Selected resources
We have given as many links to websites and online copies of items as possible, but we take no responsibility for their content or availability.
If you have any queries, or any suggestions for new entries on the list, then please contact us.
The image is of William Cudworth, the outstanding chronicler of Bradford in Victorian times.
Contents
Saltaire Village Website https://saltairevillage.info/
Hosts a significant archive of historical material including many free downloads and in-depth research by local historians. Key sections for researchers include:
- Social History https://saltairevillage.info/saltaire_history.html
- Saltaire Journals https://saltairevillage.info/saltairejournals.html
- Colin Coates's research https://saltairevillage.info/WW1_Colin_Coates.html
Colin's extensive, detailed research includes many biographies of people who worked in Salts Mill or who are connected with Saltaire. There are dedicated sections for men and women from Saltaire who served in the First and Second World Wars. And there's lots more...
Yorkshire Industrial Heritage https://yorkshire.u08.eu
Balgarnie, Robert. Balgarnie’s Salt, with commentary and additions by Barlo & Shaw 2003
The original (Balgarnie, Rev R Sir Titus Salt, Baronet: His Life and its Lessons 1877) is available from SaltaireVillage.info https://saltairevillage.info/saltaire_history_0002_balgarnies_salt.html
Firth, Gary. Salt and Saltaire. 2002
Greenhalf, Jim. Salt and Silver: A Story of Hope 1998
Holroyd, Abraham. A Life of Sir Titus Salt Bart. With an account of Saltaire in Airedale. 1871
Jackson, Neil; Lintonbon, J; Staples, Bryony. Saltaire: The Making of a Model Town. 2010
King, David. The Second Lord of Saltaire: The Family History of Sir James Roberts Bart. JP LLD. The Saltaire Journal Vol 1, No 5. Mar 2012
Koditschek, T. Class formation and Urban industrial society Bradford 1750-1850. 1990
Lee-Van den Daele Richard and Beale R David. Milner Field The Lost Country House of Titus Salt Jnr. 2nd edition 2013
Reynolds Jack. The Great Paternalist: Titus Salt and the growth of 19th Century Bradford. 1983
Smith, Maggie and Coates, Colin. Salt’s Mill The Owners and Managers 1853 to 1986. 2016
Styles, John. Titus Salt and Saltaire: industry and virtue. 1990
Available from Academia.edu https://www.academia.edu/16317225/Titus_Salt_and_Saltaire_Industry_and_Virtue
Watson, Ian. The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt in Shipley and Baildon. 2011.
Available free from the Saltaire Collection website: https://www.saltairecollection.org/wp-content/uploads/THE-LAND-ACQUISITIONS-OF-TITUS-SALT-IW-2018.pdf
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-workforce-leaving-salts-works-in-saltaire-1900-1900-online
Yorkshire Film Archive. Easter on Shipley Glen. 1912
http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/easter-shipley-glen-1912
Hall, Eric. This Wonderful Creation. 1976
Available on the Saltaire Village website:
https://saltairevillage.info/saltaire_history_0066_Wonderful_Creation_Eric_Hall_1976_film.html
De Greasley, Michael. The Water Mills of Shipley. 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISP_B78aJQg
Britain from Above Aerial Photography including Saltaire in the 20th century
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/search?keywords=EPW024515&country=global&year=all
National Library of Scotland online
This is an exceptional resource and it’s free to use: https://maps.nls.uk/
Most of the early Ordnance Survey maps of the UK are now available on this site: https://maps.nls.uk/os/ but there are plenty of other maps too.
You may need to spend a little time mastering the search facility – but it’s worth the effort.
Bradford Local Studies Library
The Bradford Local Studies Library (Margaret McMillan Tower, Prince's Way, Bradford BD1 1NN 01274 433688) has a large collection of indexed maps which are all available to the public. The library has produced a useful overview entitled Local History from Maps and Plans. Find it at https://www.bradford.gov.uk/media/2926/local-history-from-maps-and-plans.pdf
It also has a large reserve collection of over 700 maps. These are not generally available to the public but one of their dedicated team of volunteers puts one of these on-line each week, with first class explanatory notes.
These are certainly worth a browse at https://bradfordlibrariesmap.wordpress.com/. At the time of writing (Oct 2021) ~150 maps are featured. An excellent resource.
West Yorkshire Archive Service (Bradford)
This shares a building with the Local Studies Library at Margaret McMillan Tower, Prince's Way, Bradford BD1 1NN, and is open by appointment 01274 433688). It holds many valuable maps as well as documents and is an essential resource for those researching local history. Its catalogue can be searched online at West Yorkshire Archive Service Online Catalogue (wyjs.org.uk).
There is no substitute for direct contact with the very helpful staff. Naturally the more precisely you can define your interest, the more helpful their answers are likely to be.
West Yorkshire Archive Service (Wakefield)
The West Riding Quarter Sessions was a peripatetic court which moved around the county. Cases for Bradford, Wakefield, Halifax and Huddersfield were heard and the documents often include maps.
