I ♥ Saltaire

Part of Salts Mill, reflected in the window of the Saltaire Dining Room opposite.  The Dining Room now belongs to Shipley College.  I think the heart-themed window display is the work of their design students.  (It seemed an appropriate motif to acknowledge Royal Wedding Day here).  For more information about the original use of the Dining Room, please see this earlier post.

This is my entry for Weekend Reflections, hosted by James at Newtown Area Photo. Please click here to see more reflection-themed photos from around the world.

Birds in a blue sky

Something about a blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds makes my heart sing.... and never more so than when it forms the backdrop to the sunlit stone of the World Heritage Site of Saltaire.  Here you can see the tower of the New Mill peeping up above the administrative block of Salts Mill.  The Pace logo, of the telecommunications company that now occupies much of the mill complex, reminds us that this is not just an old historic site 'pickled in aspic' but a living, working community with several very successful businesses at its heart.  The birds flying overhead are mostly gulls - not the seaside type but the ubiquitous black-headed gulls that can be seen all over the UK, including right here in the middle of the country in Pennine Yorkshire.  They like to sit on the mill roof in the sunshine and every so often they swoop off in flight - just, it seems, for the joy of it.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday.  For more skies from all over the world, click here.

Salts Mill from Albert Terrace

Late winter sunshine illuminates one of the most famous views in the World Heritage Site of Saltaire, often seen in magazines and tourist information.  It is also the first view you get if you arrive by train, as the railway station is in a cutting just to the left.  Looking up the cobbled roadway of Albert Terrace, towards Victoria Road, you can see Salts Mill on the left and its large chimney straight ahead.

See here and here for more pictures taken in the same area.

Oh dear, sorry - I failed to remind those with access to BBC TV that the Antiques Roadshow, filmed in Saltaire last year, was shown last night. It is on iPlayer if you want to catch it (the first three minutes of the film are about Saltaire in general and are worth watching - click the arrow on Fiona Bruce's picture!) - and there is a second episode next Sunday evening too.

iPhone art

Images © David Hockney (these were originally available for free download )

David Hockney's latest exhibition in Salt's Mill in Saltaire is called 'Fresh Flowers'.  It shows paintings he has made using his iPhone and iPad.  A series of images - mostly paintings of flowers - are dramatically projected onto three large screens in a darkened gallery, so that the colours are vibrant and you can see the 'brushstrokes' ... made using his thumb and an iPhone app called 'Brushes'.

“After all, this is a medium of pure light, not ink or pigment, if anything more akin to a stained glass window than an illustration on paper.”

They do look very soft-focus, as in this photo, no doubt on account of being enlarged so much from the original iPhone size.  But the colours are wonderful, the paintings deceptively simple and - as with much modern art - you kind of feel that you might be able to create something similar, at the same time realising that really you couldn't!  (I did, however, create a very satisfying impressionistic photo made up of three of the images - only fear of litigation prevents me posting it here!!  The two above are by no means my favourites but they were available to download whereas the others are all copyrighted.)

There's an interesting article by Lawrence Wechsler from The New York Review of Books that explains this new development in Hockney's work.  One of the things I most like about David Hockney is his willingness to experiment and to embrace new technology, and I am always fascinated to hear him talk about his thought processes:

"It [ie: the iPhone] is always there in my pocket, there’s no thrashing about, scrambling for the right color. One can set to work immediately, there’s this wonderful impromptu quality, this freshness, to the activity; and when it’s over, best of all, there’s no mess, no clean-up. You just turn off the machine. Or, even better, you hit Send, and your little cohort of friends around the world gets to experience a similar immediacy. There’s something, finally, very intimate about the whole process."

(The artist David Hockney was born in Bradford, studied at Bradford College of Art and currently lives on the Yorkshire coast at Bridlington.  Salt's Mill in Saltaire holds a large collection of his work.)

Café into the Opera

I wrote recently about Salt's Diner, the main restaurant in Saltaire's Salts Mill, but there is a second rather less well-known restaurant on the third floor,  known as 'Café in to the Opera' (I think because at one time you had to pass through it to get to the exhibition of David Hockney's Opera Sets, which has recently been dismantled).  Its décor is rather theatrical, with a striped awning and bright archway.  It gives it a cosy ambience, which is almost surprising in the vast space of the Mill.  It's also much quieter than Salt's Diner.

Meals are mainly fish-based dishes, but they also do snacks and drinks.  For a review see here.  It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and open from 10am until 4 or 5pm on other days (see the Mill's website for up to date info and menus.)  It sits beside a little florist's shop, which seems equally surprising in the context of the Mill.

