Sir Titus Salt and the

Golden Fleece

By Adrian Stewart

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In 1844, Queen Victoria despatched two alpaca fleeces from Windsor Castleto the Salt’s Mill in Bradford and was delighted with the fine, light, lustrous materialinto which Titus Salt’s spinning machines and power looms transformed them. Thiswas the beginning of what can only be described as a revolutionary turning pointin the history of alpaca fibre, and is the point in time that alpaca changed frombeing a utilitarian fibre of the native Andean people, the Quechuas and Aymaras,to being a luxury fibre enjoyed by millions around the globe.

Some of you may already have heard something of Sir Titus Salt and his wonderfuladventure with alpaca fibre in the 1800’s but I suspect none of you will have heardwhat I might call the full story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyedpiecing it together.

Titus Salt is something of an enigma. He was one of England’s most prominentbusinessmen and enjoyed a great reputation for philanthropy, having donatedmoney to educational, religious, and medical charities. Yet despite his widespreadfame, Titus was a withdrawn, reticent, intensely private man. He found publicspeaking excruciatingly difficult and was, by general agreement, not very good at it.He was also an unenthusiastic letter writer. Very little survives of either his privatecorrespondence or the records of his magnificent business.

Titus was born at the Old Manor House, Morley, on the 20th of September1803 and, according to the record in the family Bible at “four o’clock in the morn-ing.” Titus was to be the first of a large family consisting of three sons and fivedaughters. As soon as he was ready, Titus went to school and learned to read. Atthe age of about nine, he went to school in Batley six miles away. Titus walked toand from school with his friends each day, the journey taking them about an houror so in each direction, longer when it snowed. His lunch consisted of an oatcakewhich his mother baked and milk, which he had taken from the family cow beforeleaving home in the morning. At home, Sir Titus was taught by his mother to readthe Bible each morning and evening. As a young boy, he was given a pocket Bible,in which his father wrote the following:

“May this best volume ever lie,close to thy heart and near thine eye;Till life’s last hour thy soul engage,and be thy chosen heritage.”

Later, as a father himself, Titus would present each of his 11 children with apocket Bible and write the same lines in each, just as his own father had done.

In 1813, Titus’s father, Daniel, decided to speculate in food, as prices were high,owing to the demand caused by the Napoleonic wars. As a result of this new busi-ness venture, the family moved from Morley to a farm at Crofton near Wakefield.Titus and his sister, Sarah, were sent to a good school and rode there each day on a donkey, which was stabled at the Nag’s Head public house.

At school, Titus was described by his headmaster as “never a bright pupil. He was steady, very attentive, especially to any particular study into which he put his heart. He was a fine, pure boy; stout, tall for his age, and with a remarkable,intelligent eye”.

Something of an

enigma, Titus Salt

was one of England’s

most prominent

businessmen. Yet

despite his widespread

fame, very little

survives of his history

or the records of

his magnificent

fiber empire.

�

In the summer of 1815, Napoleonwas defeated at the battle of Waterlooand shortly after food prices fell andDaniel Salt started to lose money onthe farm.

An Introduction to

Woolstapling

By the age of seventeen, the questionabout what Titus would do in life hadto be settled. He had no family fortuneto fall back upon. His father was notaffluent by any means and the farm did not pay now that the war was over.Eventually, it was decided that Titusshould enter the medical profession.However, fate had other ideas, and oneday while cutting a piece of wood witha sharp knife Titus slipped and cut adeep wound in his hand. As the bloodbegan to flow Titus promptly fainted.His father (who had witnessed the acci-dent), revived the poor boy and toldhim in no uncertain terms “Titus, mylad, thou wilt never be a doctor!”

Thus, it was decided that Tituswould be placed with a Mr. Jackson of Wakefield to learn the woolstaplingbusiness (woolstapling being the buy-ing and selling of wool).

By 1822, the family farm continuedto lose money and nothing remainedfor Titus’ father but to look for a newsource of income. By now, he had lost his appetite for farming. Businessin nearby Bradford was booming, and therefore the whole Salt familymoved to Bradford and Titus happilygave up his position with Mr Jackson,having spent most of his time doingbookkeeping.

Titus then entered the Bradford firmof Messrs. Rouse and Son, where hiswool education came under the experthands of two brothers, John and JamesHammond. Here, he worked for twoyears and applied himself methodicallyto understanding the whole process ofwool sorting, washing, combing, sliver-ing, spinning, and weaving. The Rousefamily had the maxim “Those whohave helped us get money, shall help us to enjoy it” – a maxim Titus wouldadopt when he became an employer.

