In days gone by

Hirst Woods and the area round Hirst Wood Lock has been a pleasant destination for an outing for generations of Saltaire residents.  This old picture shows Hirst Farm (demolished in the mid 20th century and nowadays a car-park!)   Originally built in the 18th century, in the 1881 census it is described as occupied by a tenant farmer, John Jowett, who farmed 22 acres.  It was sold off by the Lord of the Manor of Shipley in 1911.  It was later occupied by the Whincup family and then by Frank Bagshaw who expanded the farm into a tourist attraction serving refreshments, delicious ice cream and pony rides for the children.  It's a pity it's not there now, as I'm sure it would still be popular.

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...

Then and now

Hirst Wood is about a quarter mile outside Saltaire along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.  The old photo above shows a lock-keeper standing by the swing-bridge at Hirst Wood, with a cottage behind him.  The cottage is a bit of a mystery and it's unclear whether it belonged to Hirst Wood Farm or to Hirst Mill, or whether it was the lock-keeper's cottage.  We know it existed at the time the first Ordnance Survey map was drawn in 1847 and had been demolished by 1934.   The canal itself dates back to 1777.  I took the colour photo at more or less the same spot to show how it all looks now.  You can see the same bit of stone wall on the far bank, in both photos.

Where Hirst Wood Farm used to stand, there is now a car-park (on the right) but the canal and swing bridge are much the same.  In the distance you can see a building that is now Hughes Bakery, which makes walking in the area a pleasure, owing to the fragrance of fresh-baked bread wafting around! The young lady standing by the bridge was waiting for a narrowboat to pass through the lock.  She had the job of opening the bridge to let the boat proceed up the canal.

Look back here, here and here for other notes and photos on this little area.

Cottingley fairies

Cottingley, a village a mile or two west of Saltaire, was the setting for the infamous "Cottingley fairies" hoax.  In 1917, two young Cottingley girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, took photographs purporting to be of fairies.  These photographs were eventually published and 'authenticated' by - amongst others - the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The girls did not admit that they were faked pictures, of cardboard cutouts stuck on hatpins, until 1981.  It's a fascinating story (read more here) not least because it shows how readily people will believe what they want to believe.  The photographs, cameras and related memorabilia are now in the National Media Museum in Bradford.

The episode is commemorated in a sign at the entrance to Cottingley village - and that, in a way, is another story, as I have tried unsuccessfully to photograph the sign many times. From the front it does not show up against the trees behind it.  From the back (as here) it is cluttered against what is normally a busy road junction.  A snowy day a few weeks ago, with unusually quiet roads - plus a bit of tidying up in Photoshop - mean that this is more successful than my earlier attempts.  (All the snow has melted now.)

Spinning shed

(Best viewed large)
Following on from yesterday's post about the roof space in Salts Mill, I thought I'd share this image. It shows the same space when it was a spinning shed. This photo dates back to 1947 and shows the room filled with 16,380 cap spindles. One of the guidebooks to Saltaire says the roof space is 630 feet (192 metres) long. To put that in context, an international standard football pitch is 105 metres. Lit by skylights and crisscrossed with slender metalwork, it's a surprisingly light space. The space as it is now (see yesterday's post) is still evocative of its past, with its stone flags, peeling paintwork and curious hoppers in the walls that were obviously storage spaces for something.

Now and then......

I like comparing 'then' and 'now' photographs, and here is a pair showing the old Post Office in Dent, on the interestingly named road The Laning. As the first photo shows, it is no longer a Post Office but a private house. I don't know how old the second photo is - possibly taken just before the First World War? The lady still appears to be wearing a high-necked Edwardian dress. The road is rough and stony and clearly a pony and trap was the local mode of transport of the day.

Aerial view of Saltaire, 1970s

Click picture to enlarge
There have recently been exhibitions in Bradford and Shipley of photographs from the archive of C H Wood (Charles Harold Wood), now in the permanent collection of Bradford Museums and Galleries at the Industrial Museum. C H Wood started his career as a photographer in 1922 and later set up C H Wood (Bradford) Ltd, providing photographs for industry, commerce and advertising. He worked for most of the big textile, engineering and manufacturing firms in this area and specialised in aerial photography. The company closed down in 2002. The archive is now interesting because it provides a record of how Bradford and the surrounding areas have changed over sixty years.

