipitated upheaval in the years building to revolution was the visit, on 8 July 1853, of the US East India Squadron. The expedition was commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, under orders from President Millard Fillmore. The USA’s primary goal was to force an end to Japan's 220-year-old policy of isolation and to open Japanese ports to American trade - through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. Perry's 'Black Ships' sailed into a small port at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. The vessels were symbols of the technological progress being made in other nations. It scared the Japanese. The shōgun accepted a US presidential letter brought by Perry. 7 Note that the Japanese do not use the term ‘revolution’ for this change – but looked at from a European standpoint, the scale of the changes were certainly ‘revolutionary’. 8 Shōgun (= Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians) was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Though nominally appointed by the Emperor, shōgun s were the de facto rulers of the country. Shōgun ate = government of the shōgun . 9 Han = fiefdom or domain. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 6 By this bold step, the USA broke the seclusion which had marked Japan for over two hundred years. Equally dramatically, the event lit the fuse for 10 huge national, social and constitutional change in the country. Perry returned on 13 February 1854 with eight vessels and 1600 men. By the time of Perry's return, the Tokugawa shōgunate had decided to accept 11 virtually all the demands in Fillmore's letter. 12 10 Pulitzer prize-winning US historian John Dower has described the two Perry missions as a moment when the world stood on the cusp of phenomenal change. Note ‘the world’. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Mission_of_Commodore_Perry_to_Japan_i n_1854_%28BM_2013%2C3002.1_105%29.jpg 11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Expedition 12 Perry’s fleet. A contemporary image. Wikipedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ca._1853_Kawaraban_- _Commodore_Perry%27s_Arrival_in_Edo_Bay.jpg 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 7 13 Perry called for a response to US President Fillmore's letter and presented a draft treaty. Though impressed by the opulence and resources of the Americans, the shōgunate was not inclined to talk, and procrastinated. As a result, it took until 31 March 1854 to conclude the US-Japan Treaty of Peace and Amity (the Convention of Kanagawa). The main provisions were for two small ports to be opened, primarily for refuge, and for the opening of a US consulate in Japan. A further US-Japan treaty was concluded in 1858. It opened five more ports to international trade. Within six months of the earlier treaty, the fears of the Japanese about yet more foreign intrusions were confirmed. The British Far East Squadron visited Tokyo Bay. Pursuing Russian ships in East Asian waters as part of the Crimean War of 1854, they asked for access to Japanese ports for the repair of their vessels and the shōgunate opened the ports of Nagasaki and Hakodate. Within months, the Dutch, Russian and French governments sent their representatives to negotiate treaties. 13 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Commodore-Perry-Visit- Kanagawa-1854.jpg 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 8 But the shōgunate ’s compliance with the foreigners ran into domestic 14 opposition, especially from the emperor's court in Kyoto . Attacks took place on foreigners and their Japanese associates. The samurai of the Chōshū and Satsuma fiefdoms in Japan’s far southwest were heavily implicated in these attacks. In 1863, following the killing of a British merchant in Satsuma, the British government authorised the bombardment of Kagoshima, Satsuma’s capital. Later, in retaliation for attacks on American and French ships off Shimonoseki, Western powers took punitive action against this Chōshū port too. 14 Since the late C12th until this period, there were two ruling classes in Japan: the emperor who acted as ‘chief priest’ of Shinto, the official religion, and the shōgun , head of the army who also enjoyed civil, military, diplomatic and judicial authority. Although in theory the shōgun was the emperor's servant, the shōgun was the power behind the throne. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 9 15 The response of the clans was surprising: they changed their attitude. Sonnō jōi (尊王攘夷), ‘Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians’, was the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s. But with the increasing number of incursions by foreign ships, the 16 17 sakoku (‘closed country’) policy came increasingly into question. The ‘expel the barbarians’ portion of sonnō jōi, changed into a reaction against the Convention of Kanagawa which opened Japan to foreign trade. Signed under duress, it was vehemently opposed, not least in the Imperial court. The Tokugawa shōgunate was seen to be powerless against the foreigners, and this was taken as evidence that ‘revere the Emperor’ was not being observed. The conclusion? That the shōgunate must be replaced by a government loyal to the Emperor. This philosophy was thus adopted as the battle cry of the rebellious regions of Chōshū and Satsuma. And surprisingly, from being seclusionist and hostile to foreigners, they developed a desire to catch up with the West. They even started to send their ambitious young men overseas to learn foreign skills – and they sought help from Western experts. 15 I find confusing the use of the term ‘clans’ in the literature. There were “ancient clans” which appear to have faded into history by the C19th, a “royal clan”, and four “noble clans” (see https://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clans) – but in descriptions of the revolutionary period, ‘clan’ appears to be used to mean people from a particular fiefdom. 16 The key points of the 1635 edict included: • The Japanese were to be kept within Japan’s own boundaries. Anyone trying to leave the country, or who managed to leave and then returned, was to be executed. Europeans who entered Japan illegally would face the death penalty too. • Catholicism was strictly forbidden. Those found practising the Christian faith were subject to investigation. Prevention of missionary activity was also severely restricted. • Trade restrictions and strict limitations on goods were set to limit the ports open to trade, and the merchants who would be allowed to trade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakoku_Edict_of_1635 17 Japanese passports only became freely available in 1866 after the long-standing ban on leaving the country was removed. The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 John Breen, Oliver Checkland, Andrew Cobbing and Akiko Ohta 1998 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 10 In 1865, the Satsuma fiefdom sent a mission to England, one of the aims of which was to request assistance from Platt Brothers of Oldham to instal a modern cotton textile factory. Thus, the first mechanized cotton spinning and weaving mill in Japan started operating in Kagoshima in 18 1867. 19 In his introduction to the story of the Iwakura Embassy in Japan Rising, Nish sees this as “an essential ambiguity about the Embassy itself”: On the one hand, the Japanese leaders of the time were fearful and suspicious over the imperialist ambitions of the West. On the other, they admired the West and wanted to learn from it. So their fundamental object was to study the West in order to resist the West. 18 As the visit to Bradford/Saltaire shows, the Embassy was deeply interested in mechanised textile production. A very interesting reference is https://galleryoldham.org.uk/oldhams-incredible-mark-on-japanese-industry/. See also Andrew Cobbing The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West, and Serguey Braguinsky and David A. Hounshell Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) Then and Now 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Brothers 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 11 This action by Satsuma clearly challenged sakoku and this confrontation was typical of Japan in the late 1860s. The shōgun was losing control but still in power: • in January 1868, the court proclaimed the restoration of imperial rule; • agreements between the shōgunate and the rebels were made and then collapsed; • the fiefdoms on the periphery of the country took up arms against the shōgun and civil war (the Boshin War) ensued; • it was November 1868 before the shōgun resigned, but his followers 20 resisted and were not defeated until late 1869. 