We recently visited Salt’s Mill at Saltaire, mainly for lunch with friends but partly to include it in in the Journeying with Faith section of this website.

A model of mill within the large floors open to visitors today.

Salt was another mill owner, somewhat later than David Dale, who became well known partly through his concern about the well being of his staff. In particular he re-located his factory from Bradford to a new, purpose built site where he built a “model village” to house the workers. The site was alongside the River Aire, hence the name “Salt-aire””.

Salt was a private man but his faith in Christ lay behind his dealings with workers and others. He gave the land and paid for the building of the Congregational Chapel across the road from Mill. In more recent times it has become part of the now theologically wishy-washy United Reformed Church.

No doubt, like Dale, his concern for the well being and education of his workforce was related to a conviction that this would aid the productivity of the Mill, and their working conditions would not have been easy.

Salt held many public positions including being Mayor for Bradford and Member of Parliament, though he stepped down from the latter after just two years as a result of ill health.

Visited 20th July 2025