Sewn Up Gifts

Our latest jaunt was to this fascinating World Heritage site in Shipley West Yorkshire. I was entirely ignorant about its history or existence!

Sir Titus Salt opened his textile mill in 1853 on the banks of the river Aire. Hence its place name. He wanted his workforce to work and live in better conditions so moving out of Bradford to the cleaner air and the new village he had built was the solution.

Salts Mill produced about 18 miles of worsted cloth per day in its hey day and employed approximately 3000 people. Today you can visit the Salts Mill building and the surrounding village and imagine what it must have been like working among the looms and noise of textile production. The whole process from raw wool to worsted cloth was achieved in this vertical mill production method. With the canal and rail way line alongside Salts Mill was a great success.

It is easy to forget the importance of the textile industry over 200 years ago in Yorkshire. This was before man made fabrics came on the scene and textiles were cheaper to make at home than import, due to inexpensive and plentiful labour.

The photographs show the outside of the mill and inside the loom room which is huge. It now houses part of the David Hockney exhibition, being a local lad! That is worth a visit by itself.

I have also tried to show the raw wool from start to the finished garment. The photos are poor but hopefully you can understand. The finished tailored coat did the worsted justice.

If you are in the area, do take the opportunity to visit. Should take you only half a day and if the sun is out take a picnic down to the canal or river side and watch the narrow boats gliding by.