21 The Tokugawa family handed power to a coalition of rebellious clans. Mutsuhito, the teenager occupying the national throne, was invited to become head of state. The court of the emperor had for centuries been in Kyoto. Mutsuhito moved his capital to Edo which was renamed Tokyo. He 22 was given the title of Meiji (‘enlightened rule’). 20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji 21 Image from the civil war aka the Boshin War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ueno 22 For the non-Japanese observer, the use of Meiji is a little confusing. As well as being used as Mutsuhito’s imperial name, it refers to a period and to the emperor Mutsuhito’s ‘posthumous name’. ”On 23 October 1868 the era was changed from Keiō to Meiji, or "enlightened rule", which was later used for the Emperor's posthumous name”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 12 23 This tumultuous change of government, after centuries of tranquility, was (and is) described in Japan as the ‘Meiji Restoration'. It heralded a 24 transformation, from the old to the new Japan . But the impact of the Meiji Restoration would not be confined to the homeland. It was global: 25 today, Japan has the fourth largest economy in the world . On the domestic front, the new government made huge and fundamental social changes, abolishing the han system, ending feudalism and bringing 26 an end to the role of the samurai . It centralized national administration. Feudal lords, court nobles and government officials were pledged to support the Charter Oath which set out the programme of modernization. The Restoration government felt confident that its new progressive measures to abolish feudalism would be welcomed in Western countries. As early as February 1868, the head of Japan’s Board of Foreign Affairs 23 The palanquin and procession of Emperor Meiji, from Kyoto to Edo/Tokyo. https://www.lesleydowner.com/jsnw-online-talk-on-17th-september/ 24 The New York Times summarized this transformation at the emperor's funeral in 1912: "the contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed it was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji 25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Japan. The extent and speed of Japan’s modernisation during this period is well described at http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm 26 Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early- modern Japan from the late 12th century. They were the well-paid retainers of the great feudal landholders. They had high prestige and special privileges. Many of the Iwakura Embassy had been samurai. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 13 called together the diplomatic corps at the port of Kobe and informed them of the restoration of rule by the emperor. Foreign governments duly recognized the new administration. The new government thought that the treaties of earlier years were humiliating and 'unequal'. It blamed the Tokugawa rulers for their weakness in agreeing to them and emphasized its desire to renegotiate them. The idea had been maturing that an exploratory embassy from the new government to its treaty partners was necessary. On 29 August 1871, Iwakura Tomomi - an aristocrat and former court official who had come to accept the need to open Japan to trade - was appointed Foreign Minister. He announced that he would head a special mission to observe Western countries at first hand and exchange views on treaty revision. The Embassy set off on 23 December 1871, carrying letters from the Emperor to heads of state. Iwakura was clearly charged with the task of discussing the treaties, but the authority he had was somewhat ambiguous. This led to complications, especially in the United States. 27 27 The ship in the background is the SS America which carried the Embassy to the USA. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 14 The members of the Embassy The members of the Iwakura Embassy were young. Apart from Iwakura, their average age was 32 – but the revolution had given them government experience. Although Kume’s report refers to these members as ‘we' and tends to omit mention of individuals by name, they were significant statesmen and strong-minded individualists. They were not always in agreement over policy, and they squabbled. Ambassador Extraordinary Iwakura was supported by Vice-Ambassadors: • Kido Takayoshi and Ōkubo Toshimichi represented the Restoration government. They were the most prominent politicians from Chōshū and Satsuma respectively; • Itō Hirobumi of Chōshū was from the Ministry of Public Works. The most Westernised of his senior colleagues, Itō had already spent 28 time as a student in London , and six months in Washington in 1870 as a finance official. As a result, he was able to speak passable English and was the deputy ambassador often called upon to deliver formal addresses at receptions; and • Yamaguchi Masuka aka Yamaguchi Naoyoshi of the Hizen clan was assistant vice minister of foreign affairs. Itō Hirobumi’s participation in the Embassy indicates its heft and the longevity of its impact on Japan. As a 29 young man, he was the samurai we see here , but by the early days of the Meiji era, he was leading the writing of a constitution for the newly-formed Empire of Japan. He has been described as “the most powerful figure in the Meiji government”. Little wonder: he was Japan’s first Prime Minister and went 30 on to become Prime Minister, a further three times! In addition to these leaders, there were staff charged with writing specialist reports, and junior officials and students who ran errands. The retinue of councillors and officials from various ministries totalled forty- 31 eight in all . In total, 108 people left Japan's shores – but it would be inaccurate to say that the Embassy consisted of that number. For 28 See the UCL references listed in SOURCES AND FURTHER READING below. 29 In the 1860s, when in his early 20s? 30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Hirobumi 31 This figure is somewhat flexible! 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 15 example, 6 year old Tsuda Ume (later, Tsuda Umeko) was on board, 32 destined to be schooled in the USA. 33 It was remarkable that, in a country like Japan which had recently come through civil war and revolution, so many important leaders could be spared for such a lengthy journey. At the point of departure, of course, it could not be foreseen that the Embassy would encounter the very lengthy delays that occurred in both the United States and Britain. But the sheer size of the group was amazing, and created many administrative problems. It goes without saying that there were acute jealousies between those who were able to join the deputation and those who were left behind in Tokyo. 