Retail therapy

Any visitor to Salts Mill in Saltaire risks leaving a few pounds (£s) lighter of wallet and with a few pounds (lbs) more to carry. (Ask me... even though I visit a few times a month, I rarely leave without a new kitchen gadget, a book or at the very least a couple of greetings cards).  They will give you a paper carrier bag or a plastic one, but now they are selling these durable, reusable calico (unbleached cotton) bags. (And - oh joy! - the handles are long enough to put over your shoulder but not so long that, hand-held, the bag hits on the ground.)

They are made in India by re-wrap, a not-for-profit manufacturing enterprise concerned with social and environmental change, which supports several fair-trade co-operatives.  The company was founded in 2002 by Jangri Triveldi after an earthquake in 2001 devastated the region of Kutch (Gujerat) and left its people struggling.  Re-wrap aims to join the traditional skills of craftspeople with modern designs to make attractive, affordable, ethical products.  Its website is really interesting, and has a couple of touching stories about the people they provide work for.

The bag has an image of Salts Mill screen-printed on both sides, designed by Yorkshire artist Simon Palmer.  Simon's work is quite distinctive, marrying what at first glance look like traditional landscapes with wonderfully surreal imaginative touches.  His pictures always tell a story.  The Mill itself is depicted fairly true to life, with a suggestion of chimneys and village houses in the background and there are lots of birds and people animating the scene.

I don't think Salts Mill sell online, so you would have to visit to buy a bag - but what a great idea. A useful, foldable bag that promotes two very worthwhile enterprises in Yorkshire and in India.  What's not to like? ... as they say!

Deep blue twilight

Here in the north of the northern hemisphere - and even though spring still feels a long way off - the days are imperceptibly lengthening.  My walk home from work mostly takes place in the twilight (isn't that a lovely word?) when the lights are on and the sky takes on a marvellous deep blue.  I actually took this photo a week or two ago when the moon was full and placed just beautifully over Salts Mill.  I never tire of this view, day or night.  I like how the lights within the mill have different 'warmths' - some showing white or yellow and some a warmer peach and apricot.  So much more visually interesting than if they were all uniform.

Incidentally, a steam train went up the railway line as I walked home the other night.  I could smell the smoke before I saw or heard the train and I was idly wondering if someone had a bonfire, when, whoosh... (or, rather, chugga chugga!)  Sadly, I didn't have my camera out and primed up, so the moment was lost as a photographic opportunity - must do better!  But, in the spirit of enjoying the here and now, I loved it.  (and PS: If you want to find out why the train came, visit again tomorrow!)

Punchinello

The 1853 Gallery is only one of several galleries in Salts Mill, Saltaire.  There are gallery spaces on both the third and fourth floors.  Unlike the 1853 Gallery, which has a permanent exhibition, the other spaces have visiting exhibitions, by David Hockney and by other artists and craftspeople too.  In order, I suppose, to protect artworks that would be damaged by too much light, the galleries are shaded with blinds. The third floor has this lively red and white fabric, called 'Punchinello' (if I remember rightly) and designed by David Hockney.

[For those readers who have come to my blog more recently, the artist David Hockney was born in Bradford and studied at Bradford College of Art.  After many years of living in California, he now lives for much of the time on the Yorkshire coast. He was a personal friend of the late Jonathan Silver, the man who bought and redeveloped Salts Mill in the 1980s when it fell derelict after the textile business closed down.  The 1853 Gallery - the largest single collection of Hockney's work anywhere in the world - was the first part of the Mill to be reopened. There's more info if you click the David Hockney label below. ]

School desk

In common with the rest of Salts Mill, Saltaire, the Bookshop is filled not only with books but also with unusual treasures.  I am deeply fond of this old child's desk.  It reminds me of the desks we used at Primary School, though our chairs were separate, not linked as this one is.  But we had wooden desks with lids that lifted for storage inside - and they still had holes for inkwells, though we didn't use them (fountain pens had moved on to ink cartridges by then!)  I remember that at the end of every term half-an-hour was dedicated to polishing our own desk lid - with real beeswax polish.  You can imagine the fun we had!  I have often wondered if this particular desk has found its way into the Mill from the Victorian Factory Schools that Titus Salt introduced into Saltaire.  Haven't we come a long way?  I haven't been into a Primary School for a while but I would not be surprised to see suites of computers these days.

Diner dog

Driven back inside by the weather, we might need a snack and a drink!  The main restaurant in Salts Mill is on the third floor, through the Bookshop, and is called Salts Diner.  It has this rather appealing dachshund as its logo, found on everything from the menus to the paper napkins and the T-shirts of the waitresses.  Sketched by David Hockney (who else?!) it depicts Stanley...or maybe Boodgie... one of his two pet dogs.