Let us imagine, if we can, what Titusdid in those early years. A tall manwith a “brat” or loose blouse worn overhis clothes to keep them clean, hewould stand at the sorting-board. With the fleece of wool unrolled andspread out on the board, Titus learnedto sort wool by feel and by sight. Thisskill alone would have ensured him asuccessful career in the woolstaplingbusiness. However, we know Titus wascommitted to understanding every part of the process, not just the sorting.The next process he learnt was washingwith alkali or soap and water, a skillTitus would put to good use whenconducting his experiments with alpacamany years later. When he learntcombing, it was still done by hand.The slivers of combed wool were thenpassed between rollers to produce rovings. Later, the rovings were spuninto yarn, which in turn was woveninto fabric.

Titus learnt each of these processes in detail and in 1824 he left Messrs.Rouse and Co. and joined his father,who had by now established a wool stapling business. Together they tradedas Daniel Salt and Son (Woolstaplers).Titus was the driving force behind thebusiness and attended public wool salesin London and Liverpool on a regularbasis. He would also travel to the coun-ties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire wherehe would buy direct from the farmersafter the clipping.

Bradford was booming during thisperiod. When Titus was born, the population was less than 13,000, yet itwould quickly reach 100,000. Bradfordwas being transformed from a collec-

tion of small weaving villages into an industrial town. Indeed, it was the fastest growing industrial town inEngland in this period. This tremen-dous growth was fuelled by the manu-facture of worsted cloth.

Worsted had been made in Bradfordsince the late 1700’s, but the industrywas transformed as one by one theprocesses that converted raw wool into cloth were mechanised and drivenby steam power. This period of timecame to be known as the IndustrialRevolution. Mechanisation resulted incheaper prices and huge increases inproduction capacity. The single biggestuse for worsted cloth from Bradfordwas women’s dresses. Women woreBradford worsteds not only in Englandbut also in the United States, and inmany countries in continental Europe.With the help of Titus Salt, Bradfordwould become the world centre forworsted production.

Boom Times in Bradford

This growth attracted not just DanielSalt and his family, but also tens ofthousands of workers, mainly fromYorkshire and adjacent counties, butsome from as far away as Ireland. Workin the worsted trade was hard and attimes dangerous. The hours in the fac-tories (which employed mainly womenand children) were long, often twelvehours a day for six days a week.

The town was ill prepared to copewith this explosive growth of immi-grants and the families they raised.Roads, sewers, and other public facili-

3

The Rouse family had the

maxim “Those who have

helped us get money, shall

help us to enjoy it” –

a maxim Titus would

adopt when he became

an employer.

The manor house where Titus Salt was born inSeptember 1803, the first of eight children.

4

ties were completely inadequate. Thetwo waterways that ran through thetown were little more than open sewersfull of domestic and industrial effluent.The small river was known locally as“River Stink.” A survey of woolcombers (one of the most impoverishedtrades in the industry) revealed thatmany families were living eight or eventwelve people in two small rooms.People slept four or five to a bed.Conditions were nothing short ofappalling. Life expectancy in Bradfordwas barely twenty years. Even discount-ing infant deaths, one was fortunate tolive beyond one’s mid-forties. Smallpoxand tuberculosis were rampant and ofcourse, there were no antibiotics. Woolsorters were often exposed to anthraxwhen sorting fleeces from overseas, particularly Russia, where the diseasewas endemic.

As a result of these bleak conditions,Bradford became a centre for social and political unrest. To many workers,the vast fortunes accumulated by thelocal “millocrats” were done so at theexpense of the workers, the millspoured soot into the skies and wasteinto the streams.

In 1825, there was a strike amongwoolcombers that lasted six monthsand produced great stress and alarm.The following year, matters became

much worse and workers attackedHorsfall’s Mill. Titus Salt was twenty-three years of age and walked throughthe assembled mob talking with them,by all accounts trying his utmost to getthem to disperse. It must have takena great deal of courage to even try tocalm such an angry mob. Eventually,the military were called and the RiotAct was read. During this event, Titusran from house to house, urging peopleto stay inside. The mob eventually diddisperse, but not until twenty or soshots had been fired into the crowdand two boys, one aged 13 and one 18, lay dead. What is evident from thisshort story is that from an early age,Titus was determined to play a proac-tive life in the industrial affairs of Brad-ford and its people.

The tale of how Titus met his wife isan interesting one. On the east coast ofEngland lies Grimsby (in the county ofLincolnshire), a fishing port and hometo the Whitlam family who farmedsheep. Mr Whitlam had a very largeherd of sheep and a large herd of chil-dren, 18 in all. In 1820, a woolstaplerfrom Bradford called George Haighmarried Amelia Whitlam. I imaginethat Titus heard from George of boththe sheep and the girls and decided tovisit the Whitlam farm. He duly fell in love with Caroline, the youngest

Whitlam girl, who was just 16 yearsold when they met.

