Company founded in Dayton, Tennessee, United States owned by the Salts company. The company manufactured iron and stell, based on the large local deposits of iron ore and coal. The Salts made major investements in the company which were partly to blame for the subsequent financial difficulties of the textile business in the UK. The Salts gave up their interest in the Dayton company in 1892 and sold the textile business the following year.
Dayton was the site of rich coal and iron deposits. Its original developers obtained a loan from Sir TItus Salt Bart. and Sons Ltd, but they went bankrupt. The directors of the Salts company, including Titus Salt Junior, took over the Dayton firm and made large investments to develope the site.
They built: two large blast furnaces with a capacity of 250 tons of iron ore per day, three fire brick kilns and 200 coke ovens were constructed as well as 200 homes, a manager's house (costing $15,000), a company store, a schoolhouse and other social amenities. What had been a small hamlet grew into a sizeable town over a very short period.
In 1892 the Salt business partners had to surrender their interests in Dayton due to the collapse of Sir Titus Salt (Bart) Sons and Co. Ltd. The investment the company had made in Dayton was a significant factor in the Salt family’s loss of their business and the estate of Saltaire.
Renowned nineteenth century novelist. Dickens wrote an article in his Household Words publication entitle 'The Great Yorkshire Llama' regarding the early days of Titus Salt's discovery and use of Alpaca wool.
Edward was king of the United Kingdom between 1901 and 1910.
As the Prince of Wales, he visited Yorkshire in 1882 with his wife Princess Alexandra to preside at the opening of the new Technical College in Bradford. While visiting, the prince and princess stayed at Milner Field, the home of Titus Junior and Catherine Salt.
William was a leading British engineer and was contracted by Titus Salt to design the interior of Salts Mill. William's significant engineering skills enabled the mill to operate smoothly and perform all the functions that took raw materials through the series of processes required to make high quality cloth.
William was responsible for the Mill's iron structure, the lay-out of the machinery, the design and manufacture of the boilers, steam engines and line-shafting. He also designed a tubular-girder bridge over the river Aire that runs through the village.
Fairbairn published his plans for the mill in a book that ran to four editions and was translated into French and Spanish. He was justly proud of Salts Mill, his largest work of mill construction.
Fowler Calculators was a Manchester company that was founded as the Scientific Publishing Company in 1898 by William Henry Fowler. Besides their range of calculators, they were well known for their range of engineering pocket books that they published annually. Their address was 53 New Bailey Street (1900-9 at least) and their works were later in Hampson Street, Sale. They went into liquidation in 1988. (http://www.mathsinstruments.me.uk/page17.html)
William Fry started working life on the railways but his life was transformed in his thirties when he moved to Saltaire to become the long-serving Secretary and General Manager of the Salt Schools. The 'Salt Schools eventually incorporated the High School (for Girls and Boys), the Saltaire Club and Institute, and the Technical and Art School
In the late 1880s a new School of Art and Science was instigated by Titus Salt Junior. To help fund the new school and partly celebrate its opening, and Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, Salt devised the Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition. William Fry became heavily involved in its planning, travelling round the country to visit other exhibitions at Edinburgh, Folkestone and Liverpool as well as the Colonial Exhibition in London. He wrote numerous letters to obtain exhibits and enlist support for the Exhibition.
This was a difficult task because of competition with other exhibitions and attractions. William wrote that ‘obscurity, too small an affair’ were ‘prominent ideas to be combated’.
William also became Secretary of the Sir Titus Salt's Hospital, likely after the management ot the hospital was passed to the Salts School Board in 1887.
Medina Griffiths was appointed the first headmistress of Salts Girls’ High School in Saltaire when it opened in 1876. Her progressive views on girls’ education is summed up in her words:
'I would have girls placed on an equality with boys so far as educational advantages are concerned… I would have girls stand in the foremost rank.'
Medina introduced a wide curriculum that included Latin, Greek, French, English, maths, drama, art and music. She encouraged the girls to remain in education and take a university degree.
Her progressive ideas were built on by her successor Harriet Byles.
Donald Hanson was the chair and chief executive of Illingworth, Morris the last owners of Salts Mill as a textiles business in the 1980s. His great grandfather was Chief Engineer for Sir Titus Salt.
Head of the engineering department at Salts Mill during the nineteenth century. Great Grandfather of Donald Hanson, the chair and chief executive of Illingworth, Morris the last owners of Salts Mill as a textiles business in the 1980s.
Lance Corporal Thomas Hodson was born in Shipley and was a warehouseman at The Conditioning House in Bradford prior to enlistment in the army during the First World War. Hodson’s Division landed in Le Harve, France in August 1915. They served in front line trenches and several battles, including the Battle of the Somme where Hodson was killed in action on the 29th July 1916. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial in the Somme and on the Rolls of Honour at Nabs Wood cemetery in Shipley, St Paul’s, and St Peter’s Church in Shipley.
Lance Corporal Hodson was born in 1892, son of Tom and Rosa Hodson. His service number was 13083. His medals and memorabilia from World War 1 are The ‘Pip, Squeak and Wilfred’ medals (the popular names for The 1914 Star or 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal respectively) and a ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ which was issued to next of kin of all British and Empire service personnel killed as a result of the war. In addition, a Princess Mary Gift Fund 1914 box was a present for all those serving during Christmas 1914, the box contents included cigarettes and/or chocolate, a photo of Princess Mary and a signed card. These and other items relating to Lance Corporal Hodson are in the Saltaire Collection.
In 2017, the Saltaire Collection received a donation of World War One medals belonging to Lance Corporal Thomas Hodson that were found in the cellar of a house in Saltaire. Through local news items and the help of a local historian we were able to trace his relatives who were than reunited with these medals. The family generously decided to leave these in the collection.
Percy Illingworth was the Member of Parliament for Shipley in the early 20th century. He presided at the opening of a new cricket Pavillion for Saltaire Cricket Club that had been funded by Sir James Roberts.