Salts Diner is a large, bright space and does some imaginative food (see here for a review) - but at weekends it gets very busy so the service suffers a little, and it's very noisy.  That's the only trouble with the high ceilings and hard floors in the mill - everything clatters. Imagine what the noise must have been like with all the spinning machines working.  I was talking to a friend the other day who used to be a local doctor in Shipley.  He said he visited the mill once when it was still working and was warned to be careful what he said as he walked round, as all the workers were excellent lip-readers!

Gryphon jardiniere

As I'm sure I've observed before, one of the joys of visiting Salts Mill in Saltaire is that there seems to be something new to see each time.  I've lost count of the number of times I have wandered around the 1853 Gallery, getting my fill of David Hockney's art, the colourful stationery and artists' supplies, art and photography books and bright ceramics - all wrapped up in the heady scent from the vases of lilies they always have around the gallery.  But it was only this last time that I saw this unusual jardiniere - another Burmantofts design.  It has almost certainly been there for ages but I've never noticed it before.  I think it depicts a gryphon, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature, they are known for guarding treasure and priceless possessions - surely a good reason for this one to be sitting in the 1853 Gallery amongst the valuable Hockney artworks and Burmantofts ceramics.

Burmantofts planters

More of the colourful Burmantofts pottery in Salts Mill, Saltaire, part of the Silver family's extensive collection. These jardiniere bowls, some on pedestals, were decorative and no doubt made a fine display stand for that ubiquitous houseplant, the aspidistra.  Known as the 'cast-iron plant', these tropical plants survive neglect and shady corners and were popular indoor plants from Victorian times through to the Second World War.

They were immortalised in a song sung by Gracie Fields, 'The Biggest Aspidistra in the World':

'For years we had an aspidistra in a flower pot
On the whatnot, near the 'atstand in the 'all
It didn't seem to grow 'til one day our brother Joe
Had a notion that he'd make it strong and tall
So he's crossed it with an acorn from an oak tree
And he's planted it against the garden wall
It shot up like a rocket, 'til it's nearly reached the sky
It's the biggest aspidistra in the world.'

Burmantofts pottery

Anybody know what this is? I haven't a clue, though it is another piece of Burmantofts pottery, with its colourful turquoise glaze and unusual pierced design. It looks lovely against the stone floor of the 1853 Gallery in Salts Mill - though I think many visitors pass it by without even noticing it.

The history of the Burmantofts pottery is interesting. It began as a small coal-mining and brick-making business in 1842 in the Burmantofts area of Leeds, run by two young men: William Wilcock and John Lassey. They discovered fireclay in their mine and began using it to make sanitary pipes and chimney pots. John Lassey died young and his share of the business was eventually sold to John Holroyd and then to his son Ernest. When William Wilcock also died, Ernest's brother James Holroyd became the general manager. He gradually developed the business, starting to produce decorative tiles and pottery including eventually high-temperature faience (glazed terracotta) architectural pottery and the 'Art Pottery' for which Burmantofts became nationally renowned. Trade prospered until 1904 when fashions suddenly changed and manufacture of terracotta pottery ceased. The business continued with other products until 1957.

Some of the Burmantofts ware is intricately decorated like the vase I showed yesterday. Other pieces are in a single bright (lead) colour and glaze, with intricate moulding and raised lines. Still others have stylised Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts designs: curvy stems and flowers, leaves, peacocks and fish. It's highly collectable these days, with even small pieces fetching hundreds of pounds at auction.

As I said yesterday, the Silver family have an enviable collection displayed in Salts Mill. The Leeds museums (including the Abbey House Museum at Kirkstall) also have collections, and some buildings in Leeds, such as the University, have Burmantofts ceramic decoration incorporated into their architecture.

Faience vase

You may have noticed this beautiful vase on some of my other photos of the 1853 Gallery in Salts Mill, Saltaire. It was made in Leeds, around 1885, at the Burmantofts pottery. It's huge - 44"/112cm high. Designed by Leonard King, it is hand-painted in wonderful turquoises and greens in the Isnik style (which I understand is a style of pottery made in Ottoman Turkey, in its turn styled on Chinese porcelain).

Jonathan Silver (who bought Salts Mill in 1987) was a passionate collector of the 'Arabian Nights' vases made by Burmantofts between 1885 and 1904. He began collecting whilst still a student and amassed a collection of over 100 pieces, many of which are now displayed in Salts Mill. There is a nice twist in the story of this particular vase, because it was originally exhibited in Saltaire's Victoria Hall in 1887, in an exhibition of Anglo-Persian Bermantofts pieces as part of the Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition. These brightly coloured art pottery pieces were much sought after in Victorian England. In 1994, Jonathan discovered the vase by chance in a gallery in Bond Street in London, bought it and brought it back to Saltaire.