32 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuda_Umeko 33 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuda_Umeko 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 16 34 The Embassy in the USA On the morning of 15 January 1872, the SS America, a US-owned mail steamer, arrived at San Francisco with its 108 Japanese passengers. That the Embassy could start in the USA was facilitated by the fact that its advancing frontier had by this time reached California, a neighbour of Japan on the coastline of the Pacific Ocean and one that was, from 1869, linked by a trans-continental railroad to the States’ eastern seaboard. This spectacular railroad gave the ambassadors their first major experience of the advanced technology of the outside world. Unfortunately, the Union Pacific railroad on which they embarked in February could not cope with the heavy snowfalls in the Rocky Mountains and beyond. The ambassadors were snowed up in Salt Lake City for eighteen days, visiting the famous Mormon Tabernacle and meeting Brigham Young. Despite the snow and the floods that followed, Kume reported enthusiastically that Thanks to the admirable engineering achievement of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, we were able to cross much of this vast territory in a train, comfortably relaxing or sleeping. Japan was not industrialised and had only small-scale agriculture. The delegates were astonished at the agricultural states they passed through. But they were equally amazed at the smoke rising from chimneys of factories in the urban centres. They unquestionably suffered culture shock. The delegation arrived in Washington DC at the end of February. On 4 March, ten of its principal members met US President Ulysses S. Grant. When they had arrived in San Francisco, the Embassy had received a warm and generous welcome: Kume wrote that The citizens of San Francisco had learnt of the Embassy’s visit from newspaper reports, and the news of our actual arrival was telegraphed from the Golden Gate to City Hall and to our consul. As a result, when we passed Alcatraz Island we were greeted with a fifteen-gun salute from the battery on its cliffs. 34 The main focuses of this paper are on the Embassy, its historical context, and the visits to Bradford and Saltaire, so the Embassy’s journey through the USA is not described in detail. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 17 Now, they were in the US capital and the doors of the White House were open to them. Their status and importance had been recognised from the start – and was now confirmed, at the pinnacle of US power. But there was a problem. Whilst there appeared to be a distinct possibility that the State Department might be responsive to the idea of revising the 1858 treaty, the Embassy had not been given a specific mandate to negotiate and had not brought adequate powers of accreditation. The crucial decision was made that two senior members, Okubo and Itō, should return to Japan in order to procure the necessary documents. They left Washington on 20 March for their daunting journey of 8,000 miles by land and sea. This meant a significant hiatus which Mission members filled by taking what Kume entitled 'The Journey Through the Northern States'. On their return to Washington on 22 June, they found that diplomatic business was almost at a standstill. Such a lengthy stay for such an enormous retinue was a burden for the Americans. However, Congress had made an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose and so part of the Embassy's expenses was paid by American leaders who clearly saw great potential in looking after a delegation which was likely to include the next generation of Japanese leaders. Okubo and Itō did not return until 20 July. They brought better credentials but were given instructions not to conclude a new treaty solely with the United States, and to propose convening an international conference on the subject. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish would not agree to negotiations alongside other powers, especially if they were to be held in Europe. The result was that the Embassy did not pursue re-negotiation during the rest of its world tour: its members ventilated the issue but merely explored the views of the countries they were visiting. Two days later Iwakura went to the White House and announced that his party would soon be leaving the country. On 6 August, after short visits to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, the ambassadors left from Boston for Liverpool. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 18 35 Four months in Britain The Mission landed in Liverpool on 17 August 1872. It had travelled from a pioneering society moving rapidly towards industrialisation to a country which had already experienced an industrial revolution - and its dire consequences. No sooner had Kume reached the south bank of the Mersey than he records: [T]he smoke of coal fires billowed up in dense clouds [over Liverpool] to a height of two or three hundred feet, permanently darkening the blue sky. Our escorts pointed to this and said, 'The people of the city have to breathe in the midst of that black haze.' Between September and early November the delegates travelled over 2,000 miles and visited twenty British cities - either individually or in groups. It is important to note this last point, because whilst Kume might record that ‘we’ visited a particular place, it might have indicated that only a handful of ambassadors and/or junior staff did so. Young-Suk Lee of South Korea’s Guangju University has written an overview of the Embassy’s itinerary in Britain – and perhaps most importantly, has set out solid information on how this itinerary was 36 devised . Lee tells us that it was immediately after their arrival in Liverpool that the Iwakura Embassy left for London by special train. On August 20, Iwakura visited Lord Granville, the British Foreign Minister, and requested a formal audience with Queen Victoria. At the time, the Queen was at Balmoral Castle, her Summer residence. The mission decided to stay in Britain until the Queen’s return… and, with a different timetable in mind, began to amend the existing itinerary. The new itinerary would reflect the Embassy’s latest priorities. As a result of their frustrating experience of treaty revision in the USA, many had almost given up on revision of the UK-Japan trade treaty. Their interests were pivoting towards the collection of information on industry, technology, or commerce in the major industrial cities of Britain. 35 Much of this section of the paper relies on Kume’s account. This is supplemented by local newspaper reports when we get to Bradford and Saltaire. 36 Young-Suk Lee The Iwakura Embassy and British Industrial Cities…Gwangju University, South Korea …Downloaded from Brill.com 12/07/2022 09:49:41PM via free access. I have drawn extensively from the work, and what follows in this section, in italics, is an edited version. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 19 The re-planning of their itinerary was largely the work of Sir Harry Parkes, the British envoy to Japan, and William Aston, a diplomat who had been 37 translator to the British legation in Japan since 1865… On June 3, before the Mission arrived in Britain, there had been an exchange in the House of Commons. Arthur Kinnaird MP asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Byng, “whether the Government are preparing to take steps to receive the eminent Japanese statesman Iwakura and the other distinguished persons composing the Japanese Embassy”. Byng’s reply was that “Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Aston, interpreter to the Legation in Japan, have been appointed to attend to the Japanese Embassy on their arrival and during their stay in 38 this country”... Meanwhile, Parkes was selecting the cities and factories that the Mission could visit, and organising a schedule of all the events that they would attend. This cannot have been easy for him because his personal life was demanding. His health was very poor and his wife was pregnant. His elder son hung between life and death, suffering from a fever during his return home, and his elder daughter died of diphtheria immediately after her mother’s delivery. In spite of this misery, he continued the planning and then accompanied the Mission throughout their round-Britain journey. After they had stayed in London from August 17 to September 28, the Mission started out. Between September 29 and November 9 they visited 39 Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Highlands , Newcastle, Bradford, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Coventry, Birmingham, and Cheshire, 40 and returned to London. 