Quarter Sessions records are held in Wakefield:
WYAS, Wakefield Office, West Yorkshire History Centre
127 Kirkgate, Wakefield, WF1 1JG
Email: wakefield@wyjs.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)113 5350142
You might also find some of them on Ancestry https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
Available from https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/results/?searchType=NHLE+Simple&search=Saltaire
Saltaire World Heritage Listing
Available from https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1028/
Includes details of the listing including original nomination and evaluation documentation from 2001 onwards
The Bradford Observer was a newspaper published between 1834 and 1901. Digital versions of the newspapers are available online but usually you have to pay. As there is payment involved, the Club does not want to recommend any particular website, but doing a web search for 'Bradford Observer' will find these pay-for-access sites. You may be able to get free access to the same sites through your local library.
Inauguration of the works at Saltaire. Bradford Observer, 22nd Sep 1853
Report of the committee on the moral condition of Bradford. Bradford Observer, 7th Mar 1850
Titus Salts' electioneering before the General Election at which he was elected one of Bradford's MPs. Bradford Observer, 21st Apr, 22nd Apr and 5th May 1859
History of Crow Nest (Titus Salt’s home)
Dewhirst, Robert. Saltaire. Town Planning Review, July 1960, Vol 31 No.2
Available for free on the Liverpool University Press website: https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.31.2.d123q46810014113
Druiff, Rose. Saltaire, pioneer factory village. Town and Country Planning, May 1965
Hampshire, William. The Water Mills of Shipley. 2000
Available from SaltaireVillage.info https://saltairevillage.info/saltaire_history_0009_WaterMills_of_Shipley_Bill_Hampshire.pdf
Opening of the mill at Saltaire. Illustrated London News, 1 Oct 1853
Powell, Ken. Phenomenal monument at risk: crisis at Saltaire Country Life, 20 Mar 1986
Powell, Ken. The threat to Saltaire: road proposals for a West Yorkshire village Country Life, 20 Sep 1984
Powell, Ken. Mill into Museum. The Daily Telegraph, Jul 1987.
Saltaire and its founder. The Graphic, 13 Jan 1877
Saltaire Alpaca Mills near Bradford. The Builder, 19 Aug 1854
Available for free on the Internet Archive website: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006201921/page/n833/mode/2up?q=alpaca+mills
Family history records
FreeBMD https://www.freebmd.org.uk/
Bradford Metropolitan District Council (Saltaire pages) https://www.bradford.gov.uk/site-navigation?l1=1181&l2=9295
Ancestry https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
Find my Past https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/en/
Bradford Family History Society https://www.bradfordfhs.org.uk/
Ancestry UK trade directories https://www.bradfordfhs.org.uk/research-bradford-trade-directories
Maps
National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/
Newspapers
British Newspaper Archive https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
Find My Past https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers
Bradford and District
The Bradford Antiquary (Papers from issues of) http://www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/antiquary.html
Yorkshire Industrial Heritage https://yorkshire.u08.eu
Bradford Museums - Aerial photographic images including Saltaire in the C20th https://photos.bradfordmuseums.org
Bradford Industrial Museum https://www.bradfordmuseums.org/venues/bradford-industrial-museum
West Yorkshire Archive https://www.wyjs.org.uk/archive-service/
Allsop, Benjamin. The late Sir Titus Salt.... a brief resume of his life and works; an account of the funeral 1878.
Binney, Marcus, Fitzgerald, Ron, Langenbach, Randolph and Powell, Kenneth, Satanic Mills: Industrial Architecture in the Pennines 1978
Available from Conservation Tech https://www.conservationtech.com/RL's%20resume&%20pub's/RL-publications/Milltowns/1979-Satanic-Mills/SATANIC-MILLS-recognized.pdf
Binns, Sheila. The Aesthetics of Utopia: Saltaire, Akroydon and Bedford Park. 2013.
Bolton, S and JRG. Two lives. Converge. 1938.
Bretton, R. Sir Titus Salt. Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1970.
Available from the Halifax Antiqurian Society
Briggs, A. ‘Victorian Cities: A brilliant and absorbing history of their development’ 1990.
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (106th ed.) Salt of Saltaire. 107th Edition. 2003.
Burnley, James. Sir Titus Salt and George Moore. 1885
Campbell Bradley, Ian (1987) Titus Salt: The Enlightened Entrepreneur. History Today 37
Cattell, Alan. Sir Titus Salt and Sons A Farming Legacy. 2017.
Clarke, Roger. “A Look into the Past: Why Saltaire Is on a Par with the Pyramids”, Prosider Guide. Shipley, Saltaire, Bradford, Prosider Media Publishing, 2008.
Clarke, Roger. A Penny for Going: A History of Saltaire and its Regeneration told through its shops. 2011.
Available free from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzpnm9k34jjtqr2/A%20Penny%20for%20Going.pdf?dl=0
Cudworth, William: Round about Bradford: A Series of Sketches (descriptive and Semi-historical) of Forty-two Places Within Six Miles of Bradford (1876).