(It constantly amazes me that all these priceless works of art, by Hockney and others, and the very valuable ceramics are just - almost casually - scattered around in what is often at weekends a very bustling, lively place. It's what gives Salts Mill its charm and ambience... it's absolutely unique - but must give the insurers a real headache!)

Homeward bound

In the summer I often walk home from work along the canalside, but in winter it's too dark and lonely so I tend to take the main road, noisy and busy.  Just occasionally, I will cut through the car-park at the back of Salts Mill and walk up between the railway line and the mill buildings.  It's further that way, but an interesting walk. When there's no-one else about, you can almost hear the clack of wooden clogs on the cobbles.  Just imagine 2500 mill workers hurrying home at the end of a shift.  These days it's more tranquil and I find the walk gives me a welcome breathing space between the different demands and rhythms of work and home.

Heritage Trail 22 - Salts Mill

'Continue along Victoria Road, past the row of shops, to complete your tour where it began...'
And here we are, back where we began, by the railway bridge opposite Salts Mill.  This huge Mill was the key to Sir Titus Salt's vision to relocate all his textile mills from the city of Bradford to a healthier purpose-built site, along with a surrounding village where his workers could enjoy a good quality of life.  I have written extensively about Salts Mill in previous posts so please click the label below for more information.

I hope you've enjoyed this 'virtual tour' of the Saltaire Heritage Trail.  It's taken us a long time to complete; well done for keeping up.  At least it was only me that had to wrap up in six layers of warm clothes!  Save your real visit for a day when the sun shines and Saltaire looks at its honeyed best.  Even though black and white photography suits the gritty industrial feel of the area, on a winter's day the light doesn't really make for great photos.  It's been an interesting project for me and an educational one too, and (woo-hoo) it filled up nearly all of January with photos! (It's quite hard at this time of year to find inspiration and motivation to get out there taking pictures.)  I'll leave you now to do a bit of browsing and shopping in Salts Mill (you can click the link) - part of the surprising place that is the World Heritage Site of Saltaire.

[No 1 on the street plan]

Heritage Trail 7 - Saltaire's Mills

'Look towards the mill chimneys - can you feel a breeze behind you?'  (Hope you're well wrapped up on this wintery walk!)  Sir Titus Salt deliberately built his mills on the eastern side of the village.  He was concerned about the harmful effects of smoke produced by factories and located his mills where the prevailing westerly wind would blow the smoke away from the village. (I know this first-hand - my workplace is directly east of the mills and sometimes the wind funnelled along the valley is so fierce that you can barely stand up.)

Salts Mill is on the right of the photo (its huge chimney is hidden) and the building on the left is the New Mill, built a few years later, with its ornate Italianate chimney.  The Victoria Road bridge goes over the canal and at one time went straight over the river into the park.  Since the river bridge was demolished, the road ends rather abruptly in the wall you can see. (The old film clip I mentioned yesterday has footage of people walking across the original bridge, with the mills in the background - at 2.34 in the film.)

I took all these photos on such a dull winter day - they're not the best in that sense but, in a way, I like the dark feel.  And I am really enjoying showing you round my hometown.  Some of you have commented that you are beginning to recognise parts and 'know where you are'.   That really pleases me - and I hope it doesn't make my blog boring.  There are only so many photos you can take in a square mile or so, but I keep endeavouring to find new angles.

[On the street plan the photo is taken from near the green man. The New Mill is No 16 and Salts Mill is No 1]

Heritage Trail 2 - Victoria Road

'Continue downhill along Victoria Road...' Victoria Road is the main thoroughfare through Saltaire, north to south.  Looking north from the railway bridge, you can see on the right the administrative block of Salts Mill, now home to Pace plc, a company that makes digital communications technology. On the left is the Mill Building of Shipley College, formerly the Saltaire Dining Hall.  This photo gives a good idea of why Sir Titus Salt relocated his entire business from the overcrowded and insanitary city of Bradford to this greenfield site, where he built his huge mill and the surrounding workers' village.  The fields and moors of Shipley Glen and Baildon still offer a lovely countryside view.  Sir Titus Salt gradually bought up parcels of land so that, at one time, most of what you can see belonged to him.

[At the red star on the street plan]

A Christmas card from Saltaire

Black & white brass

It was late-night Christmas shopping in Salts Mill, Saltaire last Thursday.  Shoppers were serenaded with seasonal music played by Hammond's Saltaire Band (who are very good!)  The sound really soared through the vaulted 1853 Gallery - and the fragrance of mulled wine and lilies scented the air.