37 On May 22, 1871, writes Lee, Parkes left Japan by steamship for America and he only reached Britain on 8 August. He emphasized to the Foreign Office that, in Japan, Britain’s trade rival would not be European countries but the United States. The National Archives (Kew), Foreign Office 391/15, Hammond Papers, June 15, 1871. ‘Parkes to Hammond’. William George Aston (9 April 1841 – 22 November 1911) was a British diplomat, author and scholar-expert in the language and history of Japan and Korea. He wrote Shinto (“the way of the gods”). Shinto is the indigenous faith of the Japanese people and as old as Japan itself. It remains Japan’s major religion alongside Buddhism. 38 In addition to Parkes and Aston, the Foreign Office asked G G Alexander, Major- General of the Royal Marines, to act as escort to the Mission. However, he does not appear to be travelling with them when the Mission arrived in Bradford. 39 When they reached Edinburgh, they were so exhausted by the daily round of receptions, factories and offices that their escort urged them to visit the Scottish Highlands and relax says Lee op cit 40 Kume reported that The view of the flat English landscape and of the Scottish lowlands was one of unrelieved monotony. The hills of Edinburgh were pretty enough, but there was more than this to the beauties of the Scottish landscape. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 20 The visit to Bradford and Saltaire 41 DAY 1: Thursday 24 October 1872 Kume tells us that, at 10 in the morning, the Embassy left Newcastle and travelled ninety miles south through County Durham to West Yorkshire, arriving in Bradford at 2.30 in the afternoon. 42 In the C19th, Bradford became ‘Worstedopolis’ , the worsted capital of the world. Its global pre-eminence in woollen textiles made it a required place for an Embassy visit. Kume described Bradford thus: The city of Bradford… lies in Yorkshire… [and] is rich in coal and iron… manufacturing is carried on there on a very large scale… In prosperity it rivals Lancashire, which lies on the other side of the mountain range… [It is] possible to transport goods by water all the way to the sea… Bradford is noted in Britain for the spinning and weaving of wool and the production of sheepskins… We saw that all round the city, on the hills and in the valleys, were great heaps of spoil from the mines, staining all the earth black, and that a forest of factory chimneys darkened the sky with black smoke. Bradford’s much smaller but very close neighbour, Saltaire, is today a World Heritage Site, but in 1872 it was not even complete! However, it was gaining a reputation for the innovative approach of its capitalist founder, the recently-ennobled Sir Titus Salt. Alongside a colossal factory, he was only 4 years away from completing the construction of an entire village, primarily for his workers. Saltaire had good quality services and a remarkable range of splendid public facilities. That Parkes chose to include Saltaire in the itinerary surely indicates he regarded it as amongst the best of Britain. The Embassy was welcomed at Bradford’s station by the town’s leading citizen, the Mayor, Matthew William Thompson - indicating the importance Bradford accorded this encounter. 41 The Bradford Daily Telegraph 25 October 1872 is a significant source of the text that follows. 42 A word coined by Bradford historian William Cudworth in 1888 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 21 43 The visitors then went by carriage to the Victoria Hotel . Bills had been posted in the streets announcing Japanese Ambassadors Will Arrive On Thursday, Escorted By The Mayor and, both inside the station itself and lining the street leading to the hotel, was what Kume describes as an uninterrupted throng of onlookers. Crowds turned out to see us in every other city we visited, both before and after, but this was the largest such reception we received. When they arrived at the hotel, the ambassadors found lunch had been prepared for them at the Mayor's behest and, after the meal, he came in person to present an address of welcome. “His hospitality knew no bounds”, Kume reports. In the evening, the Mayor hosted a formal dinner at the hotel and there were speeches. In reply to addresses by Bradford Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce, the “Chief Ambassador” responded in Japanese. He expressed gratitude for the cordial welcome the Embassy had received and said he realised that one nation cannot maintain the highest prosperity without the co-operation and sympathy of others. He said that the Embassy was charged with searching out the sources of the wealth and prosperity now enjoyed to so great a degree by “our brethren of a Western Civilisation”. The Japanese had made their journey in order to select, from amongst the various institutions in “enlightened nations”, which of them are best suited to Japan’s present condition. They planned to adopt them through gradual reforms and improvement. But they were not there just to examine factories, mines and shipbuilding. 43 Almost certainly the present Great Victoria Hotel in Bridge Street (pictured). According to the hotel’s current administration, the building dates from 1867 and is the oldest in Bradford. Its first name was The Great Northern Victoria Hotel. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 22 They wanted to make personal contact with the people in order to establish relations of peace and friendship and a feeling of lasting brotherhood between the two countries. DAY 2: Friday 25 October 1872 Kume records that At ten o'clock in the morning we travelled about [three] miles by train to the village of Saltaire, and his co-traveller Kido Takayoshi tells us in his diary that The scenery is superb [and the] most 44 famous woollens [sic] factory in England is here. Introducing Saltaire, Kume noted that Until twenty years ago this had been open moor-land, used only for the pasturing of sheep and cattle. But since Sir Titus Salt had built a mill for weaving the wool of the animal called the 'alpaca', industrial and commercial enterprises had flocked there from all quarters, eventually creating a village. It was now a considerable town with a population of 5,000. Kume explains what an alpaca is before recounting the story, popularised 45 by Dickens , of how Titus came across “useless” alpaca wool in a warehouse in Liverpool and went on to work out how it could be used to make cloth. This innovation was to make him immensely rich. Kume explains the building of Salt’s Mill and the village, and Salt’s elevation to the baronetcy. 46 The Bradford Daily Telegraph reported that The members of the Embassy left the Midland Station at twenty minutes to ten and travelled by special train to Saltaire. Considerable preparations had been made for their reception but the number of people who assembled was not large. The station platforms were kept clear, and the crowd was therefore confined to the lodge and Albert Terrace. Comparatively few men were present, they being mostly 44 Kido Takayoshi The Diary of Kido Takayoshi. For more on ambassador Kido, see https://alchetron.com/Kido-Takayoshi#Early-life 45 A footnote in the translation of Kume’s A True Account… says this: “The story of how Salt, having examined a handful or two of alpaca from bales which he had found abandoned and rotting on the Liverpool docks, bought up the whole consignment - to the gratified astonishment of the owner - for eightpence a pound, first gained wide currency in a version by Charles Dickens, embellished with characteristic comic effects, published in Household Words”. 46 Bradford Daily Telegraph 25 October 1872. The report has been lightly edited. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 23 at work in the mill, which was kept running all day. Titus Salt’s son Edward, and Charles Stead, partner and senior director of Sir Titus Salt and Co, received the Embassy on the platform. Their Excellencies were accompanied by Matthew Thompson, the Mayor of Bradford, and Alderman Law, president of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce. After the formal introductions, the Mayor and his Excellency the Chief of the Embassy, took the lead and proceeded to view the village and then repaired to the schools. They first visited the boys’ school, where they found all the scholars at work - some ciphering, some reading, some writing, but all clean and orderly. Mayor Thompson, who was with Iwakura, drew His Excellency’s attention to a map of Asia that hung on the wall, and pointed out Japan with his umbrella. His Excellency was evidently pleased with the compliment the Mayor had paid him. The Ambassadors were delighted with the orderly and intelligent appearance of the children, and asked several questions of Messrs. Edward and George Salt, who accompanied the party, answers to which were given by the interpreter. Before leaving the room, the lads gave three hearty cheers. The party then went to the infant school in which they seemed particularly interested. Some of the children are fine looking. When a question had been asked by the Ambassador and answered by the schoolmistress, one little girl was called out, and the whole of the children lifted their hands as she did, clapped, cheered, and were silent at her command. The girls' school was then visited, and here as in the other departments considerable interest was taken by the Ambassadors in the occupations of the children. After leaving the school the party repaired to the almshouses, and visited the domicile of Elizabeth Gill, No. 26. Her sitting room, bedroom, &c., were each viewed, and some surprise was felt when it was explained to the Ambassador and his associates that these buildings were endowed for ever by the munificence of Sir Titus Salt, and that the only thing required to fit for entrance [sic] was good 47 moral character. 47 Colin Coates informs me that number 26 Almshouses in 1872 is 30 Victoria Road today. In this photo, it is through the left arch of the facing pair of cottages in the very middle of the photo. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 24 48 The Infirmary was the next place of interest that was visited. There are only two patients present, and both of these were seen. The party afterwards went through the Saltaire Institute [now Victoria Hall], beginning with the reading room. They appeared to take great interest in the Gymnasium, and a remark from Sir Harry Parkes to one of the members of the Embassy, that if he had been brought up to exercise his muscles he would have been twice as big, seemed to be relished extremely. The gentleman addressed was the most diminutive of the 49 party. The visitors afterwards went to the Dining Hall adjoining the station, over the entrance of which the Japanese flag was hoisted, and then the whole party went to the works where they were shown the whole process, from carding up to 50 finishing. 48 Some of the almshouses at Saltaire today. Author’s photograph. 49 !!! 50 Not an image from 1872 of course, but a playful view of what the Dining Hall might have looked like. Author’s photograph, photoshopped by Judy Robinson. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 25 Note that Sir Harry Parkes was with the Embassy on this visit, and actively participating. Earlier, this paper mentioned him as a key player in developing the British itinerary which the Embassy adopted, and it will be remembered that Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Aston, interpreter to the Legation in Japan, have been appointed [by the British government] to attend to the Japanese Embassy on their arrival and during their stay in this country. We now have evidence that he was doing just that in late October 1872 in West Yorkshire. The party then lunched with Sir Titus Salt, reports the Bradford Daily Telegraph. But maybe it didn’t!? Kume tells us that on the day of our visit he was away from Bradford and we were not able to meet him. [However] we were conducted round [the mill] by Sir Titus's sons. And Kume’s record is supported by fellow ambassador Kido: Salt was 51 absent today. Kume adds details the Bradford Daily Telegraph omits. Lunch was in the boardroom52, and afterwards they walked to a park on the edge of the village [Saltaire Park, now Roberts Park]. This, too, had been provided by Sir Titus as a gift to the workers. It occupied a sloping site on the banks of the river Aire, backed by rolling hills, and presented a very fine prospect. Kume is full of admiration for what Salt has done: “At none of the factories we saw before or after [my emphasis] were there such provisions as these” he writes, in a lengthy eulogy: Sir Titus had built a primary school in the village and arranged that the villagers' children, both boys and girls, went to the factory to work at their trades for half of each day and for the rest of the day attended school to receive an education. By this excellent method, practical skills and theoretical understanding progressed side by 51 Kido Takayoshi op cit 52 Like so many of the Saltaire locations visited by the Embassy, the Mill’s boardroom still exists. The fact that the C19th village is largely intact was one of the reasons it was awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 26 side. Moreover, not only did the children benefit by receiving a wage from the mill, but their work there was, in return, of benefit to the enterprise. The British regard it as a point of honour to look after their employees and to do their utmost to succour the poor [sic]. The provisions made by this factory-owner are to be admired… In front of the school were the almshouses. Those among the workers who were no longer able to work because of old age were placed there to be cared for. There were [sic] also a hospital, which treated those in the village who were ill, and a church, which the residents of the village attended in order to hear sermons and thus 53 rectify their moral natures . At none of the factories we saw before or after were there such provisions as these. Every one of the five thousand inhabitants of the village looked up to the Salt family. This way of organising the town in which the mill-hands were housed was of great significance as a way of encouraging work. At the end of their visit to Saltaire, the ambassadors boarded a train which took them to Manningham station in north Bradford, and then a carriage to Manningham Mills (better known today as Lister, or Lister’s, 54 Mill) . Kume notes that the mill, which had stood on this site for 27 years, had been destroyed by fire in the previous year and there were 55 plans to re-build it on a larger scale. Indeed, whilst the Embassy was visiting, building work must have been continuing and well advanced. The fire took place in February 1871 and 56 building was completed two and a half years later . The new mill was opened, complete with a magnificent coat of arms and the completion year. 53 The positioning of this reference to a church suggests Kume is referring to the small chapel that was in one of the almshouses. Indeed, it was next door to Elizabeth Gill at No. 26 and was for almshouse residents’ use. 54 This, and most of what follows, is from an article headlined The Ambassadors at Manningham Mills in the Bradford Daily Telegraph, 26 October 1872 55 The resulting factory was colossal, and along with its huge chimney, dominated and still dominates the skyline in the north of Bradford. 