Making Lemonade from

Lemons

At about this time, an event occurredthat would have far-reaching conse-quences. Titus speculatively purchaseda large consignment of Donskoi woolwhich had arrived from Russia.Although it was coarse and tangled,Titus realised it had possibilities.When he tried to sell it to his usualclients, none would have anything todo with it. The generally held opinionwas that it was impossible to spin.Titus knew better and, no doubtsomewhat embarrassed by this largepurchase that no one wanted, setabout making a good deal out of whatmight become a bad one.

Titus was convinced that the woolcould be spun and so he rentedThompson’s Mill and having installedsuitable machinery set about spinningthe Donskoi wool with wonderfulresults. So it was that Daniel Salt andson entered the spinning business. Hisintention was always to spin the wool,then sell the yarn to Fison and Co.This he did for some time until a mis-understanding between the two firmsled Titus to resolve to not only spinhis own yarn, but also weave his own

These sites will help you plan your trip to Saltaire andTitus’ mill complex, as well as the surrounding area:

www.visitbradford.com (Official Tourist Info Center)www.saltaire.yorks.comwww.saltsmill.org.uk

Planning on Visiting Saltaire?

A canal boat passes by the side of one of the mill buildings. Located almost in the exactcenter of England, Sir Titus Salt’s mill complex is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

fabric. The experience Titus had gath-ered under John Hammond at Rouseand Co. proved invaluable. Not onlyhad Titus proved himself a successfulbusinessman but also he had intro-duced a new staple to the Bradfordworsted trade.

By now, Caroline Whitlam was 18and Titus 26.They married in GrimsbyParish Church on August 21st,1830.Three years later, Charles Turner (yetanother woolstapler from Bradford)married Lucy Whitlam. This is howthree sisters from Grimsby came to live close to each other in the town of Bradford.

Titus and Caroline lived not far from Daniel Salt, who was by nowquite proud of his son and loved tospeak of “Our Titus.” Little did heknow that Titus was merely at thebeginning of his distinguished careerand that the loving phrase “Our Titus”would eventually come to be adoptedby the whole community.

Titus was now very busy turningDonskoi wool into fabric. This successno doubt gave him a great deal of con-fidence and was to lead to a greater dis-covery that would become the magnumopus of his life and the basis of his fameand fortune.

Titus always had an open mind tonew ideas. One example of this cameabout during the cotton famine inLancashire, when the mills were silentbecause the supply of cotton staple wasall but cut off by the American CivilWar. A letter appeared in the LondonTimes that suggested alternatives to cotton might exist in vast quantities all along the east coast of England.

Titus decided to visit the town ofScarborough on the east coast and seefor himself. Once the tide went out, hespent the day collecting and analysingseaweed samples. At the end of the day,when asked what he had been doing,he replied “I have been trying to decidewhether this stuff could be manufac-

tured, but it won’t do.”It was in the year 1836 that the

wool of the alpaca first came to hisattention. Titus was now the father ofthree children and happened to be inLiverpool to attend one of the publicwool sales, when as he was passingthrough one of the dock warehouseshe noticed a pile of dirty-lookingbales. Some of the bales were torn and their contents exposed. What happened next is so pivotal to thestory of Titus Salt that CharlesDickens wrote an amusing article entitled “The Great Yorkshire Llama”some years later, which was publishedin Household Words, a weekly journal.The Liverpool brokers that owned thebales were Messrs. Hegan and Co. (In his story, Charles Dickens renamedthem C.W. & F. Foozle and Co.).

It appears that Hegan and Co. took a consignment of about 300 bales ofalpaca wool, in the hope that someenterprising Yorkshire mill ownermight be inclined to buy it. The baleshad been in the warehouse some con-siderable time and Messrs Hegan andCo. had decided to return the bales toPeru if a buyer was not found soon.

Something about the unwanted balesattracted Titus and he pulled out ahandful of alpaca wool, which heexamined with the trained eye of awoolstapler. He said nothing to Messrs.Hegan and Co. and went about hisbusiness as usual. Some time later, heagain found himself in Liverpool onbusiness and visited the warehousewhere the alpaca wool was stored. Hisexamination this time was more thor-ough and eventually he pulled out alarge handful of wool from a torn baleand wrapped it in his handkerchief.Clearly, he had been thinking aboutthis strange wool and had plans to takea sample back to Bradford where hewould study it in more detail.

When he returned to Bradford, Tituslocked himself away with his sample ofalpaca and spoke to no one about hisintentions. We know from records thathe scoured and combed the wool him-self by hand, skills he had acquiredwhile at Rouse and Co. Whether he

5

A dress of creamalpaca trimmed withblue silk. Thedress is typical ofthose made fromcloth manufacturedat Saltaire, TitusSalt’s mill.

