Hirst Lock in 1878

The original of this painting by A Wilson, dated 1878, belongs to Bradford Museums and Art Galleries and it is reproduced on the information board at Hirst Wood Lock.  It shows quite a pastoral scene, with Hirst Wood Farm, outbuildings and cottages (now all demolished) on the left and a house on the right (which still exists).  Further down the lane to the right stands Hirst Mill, a water mill powered by the River Aire, which was originally used for grinding oats, later became a fulling mill connected with the woollen industry and was then converted to make paper.  It is now transformed into apartments.

Interestingly the painting shows a house on the hill in the distance that I think is Milner Field, the mansion built for Titus Salt Junior, which had a fascinating and macabre history - see here and here for earlier posts about that.

And here is the same lock today...

The site of Milner Field

This gatehouse - South Lodge - and its counterpart, the North Lodge are virtually all that remains of Titus Salt Jnr's home of Milner Field. Sir Titus Salt bought the land, about a mile outside Saltaire, in 1869 for £21000. There was a manor house already there, but this was demolished and in 1873 Titus Jnr built the house known as Milner Field - an imposing neo-Gothic building, full of the most modern of Victorian conveniences.

The house was eventually sold when the fortunes of the Salt empire began to crumble in the 1890s, some time after Titus Jnr's premature death in 1887. Strangely, all the subsequent owners suffered unusual misfortunes - lavishly described by Bill Bryson in Chapter 17 of his wonderfully funny book, "Notes from Small Island": "Before long the house developed a reputation as a place where you could reliably expect to come a cropper. People moved in and abruptly moved out again, with ashen faces and terrible wounds."

The house eventually lay empty for twenty years and was demolished in the 1950s. Now, all that remains are a few overgrown ruins, including (I am told) the remains of the mosaic conservatory floor. As Bill Bryson concludes: "What would old Titus Senior think if you brought him back and showed him that the family fortune was spent and his busy factory was now full of stylish chrome housewares and wooftah paintings of naked male swimmers with glistening buttocks?".
What indeed....

The house at Milner Field

This grand house, overlooking Saltaire (but well-hidden amongst trees and gardens) was where Titus Salt Jnr lived with his family. It was demolished in the 1950s, but when first built it was a wonder of contemporary Victorian living. Sadly, little remains today except an archive of wonderful photographs of both the interior and exterior, which give a fascinating insight into the lifestyle of well-to-do Victorians such as the Salts.

Built in 1873 in the (then fashionable) neo-Gothic style, with a nod in the direction of the Arts and Crafts movement, it had its own water and electricity supplies, sewage system and filter beds, water-cooled storage rooms (the forerunner of refrigerators!) and was connected by telephone to the mill in Saltaire. It had splendid facilities to cater for the family's recreational needs - a huge billiard room with pre-Raphaelite stained glass and murals, a magnificent library, a music room with a massive purpose-built pipe organ, and stables. It also had landscaped gardens and a large 'winter garden' conservatory and glasshouse, with a mosaic floor, housing palms, orchids and a variety of tropical fruits.

The Salts entertained lavishly, and were twice visited by royalty during their time at Milner Field. Titus Jnr died prematurely in 1887 but his widow, Caroline, continued to live in the house until 1904.