56 The original was called Lilycroft Mill. A very good newspaper article tells the story of the 1871 fire and the re-build: https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/19891658.look-back-lilycroft-mill-fire/ 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 27 Notwithstanding the building work, it is clear from Kume’s account that the Mission was able to see a factory which was in production. Moreover, this visit must have been particularly interesting because Lister’s was a silk mill. Commodore Perry’s arrival in 1853 played a key role in taking Japan’s silk market on to the international stage. At the same moment that Japan was opening its ports, the demand for its raw silk greatly increased. In 1855, French silkworm nurseries became infested with disease which eventually spread across Europe. In addition, China was experiencing the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) in which the sericulture regions were greatly damaged. Thus, at this time, Japan had hardly any competition in the silk 57 markets and profited tremendously. The Bradford Daily Telegraph 58 tells us that The Embassy was welcomed by several partners of the firm - but not by [the firm’s founder and owner] Mr Lister who was confined to his office with a sprained ankle. The party went to his office to meet him. 57 https://samurairevolution.omeka.net/exhibits/show/vtj/section2/cmo 58 Bradford Daily Telegraph 26 October 1872 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 28 They then visited the store-house where the raw materials were kept, as they are received from the East Indies, China and Japan. The Ambassadors had in this department the pleasure of seeing several bagfulls [sic] of cocoons, which had been exported from their own country. This must have been of special interest to the visitors! The tour lasted 2.5 hours and encompassed every stage of silk/velvet production – and 59 included inspection and explanation of the very latest machinery. Kume’s description of the use of silk to make textiles is typically technical and detailed. Little wonder that, as the Bradford Daily Telegraph reports, One of the [Japanese] party took voluminous notes during the walk through the works, and he seemed to write with considerable rapidity. This description starts with a link to a Salt innovation: This mill wove velvet in particularly large quantities. The ingenuity of the process exceeded even that of the process used to weave 60 alpaca… and continues with an epic, 1,000 word description of spinning waste cocoons and waste silk yarn… 59 I have deliberately included some long passages, in part to indicate what accurate observers and note-takers Kume and his team were, but also to demonstrate just how much detail was reported. Goodness knows how much was actually recorded! For example, There were several kinds [of raw wool]…First, the hair of the 'angora' goat, which is also called ‘mohair’. This is produced in 'Asia Minor' (a region which belongs to Turkey…). Its price was from three to four shillings a pound. It has a long staple and a high gloss. Second, 'alpaca' wool, which comes from South America. Its value was three shillings and sixpence a pound. It resembles mohair, but its lustre is somewhat inferior…… and so on, and so on… 60 Titus Salt solved the problem of how to use alpaca wool in the production of textiles. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 29 … concluding with the revelation that, currently, Lister’s eldest son had gone to Yokohama in Japan to acquire silk raw material! 61 The party returned to central Bradford and in the evening, Alderman Law, President of the Chamber of Commerce and the members of the Council entertained their Excellencies the Japanese Ambassadors. the Mayor and Corporation of Bradford and a select 62 party of gentlemen, to dinner in the Victoria Hotel. The President of the Chamber of Commerce occupied the chair, supported on the right by his Excellency the Chief Ambassador, and on the left by his Worship the Mayor of Bradford, Matthew William Thompson, Esq. Among the guests at the dinner table were Sir 63 Harry Parkes KCB, Gen Henderson, Major Aston… Amongst the “select party of gentlemen” was one of Bradford’s most 64 famous, Jacob Behrens , plus the German Consul, the President of the Halifax Chamber – and Titus Salt… but not ‘Sir Titus’ so I assume it was Titus Jr. It appears that the meal itself was very special: “The dinner was of the most recherché description” according to the local news report. 61 What follows (in italics) is a lightly-edited version of the report headed The Banquet at the Victoria Hotel in the Bradford Daily Telegraph of the 26 October 1872. 62 James Law was the President of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce according to ambassador Kido Takayoshi in his diary, referenced above. I assume that ‘Alderman Law’ indicates that he was also a Bradford Council alderman, but the ‘Council’ referred to here was the Council of the Chamber. 63 I cannot identify Gen[eral] Henderson but he could be a soldier assigned by the British Government to support/protect the Embassy. Major Aston must be William Aston mentioned earlier. 64 https://behrens.co.uk/our-story/biography-of-sir-jacob-behrens/ 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 30 DAY 3: Saturday 26 October 1872 At five to ten in the morning we boarded a train near our hotel to travel 8 miles to Halifax… Law [James Law?] took us to Halifax at 9.30… [We] returned to the 65 [Bradford] hotel at 3… The Embassy’s target was Dean Clough, the famous and huge carpet factory of John Crossley and Sons. It sits in the very centre of Halifax. 66 They returned to Bradford in the afternoon and then three of the ambassadors - Yamaguchi Masuka aka Yamaguchi Naoyoshi and Hayashi Tadasu aka Hayashi Touzaburō, together with scribe Kume Kunitake – took themselves off to Bolton Abbey, a local beauty spot. Kume says that it was Parkes who “invited us to have a short excursion” and they left at 67 4pm by train, and stayed in the Bolton Bridge Hotel , now the Devonshire Arms. That Parkes recommended Bolton Abbey is unsurprising: it is a beautiful and very interesting spot. But it is also the property of the Duke of Devonshire. Only a few days later, the Embassy would visit Chatsworth in Derbyshire, one of Britain’s most famous ‘stately homes’ - and the home of the Duke of Devonshire! A coincidence perhaps, but it is not improbable that, when Parkes was in London and planning the Embassy’s itinerary, the Duke (or one of his household) had shown an interest in the Iwakura Embassy and had offered hospitality at two of his properties. 65 The first quotation is from Kume. The second, from Kido Takayoshi op cit 66 https://www.visitcalderdale.com/attachment/david-glover-crossley-sons-1200x800/ 67 This excursion is confirmed by The Times, October 28, 1872, quoted by Lee op cit 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 31 DAY 4: Sunday 27 October 1872 From 10 am, ‘Team Bolton’ visited the (then) 700 year old Bolton Abbey 68 (where they attended a service), then walked upstream along the River Wharfe and its “fall” (probably the Strid 69). 70 Further upstream, we rounded a bend in the river where the banks rose to a considerable height above the stream, and here we came upon an old ivy-clad bridge across the river. Before us was revealed a high hill. Midway up it stood an old castle, a thread of smoke rising from it. This was also an entrancing view… [The Duke of Devonshire] had planted trees and laid out paths so that they were in harmony with nature, and had thus created by human artifice a landscape of great natural beauty. 68 Bolton Abbey takes its name from the ruins of the 12th-century Augustinian monastery now known as Bolton Priory. The monastery was founded close by at Embsay in 1120. Led by a prior, Bolton Abbey was technically a priory. It was founded in 1154 by the Augustinian order. The priory was closed during the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasteries. 69 Where the River Wharfe is dramatically, and very dangerously, funnelled into a very narrow, 2m wide, set of rocks, pictured on the screenshot. 