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spun the fibre into thread, we do notknow. He also tested its strength andmeasured the staple length. What Titussaw before him was a long glossy staplethat he knew would be perfect for theproduction of the light fancy fabrics,which were then in great demand. It is worth remembering that Titus wascomparing alpaca to the coarse sheep’swool of the day, not to the very finemerino wools that we have now.

Around this time, Titus met with his old friend and mentor JohnHammond, whom he tried to interestin the new staple. According to folk-lore, Titus said to him, “John, I havebeen to Liverpool and seen some alpacawool; I think it might be brought intouse.” But John could offer Titus noencouragement. Furthermore, DanielSalt advised his son “to have nothing to do with the nasty stuff.” However,Titus was not inclined to listen toeither John Hammond or his father.

So it was that Titus returned toLiverpool and approached Messrs.Hegan and Co. and made an offer of18d (15 cents) a pound for the wholeconsignment.

This is how Charles Dickens takesup the story in his amusing article:

“When he asked that portion of thehouse if he would accept eighteen penniesper pound for the entire contents of thethree hundred and odd frowsy, dirty bagsof nondescript wool, the authority inter-rogated felt so confounded that he couldnot have told if he were the head or thetail of the firm. At first, he fancied ourfriend had come for the express purpose of quizzing him, and then that he wasan escaped lunatic, and thought seriouslyof calling for the police, but eventually it ended in his making over in considera-tion of the price offered. It was quite anevent in the dark little office of C. W.and F. Foozle and Co. which had its sup-ply of light from the old grim graveyard.All the establishment stole a peep at thebuyer of the “South American Stuff.” The

chief clerk had the curiosity to speak tohim and hear the reply. The cashiertouched his coat tails. The bookkeeper, a thin man in spectacles, examined hishat and gloves. The porter openly grinnedat him. When the quiet purchaser haddeparted C. W. and F Foozle and Co.shut themselves up, and gave all theirclerks a holiday.”

With that, Titus purchased his firstconsignment of alpaca wool. Titus wasstill keen to involve his mentor JohnHammond in his alpaca adventure ifpossible, and so a meeting was arrangedbetween John and Titus at Garraway’scoffee house in London. Titus wouldhave travelled by horse-drawn carriageand the journey although only a littleover 200 miles would have taken 26hours. Later, the new railway wouldreduce this journey to just a few hours.At the meeting, Titus invited JohnHammond to become his partner in

the new venture. We can only guessthat Titus felt the need of John’s expert-ise when it came to developing themachinery to process this new fibre.Whatever his motivations for asking,John respectfully declined on thegrounds that the Rouse family hadalways treated both John and his broth-er James Hammond with kindness andgenerosity and that he intended to staywith them for the remainder of hisworking life. Titus was disappointed,but remained determined and told

John “Well, John I am going into thisalpaca affair right and left, and I’lleither make myself a man or a mouse.”

Loyalty such as John Hammond’smight appear strange to us in this dayand age. Nevertheless, John was wellrewarded for his loyalty, eventuallybecoming a partner in the firm of Rouseand Co. When eventually old Mr Rousepassed away, John and James Hammondwere both beneficiaries in his will.

Adapting the Machinery

Titus now set about the task of design-ing and building the machinery toprocess this new staple into fineworsted cloth. Along with a small teamof trusted assistants, Titus had beenworking in great secrecy for 18 monthson the problems which alpaca present-ed. Their alpaca wool wasn’t quite whatyou might expect. In those days, due tosuperstitious beliefs among the nativepeoples, alpaca fleeces in SouthAmerica were shorn only once everycouple of years. Thus, some of the staples were 20 to 30 inches in lengthand the longest measured 36 inches!

By adapting the machinery available,they did between them overcome themany difficulties of spinning the fibreinto a true and even thread. Salt andhis secret team had the idea of bindingalpaca weft with cotton or silk warps1;and this gave the characteristic lustrewhich made it such an attractive cloth,and produced at the same time adurable, relatively light, and reason-ably-priced cloth which was well suitedto the fashions of the day.

We can only imagine the delightTitus felt when he successfully trans-formed the unsightly material he hadfound in Liverpool into a beautiful fab-ric. This was a huge achievement andrequired substantial investment in menand machinery, so I have to believe thatTitus was not planning to process justthe 300 bales. Undoubtedly, Titus musthave already been seeking to secure fur-ther supplies of alpaca wool.

1 Warp is the lengthways threads in a fabric, weft are the horizontal yarns that interlace at right angles with the vertical warp threads.