Available for free from Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Round_about_Bradford.html?id=WYplB17WoHYC&redir_esc=y
Daniels, Stephen. Moral order and the industrial environment...1780 -1880. Univ. of London, PhD Thesis
Download a free PDF of the thesis
Dawson, K. Saltaire Mills. 1990.
Earland, E and Earland, CP. The post offices of the industrial village of Saltaire in the West Riding of Yorkshire. 1995.
Fairbairn, William. On the Application of Cast and Wrought Iron to Building Purposes, Fourth Edition, with Additions. 2019.
Available for free from Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ak4OAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Feather, James. The Salt Grammar School, 1868 – 1968. 1968.
Gray, Johnnie (aka Harry Speight). Through Airedale from Goole to Malham, Leeds, Walker & Laycock. 1891.
Available to read from Google Books: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Through_Airedale_from_Goole_to_Malham/Gg8NAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Hogg, James. The Salts and the discovery of Alpaca in Fortunes Made in Business: A Series of Original Sketches, Volume I 1901?
Available for free on the Internet Archve website: https://ia800904.us.archive.org/35/items/fortunesmadeinbu02londuoft/fortunesmadeinbu02londuoft.pdf
Hole, James. The homes of the working classes, with suggestions for their improvement. Includes FAI Bradford and Saltaire with plans of cottages. 1866.
Available free at Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bffWQ4k_Q4kC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Holloway, Julia Bolton. Sir James Roberts, first baronet (1848–1935). Oxford Dictionary of Biography.
View the Oxford Dictionary of Biography website: https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-94265?mediaType=Article
Horsman, Maurice. The story of Saltaire Victorian village. 1983.
Iredale, J.A. and P.A. Townhill. At home with Sir Titus Salt In Dalesman, April 1975.
James, John. History of the Worsted Manufacture in England 1857.
Available for free on the Internet Archve website: https://ia800200.us.archive.org/24/items/historyofworsted00jame/historyofworsted00jame_bw.pdf
James, John. The History of Bradford and its Parish 1866.
Available for free from the Internet Archive website: https://ia802606.us.archive.org/4/items/continuationand00jamegoog/continuationand00jamegoog.pdf
Jenkins, V. Saltaire United Reformed Church 150 Year Anniversary. 2009.
Jowitt, J.A. The labouring classes & the Salt Experiment 1979.
Ketchell, Christopher. Sir Titus Salt, 1803 - 1876. Hull College, 1993
Kidd, Charles; Williamson, David (1990). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage.
Laybourn, Keith. The emergence of the working class demand for political independence and the rejection of the 'Salt Ideal'. 1979
Lonsdale, Bertha. Saltaire Methodist Church, 1868 – 1968
Oxley, Cyril. Salt of Saltaire. Bradford Bystander, April 1972
Palmer, S A. Saltaire Guide. 1996
Palmer, Simon. Saltaire: a picture book.. Salts Estates, 1995..
Preston, J. Sermons by an Artist. 1888.
Quinn, Patsy. Run of the Mill. A History of Saltaire Cricket Club. 1997.
Richards, J.M. Sir Titus Salt or the Lord of Saltaire. Architectural Review Jul - Dec 1936
Robinson, Alfred. An interesting study of two great public benefactors whose lives ran parallel.(Sir Titus Salt & Edward Ackroyd). 1967.
Robinson, Alfred H. Statues of Bradford: Sir Titus Salt. Bradford Bystander, Nov. 1974
Saltaire Cricket Club. Saltaire Cricket Club, 1869 - 1969: souvenir centenary booklet. 1969.
Saltaire United Reformed Church. A history. 1980
Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. Saltaire 1853-1924. 1924.
Shapley, O. Broadcasting. A Life. The Autobiography of Olive Shapley. 1996.
Sharp, Dorothy. Education in Shipley & Saltaire,1800 – 1900. Bradford Libraries, 1984.
Suddards, R W (editor). Titus of Salts. 1976.
Suddards, Roger. Sir Titus Salt; his life and times. 1976
Tattam, Audrey. Saltaire born and bred. 1983.
Tattam, Audrey. Sir Titus Salt. 1982
Turner, Joseph Horsfall. Historical notes of Shipley, Saltaire... 1901.
Waddington, James and others. Flowers From The Glen: The Poetical Remains of James Waddington of Saltaire. 1862.
Waddington-Feather, John. A century of model-village schooling: The Salt Grammar School 1868-1968 (1968)
Watson, Ian. The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt in Shipley and Baildon. 2011.
Weber, Barlo and Shaw A. Visitor’s Guide to Saltaire. 2008.
Whitrick, Alan and Leak, Michael J. 1d. Up-1/2d Down : The Story of Shipley Glen and its Tramway. 1982
Willey, Ann. Glimpses of 150 Years of Methodism at Saltaire Methodist Church 1868-2018 (2018)
Woods, C. Saltaire History and Regeneration. 2000.
Worley, Zita Marie. [Temperance and the industrial village in] In the Valley of the Moon: Enclosure, Temperance, and the American War on John Barleycorn. 2015.
Yallop, Jacqueline. Dreamstreets: A Journey Through Britain’s Village Utopias. 2015.
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