Salt built Saltaire with a mixture of motives.

Saltaire Coursework- Question A

In my opinion, Salt built Saltaire with a mixture of motives, the main ones being for philanthropic reasons, the need of a new challenge, and possibly an element of control. I will be arguing that Titus Salt did not solely build Saltaire to create greater control over his workforce, but it was for a mixture of reasons he built his utopia.

There was a large control factor involved though, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that Salt just wanted a workforce who where completely under his power. Firstly, Salt had many rules, as shown in Extract J, clearly stating what the occupants of Saltaire village could and could not do- “Number 2. Only persons who are good, obedient, honest and hardworking will be allocated a house in the village”. Salt wanted a happy atmosphere in his mills because this always proved to be the most productive. From our visit to Saltaire, there is also evidence of control in the village. There is a strict grid system of housing and buildings, there are no secret back alleys, and everything is very open (see Fig. 1) This was thought to have been built like so because Salt did not want chartists or rebels meeting up secretly and striking against him, as in Extract J- “Number 12. Gatherings or loitering of more than eight persons in the streets is strictly forbidden”. For this same reason, Salt kept pubs out of Saltaire, he did not want chartists meeting up in these places. He allowed alcohol in the village, but it had to be drunk in the confines of ones own house. This was another controlling tactic, he did not want drunks littering the street and slowing the pace of work. In addition, in the village we saw “watch towers” (Fig. 2), these were allegedly so Salt could always keep an eye on his workers, but in practice they were probably no more than symbolic and impressive looking towers. These could be evidence of Salts want of control but more likely just to impress other mill owners.

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There are other motives possible though, Salt could have had other reasons for building Saltaire. Salt could have just wanted to move his workers away from the “hell hole” of Bradford. For example, in extract B it says, “Every other factory town in England is a paradise compared to this hole.” This was because Bradford is placed in a valley and the smoke from the factories is trapped and could not escape. The houses were overcrowded, there were open sewers running down the streets (as shown in picture A), there was no greenery, and there were many back alleys and hiding places for the chartists that Salt did not want in his mill. In Bradford most of the housing was back-to-back terraces and these became hotspots for trouble because the chartists could easily hold secret meetings that threatened the mill owners. The conditions were so bad in Bradford because of the ‘laissez-faire’ attitude that the council had towards the mill conditions. They believed that people should be able to look after themselves because to improve the working and living conditions would mean having to raise taxes which would be unpopular with the people.

Salt became Mayor of Bradford in 1848 and he tried to improve things. For example, he attempted to reduce the amount of smoke that the chimneys bellowed out into the atmosphere. From this, we can tell that Salt wanted to improve conditions in Bradford, maybe he thought he had failed in doing so in changing the city for the better and so he escaped from the city and started anew in the country. In the country it was a healthier environment for both his employees to both live and work. As in extract C, it declares that the fumes of the mills are “highly prejudicial to the health of those who inhale it”. This could have been another motive of building Saltaire to improve the health of his workers and prolong their lives. He chose this particular site because it already had a railway station and a river from which a canal (Fig. 3+4) could be constructed – these would help establish good transport links to Bradford.

He could have built Saltaire purely for philanthropic reasons. Some people think that when building the village he just had in mind his utopian dream because it was almost a self-contained place. For example, on our site visit we saw the good quality housing for the workers (Fig. 5+6), although a little crowded the quality of construction and finish was far superior to what was available in Bradford .Also, he had a park and cricket pitch for recreational purposes (Fig. 7), a primary and senior school (Fig. 8), an institute for indoor recreation (Fig. 9), and finally a hospital and alms houses (Fig. 10+11) for the care and welfare of the residents. We could also prove that by building Saltaire, Salt was being purely altruistic in his motives when in extract G it tells us how he contributed half a million pounds of his own money towards the construction costs. This was a lot of money in the 1800’s and Salt was not going to see that money profit in his life time. So, he could have been building Saltaire for different reasons, for his children.

Titus Salt may have been setting up a long-term family business by building the self-contained village. Titus was not around the mill for most of its working time, it was Titus Salt Junior who ran it most of the time, and after Salt Senior died, he would be taking in all of the profits. In Extract F he tells Lord Harewood that he felt he should “provide occupation for (his) sons”. So perhaps Saltaire was just a project he started for his sons to take over and live upon when he could no longer look after them. Indeed Salt did name all the streets in his village after all of his children and family, maybe he felt he was creating a family and he was the founding father?

Titus’ intentions may have not always been so selfless though, some people have said that Salt only built Saltaire for the amazing recognition and self-publicity it would give him. For example on the site visit we saw the intricate and impressive architecture that the church was made from (Fig. 12), all of the main buildings were made in an Italianate style that could have been chosen to “show-off” to other mill owners. Also on the site visit we noticed that the hospital and the beautiful almshouses were the first things a visitor entering the village would have seen back then. A visitor would have maybe got the impression that Salt was incredibly generous towards his workers, and this was exactly how Titus wanted them to see him. Something else very interesting was that had had his coat of arms (Fig. 13)designed and made long before Salt was made a baronet (he married into aristocracy), was this designed to impress also? On our visit we also noticed in the church, that Salt had a bust of himself (Fig. 14) made as a present from his workers. Was it truly from his workers because they respected and admired him, or because it was compulsory and they were forced?

In conclusion, Titus Salt could have built Saltaire partly for better control over his workers, but I feel that this was not the sole reason for the village to be made. There is too much evidence to suggest other reasons. For example he may have wanted to rescue his workers from Bradford, he wanted to improve the health of his workers, he could have had philanthropic reasons, he may have just wanted to create a job for his sons, or simply he may have just wanted to show off to less well off mill owners.

I think Titus Salt built his “utopian dream” for a mixture of all of these reasons; it cannot just be one in particular since there is too much evidence to support it all.

Erin Taylor Page