Garraway’s coffee house in London. Here, TitusSalt met with John Hammond to hopefully beginhis new fiber processing venture.

New wealth and political reformbenefited the middle classes in particu-lar at this point in time, and fashionseemed to reflect this new confidenceand the demand for consumer goods.Women’s clothes were more opulent,making use of new materials such asalpaca; skirts continued to expand,their width exaggerated by tieredflounces and crinoline petticoats.

The quantity of alpaca wool import-ed from 1836, when Titus made hisfirst purchase, to 1840, averaged560,800 lbs. per annum. By 1852, theannual import had reached 2,186,480lbs. in weight. Assuming a clip of 5 lbs.per animal, that equates to an annualclip of over 437,000 alpacas. Duringthat same time period, the price hadrisen from 10d (8 cents) per lb. in1836, to 2s. 6d. (25 cents) per lb. in1852. Most of this alpaca fibre arrivedin the West Riding of Yorkshire bytravelling along the new Leeds -Liverpool canal in horse drawn barges.

For about a quarter of a centuryfrom 1840, bright alpaca mixed-fabrics took the world by storm.Fashion was also affected by techno-logical advances such as the inventionof the sewing machine, paper patternsfor home dressmaking, new chemicalor “aniline” dyes, and the mass pro-duction of clothes. With a wider range of goods produced at cheaper prices,fashionable items came within thereach of the less well-off. Shoppingpatterns started to change and the firstdepartment stores opened. Inexpensivetravel on the new London Under-ground made shops more accessible.As industry and trade expanded, thecountry’s prosperity increased.

To handle this explosive growth,Titus now operated five separate millsfor spinning and weaving. In addition,he put work out to hand loom weaversand hand woolcombers. Alpaca fibreallowed Titus to outperform all theother manufacturers. However, heknew his processes would one day becopied and his skilled technicians luredaway by higher wages. The only way tomaintain this advantage was to controlthe supply of fibre. The difficulty of

obtaining and controlling supplies ofalpaca from South America (andmohair from Turkey, as well) providedthe opportunity for Titus and twoother manufacturers to operate a secretcartel, buying up all available stocks asthey arrived in Liverpool.

By this means, they excluded othermanufacturers from the trade withoutdriving up their own costs. In the full-ness of time, Titus opened an office in Peru and communicated with hisagent there by means of a cipher sothat no one could read his telegrams.In this way, he learned first handabout market conditions and amountsand quality of fleeces bound forLiverpool long before they arrived. In doing so, he assured himself alucrative semi-monopoly. In addition,alpaca fabrics sold to wealthier cus-tomers who were less affected by eco-nomic downturns. This combinationof factors helped make Titus Salt avery wealthy man.

Titus was now approaching the peri-od in life when he hoped to relinquishbusiness, and enjoy in retirement thevast fortune he had accumulatedthrough his own endeavours. The timehe had set for his retirement was hisfiftieth birthday. Then, he imagined he would sell his various mills, buy a country estate and settle down tofarming. As American Harper’s NewMagazine was to observe: “By his 45thyear, he was a very rich man, andmight have retired with lordly income,established himself in some fertile andumbrageous domain, deserted by a

spend thrift noble, among the mer-chant princes of Yorkshire…”

However, Titus had other ideas… big ideas.

A Grand Scheme

Titus enjoyed a formidable reputationas a model employer. In Bradford inthe 1830’s and 1840’s, many factoryowners were regarded with hatred bylarge sections of the town’s workingpopulation. Nevertheless, many work-ing class political leaders were preparedto admit that some employers weregood and not all were bad. Titus wasregularly cited as being “one of the bestmasters in town” and an example ofhow factory owners should behave.

The care and benevolence that Titusdemonstrated for his workforce was notsimply the result of his own stronglyheld religious and moral beliefs. Tituswas able to take care of his workersbecause he was making a fortune fromalpaca while other manufacturers werecompeting on price.

By this time, Bradford was truly adesperate place to live as a mill worker.Georg Weerth, a young German poetworking in Bradford describes his feel-ings for the town:

“I wouldn’t have felt any different if I had been taken straight to Hell. Everyother factory town in England is a para-dise in comparison to this hole. InManchester, the air lies like lead uponyou; in Birmingham, it is just as if youare sitting with your nose in a stove pipe.In Leeds, you have to cough with the dust

In the summer of 1844, Titus Salt and his family moved to Crow Nest, a large mansion seven mileswest of Bradford near the village of Lightcliffe.

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and the stink as if you swallowed apound of Cayenne pepper at one go – but you can still put up with all of that.In Bradford, however, you think you have lodged with the devil incarnate… if anyone wants to feel how a poor sinneris tormented in Purgatory, let him travelto Bradford.”