70 This screenshot is from the Iwakura Mission Society’s online exhibition celebrating the th Embassy’s 150 anniversary. https://youtu.be/sAzaqEzo7Rs?t=4373 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 32 Kume’s description is suitably lyrical for such a lovely corner of the Yorkshire Dales. Sadly, the three visitors were not told that the “old castle” was actually the (remarkably large and ancient) hunting lodge called Barden Tower. DAY 5: Monday 28 October 1872 Kume reports that th The next morning [ie on Monday the 28 ] at half past ten we left the village of Bolton Abbey by the eleven o'clock train, arriving back in Bradford at one o'clock in the afternoon. Just in time! At 1:30pm, the Embassy left Bradford, arriving in Sheffield at 4pm. From Yorkshire to London The Embassy proceeded onwards to London, but by a very lengthy and roundabout route. They took in Chatsworth in rural Derbyshire and major industrial locations in Cheshire and the English West Midlands. In London, Iwakura met Foreign Secretary Lord Granville on 22 November and again five days later, making it clear that Japan's ultimate objective was to negotiate certain modifications to the existing treaties in order to bring them into line with the political transformations that had taken place in Japan since 1868. He also asked for the British troops stationed in Yokohama to be withdrawn. For his part, Granville complained about the lack of religious toleration in Japan and the inability of foreigners to go upcountry... The delegation, which had waited long for Queen Victoria's return from Balmoral, eventually had an audience with her at Windsor 71 72 Castle on 5 December and presented a letter from the Emperor Meiji. The Embassy also met the Prince of Wales at Sandringham on 9 73 December. A week later, on 16 December, they left for France. 71 Japan Rising op cit 72 These Glanville/Iwakura meetings are also addressed in John Breen, Oliver Checkland, Andrew Cobbing and Akiko Ohta The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 March 1998 http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS349.pdf 73 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakura_Mission 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 33 The Embassy in continental Europe, and beyond Although the major purposes of this paper are to indicate the significance of the Iwakura Embassy and to document in detail its time in Bradford/Saltaire, it would be remiss not to complete the story of the Embassy’s circumnavigation of the globe. The introduction to Japan Rising offers a masterly summary of the post- Britain part of their journey. So good that I make no apology for copying 74 much of it below : The Embassy arrived in Calais from Dover on 16 December at the start of its tour of Europe. Rather than deal with its visit to continental Europe country by country, let us examine in particular the general map of their travels and try to analyse what aspects interested them. The timing of their arrival in France over the Christmas period was not ideal. The initial of their activities was on Paris; and the visitors took part in talks with officials on treaty revision and on religious freedom for Japanese Christians. This was followed by shorter visits to Belgium and Holland, which naturally had a special link with Japan because of the existence of a Dutch settlement at Deshima in Kyushu island over the previous centuries. The Embassy allocated three weeks for its initial stay in Germany but it in fact returned to tour the north and south of the country later in its schedule. The delegates' stay included influential interviews with Otto von Bismarck who gave them a memorable speech which was transcribed by one of the commissioners and reproduced in full in Kume's report… The impact of the German Chancellor certainly had a considerable effect on the thinking of politicians of the Meiji period on military, constitutional and other matters. By late spring the domestic situation in Japan was causing the government that remained there some alarm. It was sufficient for them to call for the return of the deputy leaders, first Okubo and then Kido. The latter, the intellectual of the Embassy, did not want to miss visiting Russia and delayed his departure accordingly. The main party continued its circuit to Russia, which was only allocated two weeks because it was not thought to have much relevance to the problems of the emergent Japan. After this Iwakura led his members to Sweden, while Kido's group travelled round Austria-Hungary, Italy, Switzerland and France at a leisurely pace before arriving at Marseilles to board the ship for home. Iwakura with Kume went to Italy and Austria-Hungary where they 74 Japan Rising op cit 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 34 paid several visits to the Vienna Universal Exposition. This was the first exhibition in which Japan had taken part, albeit in a modest way, and was to have a great influence on its attitudes towards exhibitions later in the century. Kume expresses pride in the Japanese artifacts on view. The full Mission received instructions to return to Japan on 9 June so it could not complete its coverage of Europe by visiting Spain and Portugal. After spending a few weeks in Switzerland and southern France, it joined its ship on 20 July at Marseilles. As representatives of a new nation born out of a civil war, the Japanese were anxious to visit countries with similar experiences. While in the United States they had seen changes brought about by the civil war of 1861-5, they were the witnesses of more dramatic changes in Europe. As Kume observed, they arrived in Paris in 'France's hour of deepest mis-fortune'…. It was its defeat by Prussia which brought about the fall of the empire of Napoleon Ill. When President Thiers received his guests, he was beset by the problem of pushing through a republican constitution which would address the concerns of the Paris Commune and the urgent issue of raising the indemnity payable to Germany in order to secure the evacuation of German troops from French soil. Meanwhile Prussia used her victory over France to declare the foundation of the German Empire in 1871. This German unification brought together the various divergent principalities which made up the German Confederation. But, if German unification had been the result of a short, sharp shock, that of Italy had been created slowly over the previous decade. It reached its culmination when the Papal territories, the last link in the chain, were brought within the fold of a new Italy and Rome became the new national capital. These radical changes were very relevant to Japan where the problems of creating a nation out of a congeries of clans and the centralization of government in a new national capital at Tokyo were very much in the minds of Iwakura's delegates. Although European countries approached these issues differently, the members of the Iwakura team took pains to study their common problems… On its return journey the party travelled through the Suez Canal. They paused at Aden and the port of Galle in Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon). After they were forced to pass by Singapore because of an outbreak of typhoid, they did manage to visit hotels in Saigon, Hong Kong and Shanghai. This afforded them the opportunity to see 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 35 colonialism and the spread of the great European empires at first hand. By 13 September 1873 when the main body reached Yokohama, most of the other delegates had already returned. They found Japan in a dangerous state and not very welcoming. They made it clear that they favoured the cause of reform but found that Japan had to establish peace and stability before they could deal with the implementation of the findings reached during their travels. Kido, the deputy leader of the group, prepared an important memorandum in October advocating constitutional government, perhaps the single most significant outcome of the Mission. But reforms took time, and the leaders were determined not to rush them. In any case, Kido, who returned home as a sick man, retired from politics in 1874 and died three years later. His colleague, Okubo, died at the hands of an assassin in 1878. Prince Iwakura, who survived an attempt on his life in 1874, died in 1883. It was, therefore, the youngest of the leaders, Itō Hirobumi, who became an imperial councillor and steered through the developments in Japanese politics and industrialization for