The photograph was probably taken one day when she visited her parent’s home in Saltaire. The home from which she was married on Boxing day 1896. The photographer was James Cash of Bingley Road, Shipley, Bradford.

My grandmother worked in a woollen mill before her marriage into a Horsforth farming family. I often wondered if she was one of the more fortunate girls, who worked at Salt's Mill Saltaire. I hope so!

The village with all it's facilities was built by Titus Salt. Titus Salt initially worked for his father Daniel, a woollen merchant. In 1825 at the age of 22 he started is own business. By age 40 he had made a fortune mainly by introducing Alpaca and other unusual fibres into his products. By 1850 he was probably the richest man in Bradford, the largest employer-operating 5 mills and a large number of outworkers (mainly wool combers). He had connections throughout Europe and America and had a huge success at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Bradford was very industrialised, the workers lived in slum conditions, overcrowding, open sewers etc. Titus Salt decided to build a new mill and village away from the city, where the workers would enjoy better housing, better health facilities, education and moral instruction. The site selected was on the banks of the River Aire about 3 miles from Bradford, the site area was 49 acres.

The village was laid out to a geometric design, street names were nearly all named after members of the Salt family, the rest after the Queen, Prince Consort and the Great Exhibition e.g. Victoria Road, Albert Road, Exhibition Road. The name given to the village was Saltaire. I would like to think that my grandmother enjoyed some of these facilities. The connection between the firm and the village was broken unexpectantly in summer 1933, when the residential property was sold to Bradford Property Trust Co.

Location: Saltaire-Bradford, West Yorks