In 1843, Titus’ father, Daniel Salt,died at age 62. By now, Titus himselfwas the father of seven children; fiveboys and two girls. It was partlybecause of his growing family that inthe summer of 1844, Titus Salt and hisfamily moved to Crow Nest, a largemansion seven miles west of Bradfordnear the village of Lightcliffe.

In 1848, Titus was elected Mayor ofBradford. While mayor, he continuedto control his textile business. This wasa very demanding time for Titus. Athome, two newborn infants had diedand in 1849, cholera broke out in thetown of Bradford. It was during this

turbulent period that Titus created a vision, which he believed was hisGod-given duty to turn into reality.

On a chilly November evening in1849, Titus walked into the comfort-able fire-lit chambers of the architectsLockwood and Mawson. Once seated,Titus produced a sketch and outlinedhis vision. He wanted the firm todesign the most advanced, fully inte-grated mill in the world. It would bequite simply the most gigantic worstedmill the world had ever seen.

The preliminary drawings producedby Lockwood and Mawson did notimpress Titus. He wanted somethinglarger and with a façade like OsbornHouse, Queen Victoria’s favourite resi-dence on the Isle of White. Lockwoodtold him such a building would cost£100,000 without machinery or fit-tings. ($15 million in today’s terms).

Titus was not moved by this infor-mation and instructed his architects tothink big and design on a grand scale.

The site, which Titus had alreadyacquired, was in open countryside nextto the river Aire, the Leeds-Liverpoolcanal, and soon the railway. Titusnamed his new mill “Saltaire.”

Built between 1851 and 1853,Saltaire was the marvel of its age. LocalYorkshire stone was used to build themill, which was in an Italianate style.Six stories high, it had floor space ofover 800,000 square feet. Over 3,200people worked in the mill; the weavingshed housed 1,200 looms and pro-duced 18 miles of alpaca fabric eachday – which, as someone noted at thetime, “is almost 6,000 miles each year,which as the crow flies, would reachover land and sea to Peru and thenative mountains of the alpaca.”

A large proportion of the workforcewere children under 16 or youngwomen. These people had the unskilledproduction jobs of tending the spin-ning and weaving machines. Adult menfilled the skilled jobs and the positions

A carving on one of the mill buildings, depictingthe source not only of the fiber being producedat Saltaire, but also the source of Titus Salt’sfortune.

The care and benevolence that Titus demonstrated for his workforce was not simply

the result of his own strongly held religious and moral beliefs. Titus was able to take

care of his workers because he was making a fortune from alpaca while other

manufacturers were competing on price.

In 1849, Titus outlined his vision of one of the largest, most advanced, fully integrated mills in theworld. Built between 1851 and 1853, Titus’ vision became reality.

of authority. The managers, foremen,and overlookers were overwhelminglymen, as were the wool sorters, mechan-ics, finishers, and office staff.

Work at the mill was arduous. Themill started at 6 a.m. each day and ranfor 12 hours, with short breaks forbreakfast and lunch. Children startedwork in the mill at the age of eight,although they were only allowed towork part time until they were 13,when they could work fulltime. Thetime not working was to be spent inschool. The mill had a dining hall andoffered good-value food to the workers.

In designing the mill, many prob-lems of 19th century textile mills weresolved. Fire and accidents with the belt-ing that ran the looms were the mainproblems, so Titus used fireproof brick,stone, and cast iron. Where machinerycaused friction and heat, there was nowood. Many a young weaver had lostlimbs in the belting, so Titus had thebelt’s drive shafts, located under thefloor away from the weavers. The tem-perature was kept constant by an rudi-mentary air conditioning system.Everything was driven by pulleys andbelts, which in turn were powered by twoenormous steam engines. There were 14

boilers, which consumed 50 tons of coaleach day to generate the steam. Thesmoke went up a beautifully ornate chim-ney 250 feet high. The workers even hadtoilets.

Titus was also proud that during theconstruction of his mill, only one lifewas lost, a remarkable feat at the time.

When it came to the formal openingof the mill, Titus decided to celebratethree things at once: his 50th birthday,his eldest son’s coming of age, and theofficial opening of Saltaire Mill. Thiswas to be the first of many large cele-brations that Titus would stage duringhis life.

On his 50th birthday, TuesdaySeptember 20th 1853, 2,440 of hisBradford workers marched in preces-sion to the Bradford railway station,where special trains were awaitingthem. On arrival at Saltaire, they weregreeted with the pealing of church bellsand the discharge of rifle shots.Eventually, 3,750 guests sat down for a banquet inside the combing shed.Salt laid on a gargantuan feast consist-ing of beef, mutton, lamb, ham,pigeon, chicken, grouse, partridge, and duck, followed by plum puddings,jellies, grapes, melons, peaches, pineap-ples, nectarines, and apricots. This wasall food which most ordinary peoplewould never see in a lifetime, let alonetaste. A band played during the mealand afterwards in the meadows, and at 6 p.m., the trains took the assembledparty back to Bradford for a musicconcert in St George’s Hall. No onehad ever witnessed such an occasion.The illustrated London News describedit as “probably the biggest dinner party ever set down under one roof at one time”.