the rest of the century. Itō had had a large hand in the preparation of the Mission and was able through his public-works connections to make significant appointments of foreign nationals to posts in Japan. After four decades of public service, his life eventually ended in assassination in 1909 by a Korean. Japan itself remained a dangerous place to be a politician… Kume's report had an impact on a Meiji Japan which was ambitious for change. The lessons he drew came not from any one country but from the cumulative impression of the countries which the Embassy had visited. These formed the database for the remarkable grassroots transformation that took place in Japan as the reign of the Emperor Meiji progressed. Apart from Kume's work, but associated with it, were the many specialized reports compiled by the junior officials who accompanied the Mission. It seems to have targeted certain countries on its itinerary as special areas for study, e.g. Britain for information on the industrial revolution, and Germany for military information. In the United States it would appear that the officials were particularly trying to understand its forms of government, local, state and national, and its educational methods. They painstakingly studied the basic laws of the American constitution with the help of Japanese scholars already at US universities and paid many visits to legislatures. These comparative studies, ranging over the northern hemisphere, were to lead in time 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 36 to far-reaching constitutional amendments and to the introduction of universal education which was vital to nation-building in Japan… Kume himself merits a final word. His report was an outstanding piece of work, containing shrewd analysis and compelling observations. This was recognized by the Japanese government; and he was appointed to various official posts connected with compiling Japan's national history. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 37 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Kume Kunitake Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki 「特命全権大使 米欧回覧実記 1878 Graham Healey and Chushichi Tsuzuki (eds) Translation by Andrew Cobbing, Martin Collcutt, Graham Healey, P. F. Kornicki, Eugene Soviak and Chushichi Tsuzuki The Iwakura Embassy 1871-73. A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary's Journey of Observation through the United States of America and Europe The Japan Documents 2002 Chushichi Tsuzuki with the assistance of R. Jules Young with an introduction by Ian Nish Japan Rising Cambridge University Press 2009 … W G Beasley Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travellers in America and Europe New Haven: Yale University Press 1995 Serguey Braguinsky and David A. Hounshell Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) Then and Now 1974 John Breen, Oliver Checkland, Andrew Cobbing and Akiko Ohta The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 LSE STICERD Research Paper No. IS/1998/349 1998 Download free from http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS349.pdf Sidney Devere Brown and Akiko Hirota (translators) The Diary of Takayoshi Kido vol 2 1871-1874 Tokyo: Tokyo University Press 1985 Sydney Checkland The Elgins, 1766-1917 Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press 1988 Andrew Cobbing The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West Routledge 2000 Martin Colcutt Education for a New Japan: Kume Kunitake's Observations on Education in 1872 America in Collcutt, Kato and Toby (eds) Japan and Its Worlds Tokyo: International House Press 2007 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 38 Asia for Educators, Columbia University The Meiji Restoration and Modernization http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm Gordon Daniels, Sir Harry Parkes, British Representative in Japan, 1865- 83 Folkestone: Japan Library 1996 Negley Harte, John North, and Georgina Brewis (eds) The World of UCL 2018 Takaaki Inuzuka (translated by Haruko Laurie) Alexander Williamson A Victorian chemist and the making of modern Japan 2021 Iwakura Mission Society Online exhibition celebrating the Embassy’s th 150 anniversary https://www.jacar.go.jp/english/iwakura_en/index.html Kido Takayoshi The Diary of Kido Takayoshi 1983 https://archive.org/details/diaryofkidotakay0000kido Shigekazu Kondo Kume Kunitake as a Historiographer in Ian Nish (ed) The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: A New Assessment Folkestone: Japan Library, 1998 Charles Lanman The Japanese in America New York: University Publishing 1872 Young-Suk Lee The Iwakura Embassy and British Industrial Cities Gwangju University, South Korea Download from Brill.com Marlene Mayo The Western Education of Kume Kunitake 1871-6 in Monumenta Nipponica 28 1973 William McOmie The Opening of Japan, 1853-5 Folkestone: Global Oriental 2006 Hiroshi Mitani Escape from Impasse: The Decision to Open Japan Tokyo: International House Press 2006 Masao Miyoshi As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860) Berkeley: University of California Press 1979 Samuel Mossman New Japan: The Land of the Rising Sun London: John Murray 1873 Ian Nish The Iwakura Mission: The Issue of Treaty Revision Japan Society, Proceedings (London) 122 1993 th University College London UCL celebrates 150 anniversary of Japan’s Choshu five https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2013/jul/
A history of the textile industry of Messrs John Foster and Son Limited at Black Dyke Mills in Queensbury, near Bradford. There are introductory chapters on the development of the worsted industry in the nineteenth century. Contains many references to Titus Salt. There is a chapter on 'The trade in alpaca and mohair' that contains information on the competition ánd collaoration with Titus salt on the importation and use of alpaca wool. Contains maps of the Black Dykes Mills complex from 1854 and 1881. There is a single page letter enclosed in the book presenting it from the company of John Foster & Son Limited to 'Mr Hibbert'.
Queensbury, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Only viewable in the Saltaire Collection
Black Dyke Mills: A history: Front cover
Black Dyke Mills: A history: Contents page
A photograph of the entrance to Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. One side of teh entrance lodge is visible next to an open metal gate and a roadway beyond.
Crow Nest, Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
No copyright restrictions. Please acknowledge the work's author (if known) and the item's source
2024.134: Frontal view of Crow Nest house
A photograph of the full front of Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. There is a large central part to the house and two wings.
A photograph of the rear of the central part of Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. The photograph shows the central part of the building with a garden and fencing in front.
A photograph of the rear of the central part of Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. The photograph shows the central part of the building with a garden in front. A large glass-fronted conservatory is visible on the left.
A photograph of the small lake at Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. A rowing boat is visible on the lake. The lake is surrounded by plants and trees.
A photograph of a large room in Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. A large, ornate desk is in teh foreground. Two large portraits, restiing on the floor, are on the left wall. A large bookshelf is visible in teh rear.
A photograph of a large room in Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. A large dining table with chairs is the main part of the picture. A fireplace is on the right, and paintings and a mirror are visible on the walls.
A photograph of a room in Crow Nest, a favoured home of Sir Titus Salt. An oval table with flowers in jars is in the centre of the photograph. Open interior doors on teh left and right show other rooms.