According to the exhibition catalogue, this photo was taken in 1947 but I am convinced that is a mistake. I think it is more recent - more like the 1970s. Even so, the appearance of the Mill and the surrounding village is not much different today. The old Salts Grammar School at the top has been rebuilt. Below the school, you can see a cricket match in play in Roberts Park, and you can make out the shape of the Half Moon pavilion beside the trees. Saltaire's church, the Victoria Hall and the huge Mill complex are all clearly visible, as is the grid pattern of Saltaire's streets.

For a mini-tour of some more of the archive photos, including some taken inside Salts Mill, please click this link. The exhibition at the Bradford 1 Gallery in Centenary Square continues until August 22.

Hirst Farm

As I said in yesterday's post, there was at one time a lock keeper's cottage and a farm at Hirst Lock, just outside Saltaire. The buildings have disappeared but I have this old photo (courtesy of Dorothy Burrows) which shows the farm as it used to be. Apparently in the early part of the 20th century Hirst Farm was a popular weekend destination for families, offering horse rides, home-made ice cream and a café.

The River Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at this spot run alongside each other and there has been a mill here since the 1700s, using the river to turn its water wheel to power the machinery. The mill was originally a corn mill but later made paper. It was rebuilt in the 19th century and has now been converted into flats (see this link for a photo). There are other cottages and houses in the hamlet, built in the 1860s, which still stand, though they too have had various conversions and additions.

Burling & mending

And finally....I've mentioned already in a blogpost the final stage of the worsted manufacturing process - burling and mending. This involved highly skilled workers inspecting the finished cloth by sight and feel, for imperfections and knots. These were then teased out and invisibly mended, to leave a perfect length of cloth. This photograph, hung on the wall of Bradford's Industrial Museum, captures the process - and the concentration required - very well. (Best viewed large)

A new mill

The worsted industry in Britain started when Flemish weavers settled in the town of Worstead in Norfolk. But during the second half of the 18th century the skills, vision and hard work of Yorkshire wool merchants meant that Bradford began to take over as the centre for the trade. Several towns built Piece Halls: buildings with lots of small rooms from which local handloom weavers could sell their 'pieces' of cloth. Bradford's Piece Hall was demolished but a beautiful example still exists in Halifax, dating from 1779. (I don't have any photos of it in my collection...so there's an expedition I must make when the weather perks up a bit.) [Mission accomplished! See April 1 2010]

The Industrial Revolution in the first half of the 19th century transformed the local cottage worsted industry into big business, with the development of huge factories driven by steam. People flocked from rural villages to the towns and cities to find work. Between 1800 and 1850 Bradford's population grew from 13,000 to more than 100,000. This inevitably led to problems of overcrowding, slums and disease. In the mid-19th century, these terrible conditions prompted the wealthy mill-owner Titus Salt to relocate his entire business to the green field site of Saltaire, where he built the huge Salts Mill and the surrounding township for his workers.

Bygone days

This old photograph (given to me by Dorothy Burrows) shows Shipley Market Place as it was in the past. I don't have a date for the photo but I imagine it was taken in the early 19th century. I have not lived in the area long enough to remember these buildings. I think that the picture may be taken from what is now the junction of Kirkgate and Otley road. If I'm correct, the building on the right still stands (and is The Sun pub), and some of the buildings on the far right also remain. But the nice old shop in the middle is gone, replaced by the 1960s concrete buildings that house the indoor market and support the clock tower. The current market square (yesterday's blogpost) is up to the left.

One of the best things about doing this blog is how much I'm finding out about my local area that I didn't know. The internet is such a wonderful source of information and I like the way individuals can link their explorations. If you have time, do have a look at this blog. It has a history of Shipley and some more old photos of the area.

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.