Alpaca wool was now arriving inlarge quantities and not always at theright time, so a separate warehouse was constructed to store 12,000 balesof wool.

Here is a contemporary account ofwork in Saltaire Mill:

“The alpaca wool came via canal andon the railway, it arrived in what arecalled ballots or small bales, each weigh-

ing 125lbs. The bales consist of fleecesthat have been sorted into ten differentqualities, each adapted for a differentgrade of processing. The primary processeswere sorting, washing, drying, plucking,combing, drawing, roving, spinning,weaving, dyeing, pressing, finishing, andfolding – 13 in all – excluding reeling,sizing, and warping –common to allworsted manufacture.

After leaving weaving, the fabric isexamined by the “taker-in,” who looks fordefects in the weaving. Then it is foldedup into what are called “pieces” to be sentto the dyer. The white cloth is sent to thedyer to receive various colours, while theself colours pass immediately into the fin-ishers’ hands, who puts them through theprocess of steaming, singeing, crabbing,dyeing, and pressing - these imparting tothe cloth its glossy quality and preventingit from shrinking.

When the manufacturer or merchantreceives the goods duly dyed and finished,they are measured, made up, and foldedin paper ready for delivery to the draperor for export.”

Marvellous though the mill was, itwas only a part of the vision that Titushad in his mind. Only in 1854, oncethe mill was at work, did Titus turn hisattention to the construction of hismodel village. The mill was the eco-nomic engine that generated the wealthnecessary for Titus to realise his visionof social and moral improvement of theworking classes. Building the villagetook the best part of the next twentyyears. During that time, he spent theequivalent of $60 million buildinghomes for his workers and all the nec-essary amenities, which he consideredessential for a healthy life.

Of all the industrial towns built bymanufacturers in the 19th century,Saltaire was the most ambitious andthe most famous. When completed, it housed 5,000 souls in 824 housesbuilt on a green field site of 49 acres.It had a bath and wash house withmachines to wash clothes, a hospitalwith three wards, and next to the hos-pital, 45 alms houses with their ownchapel, where up to 60 pensioners

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Titus built a high school for boys and girls andan institute (shown here), where adults couldattend classes in the evenings.

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lived. Each pensioner received a weekly allowance and paid no rent.Additionally, Titus Salt built a highschool for boys and girls and an insti-tute where adults could attend classesin the evenings.

Titus would not allow any publichouses (taverns) to be built in the vil-lage, but there was an off-licence,where workers could buy drink toconsume at home. Titus named manyof the roads after his children. Thefinal part of the village was the 14-acre, landscaped park that offered

workers a wide range of recreationalopportunities. Titus did not pay hisworkers more than other mill ownersor give them a soft life. However, overtime, he attracted the very best work-ers, the most highly skilled, and theywere mostly very loyal. This highlyskilled and stable workforce was essen-tial to the successful working of hisvast mill.

At about this time, a poem wasprinted and circulated in Bradford and the surrounding areas. Here is thefinal verse:

From Peru, he has brought the alpaca,From Asia’s plains the mohair;With skill has wrought both into

beauty,Prized much by the wealthy and fair,He has Velvets, and Camlets, and

Lustres;With them there is none can compare;Then off with your bonnets,And hurrah for the Lord of Saltaire.

Many of the buildings in Saltaire aredecorated with carvings of alpacas andas Titus never went to Peru, you may

Of all the industrial towns built by manufacturers inthe 19th century, Saltaire was the most ambitiousand the most famous. When completed, it housed5,000 souls in 824 houses built on a green field siteof 49 acres.

Center: One of the mill buildings. The other photos show various mill worker’s homes. The photo at top left is the Saltaire hospital.

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wonder if he ever saw an alpaca? Orwhat the stonemasons used for refer-ence when carving the images? Well,the answer is that Titus had quite alarge “flock of alpacas,” as he called it.He purchased the animals from theEarl of Derby who had them in hiszoological collection at Knowsley, near Liverpool. They flourished for awhile, but Titus eventually concludedthat they did not like the Yorkshireweather, which he felt was too wet forthem. Some were shipped to Australiaand some to South Africa, both part of the British Empire at that time. I do not know what became of them.The remainder lived out their lives inYorkshire. By the time Titus himselfdied, there was only one remaining.

