BOOK REVIEW: Salts Mill by Maggie Smith and Colin Coates
by David Hall
In the days when a handful of entrepreneurs not only established a company of repute but built villages alongside the factory so that workers were offered security, education and other amenities apart from a weekly wage Sir Titus Salt built a Salts Mill and a village which bears his name.
The successful manufacturer of worsted in Bradford built his fourstorey vertical mill surrounded by houses for the workers – the village of Saltaire. It is a story which the authors have managed to encapsulate into a lively and interesting 124 pages.
They follow the history of the mill – one of the largest industrial buildings in the world at the time it was built – and the village which still sports that 19th century vision, through good times and bad. The personal stories behind these business deals and the personalities of those involved are examined and present fascinating insights into a past when business was not always simply a way of making money but of enabling ordinary people to live more fulfilling lives.
By Maggie Smith and Colin Coates Amberley, Paperback, £12.99 Amazon