On his 53rd birthday in 1856, theworkers of Saltaire presented Titus witha marble bust of himself. Titus inreturn threw a party at his home, CrowNest, with 3,000 accepted invitationsto attend. On arriving at Crow Nest,guests were greeted by herds of alpacas,llamas, and angora goats. A marqueehad been erected that could hold 5,000people. Again, Titus laid on the mostextraordinary feast for his workers andtheir families.

The Paris Exhibition took place in1867, and Titus was invited to submithis model village, Saltaire, for consider-ation by the Imperial Commissioners.Initially, Titus politely declined.Eventually, he was persuaded on theunderstanding that he would not bejudged nor accept any prize money forwhat he had done. Saltaire made themost profound impression and various

medical reports substantiated the bene-fits to his workers of their clean envi-ronment. So impressed was the FrenchExhibition that France conferred onTitus the Legion of Honour. This is the highest award given by the FrenchRepublic for outstanding service toFrance.

On September 9th, 1869 The PrimeMinister, Mr. Gladstone, wrote to Titusto inform him that Her Majesty QueenVictoria had proposed that he shouldreceive a Baronetcy. A Baronetcy is ahereditary title descending through themale line, bestowing a knighthood onthe recipient. Titus accepted andhenceforth was known as Sir Titus Salt Bart.

On his birthday in 1873, Sir Titusthrew his biggest party ever at CrowNest and again entertained 4,200 of his workers in style. Not long after this,his health started to deteriorate.

Sir Titus died on December 29th,1876 surrounded by his family. Wroteone witness: “There was no physicalsuffering, and his breath died away likea soft summer breeze.” His 73 yearsconstituted a long life in those days.He had known 3 different monarchsand 18 prime ministers. He had beenmarried 46 years and had 11 children.

Sir Titus left Crow Nest for the lasttime; four sable Belgian horses pulledthe hearse away from the mansionshortly after 9 a.m. The BradfordBorough Police provided an escort asSalt had at one time been Bradford’sChief Constable, as well as Mayor and for two years its Member ofParliament. Over 100,000 people lined

the route. The procession passed themarble statue of Sir Titus, which hadbeen built three years earlier fromdonations made by the people ofBradford. Seventy more carriagesjoined the procession at this point,which was now more than a mile longas it began its decent into Saltaire.

The procession eventually arrived at the Saltaire Congregational Church,which Sir Titus had built in 1859. In the vestibule of the church stands a very symbolic statue of Sir Titus pre-sented to him by his workers in 1856.The bust is of purest Carrara marble,standing on a plinth of Sicilian marble.The plinth is supported by an alpacaand an angora goat. At their feet is afleece with a “Horn-of-plenty,” fromwhich is pouring forth a flow of richfruit. One foot of the alpaca rests on a wreath of olives representing peace.One foot of the goat rests on the fleecerepresenting abundance for theemployer and the employed.

Thus, Sir Titus – and later, his family– came to be buried in the mausoleumat Saltaire Congregational Church.

Saltaire Mill and the model village are still there, frozen in time. TheMill is now home to The 1853 Gallery, a collection of art by DavidHockney. Nearly all the other mills in the area have since beenpulled down or destroyed by fire. In 2001, the whole site was desig-nated a World Heritage site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational,Scientific, and Cultural Organization). For tourists, there is now a Visitor Centre. My family supplies the centre with alpaca wool,which is given to the many schoolchildren who visit Saltaire tolearn of Sir Titus and the mighty alpaca, with its golden fleece.

Saltaire Today

Visitors at the David Hockney art gallery. The gallery occupies partof the old Saltaire Mill.

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The author Adrian Stewart grew up in the market town of Skipton, in the west riding of Yorkshire, England. The sheep farmsof the Yorkshire Dales made famous by James Herriot lay to thenorth and to the south the woollen mill towns, including Saltairethe model Victorian town created by Sir Titus Salt. Adrian spentmost of his working life in investment banking in the City of London, while there he took an active role in promoting the Cityas a centre for commerce and in 1995, he received the Freedom ofthe City. An alpaca hobby farmer for several years in the UK hemoved to Oregon with his wife, Jo, and their three children in thesummer of 2004.

Together they now operate Mulberry Alpacas, based just outsideAshland. Adrian is President of the State of Jefferson Alpaca Association; he is also editor of The Ideal Alpaca CommunityNewsletter and writes a column, Letter from America, which ispublished in the UK Alpaca Magazine.

Adrian can be contacted at adrian@mulberryalpacas.com

About the Author

MULBERRY ALPACAS LLC1332 East Nevada, Ashland,

Oregon 97520, USATelephone: 541-552-0607www.mulberryalpacas.com

Adrian Stewart

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