2020.6.2: Saltaire Overlookers 1830-1914
'Saltaire Overlookers 1830-1914' by Roger Clarke, with contributions by Colin Coates: Includes items relating to individual overlookers and the social life of overlookers
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Plan of Saltaire
Content available under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence
Saltaire Overlookers 1830 to 1914 By Roger Clarke in collaboration with Colin Coates 1 Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Colin Coates, whose ability to use his computer skills to access information from census returns, newspaper stories, and many other sources has provided me with detailed material which would otherwise have been unavailable, especially in the biographies of Saltaire residents. His research is much appreciated. I have used Jack Reynold’s ‘The Great Paternalist’, published 1983 extensively in researching information about Saltaire in Victorian times. Part one Setting the scene th At the end of the 18 century the time was right for change, and for a different attitude towards work and employment. Calvin preached that hard work, thrift, and efficiency in one’s worldly calling were keys to eternal salvation. Profit is an end in itself, and the pursuit of profit is virtuous. Early capitalists needed a skilled and unskilled workforce disciplined to accept long hours and harsh conditions for as small a wage as possible to maximise profits. The organisation of labour in textile mills was dependent on the nature of the machinery involved, which determined the need for huge galleries and a large workforce to service the machines. Examples of early mills are:- • In 1776, Richard Arkwright, built his cotton mill at New Lanark. There were 9 rooms in the mill for preparing the raw cotton, carding drawing and roving, bobbin winding, throstle spinning, mule spinning, warping and beaming, drawing and weaving, and each was under the control of an overlooker. • In 1840, Brunswick cotton spinning mill, Ancoats, Manchester was built by David Bellhouse who employed William Fairburn to design a 7 storey block which housed 276 carding machines, 77,000 mule spindles, 20 drawing frames, 50 slubbing frames, and 81 roving frames. Overlookers The typical structure of the mill was to have a department manager and an overlooker for each of the mechanised processes involved from combing to dyeing. The following list outlines the generic role of the overlooker in all departments:- • Middle management between workers and bosses. • Maintenance of machines – regular oiling and checking, often before workers arrived. Undertake basic repairs, bringing in specialist mechanics if 2 necessary. Salts had their own specialists. Some overlookers were so good that they could tell if a machine was about to break down before it did. • Checking attendance. Workers were only allowed in at specific times and if you missed the time you might be allowed in after paying a fine. Overlookers had to make sure they had enough workers to operate the machines in their department, which included breaks and lunchtime when the machines continued to run. • Making sure that workers operated the machines efficiently and reliably. • Inspected the quality of the pieces before they left the department. • Hiring and firing. In some mills managers insisted on interviewing the overlooker’s choice. Workers could appeal to management if they felt unfairly dismissed. • Reporting accidents. • Checking use of toilets, ensuring that only one person used them at a time to prevent time wasting and gossiping. • The effectiveness of overlookers depended on their personalities and their ability to motivate workers as well as keeping control. • Training on the job. Observing the overlooker, but then had to attend evening classes 3 nights a week for a year. Then had one day a week day release and one evening a week for classes. The process could take 4 to 6 years. Bradford Mechanics Institute (between 1832 and 1882) and then Bradford Technical College offered other business classes which they could choose from. All funded by Mill. Apprentice overlookers could find that they were earning less money than mill juniors because the mill was paying for their training. Overlookers played their greatest role in spinning and weaving. In spinning they repaired machinery, inspected the final product and supervised both drawing and spinning room operatives. Each spinning room overlooker supervised about 40 workers. Weaving overlookers performed similar tasks but in addition they inspected the warps for weaving and determined the quality of the completed pieces. They were in charge of 50 to 100 looms. Overlookers were paid more than ordinary workers. They received 28/- to 30/- a week, compared with 14/- to 28/- for male workers, 9/- for female workers and 8/- to 10/- for children. Which raises the interesting question of how this payment was worked out for the most demanding overlooker role - in the weaving department. There had to be an element of technical skill here because overlookers would not only maintain the looms, they would often tune them and set up the patterns which were to be woven. But how do you calculate, in cash terms, for their exercise of authority over the workers? They were responsible for the flow of production and therefore controlled the distribution of work, the speed at which snags were overcome and the immediate discipline of the floor. One way was to put a value on the product of the worker’s labour i.e. the pieces of cloth produced – their length, complexity and density of the weave. In which case 3 their wages would vary from week to week according to piecework. Mills varied in the amount allowed for piecework and that allowed for the overlooker’s contribution. There was a ratio of 1 overlooker per 30 to 40 workers. Overlookers were invariably male in contrast to a largely female and child workforce. The complexity of the overlooker’s role is obvious from one of the few surviving examples of an overlooker’s notebook which can be found in the West Yorkshire Archive. It was the property of Fred Shackleton, an overlooker in Salts Mill in 1919. He was responsible for twisting, warping, winding and reeling. His notebook contains long handwritten lists of information about wages for a wide range of workers including takers-off, doffers, setters, jobbers, reelers, warpers, winders and hankers, and the prices of materials, all of which changed regularly and had to be updated. Overlookers had to be literate and numerate which many workers were not. Discipline of the workforce. In supervising the workers, especially children, overlookers often resorted to physical punishment. • “The overlooker gave us all a bit of the alley strap. It used to knock all the bits of wool, you know all the waste, it used to send it under the frames, so when the walking boss came round it were all tidy you see. Oh it were a big alley strap and it were all leather, and if they didn’t behave themselves they got a bit of this alley strap”. (From ‘Textile Voices’ by Tim Smith and Olive Howarth – Bradford Heritage Recording Unit. Published by Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage). • “Newspapers carried reports of continued violence in the work place, such as the 10 year old who died in March,1857, a week after a beating by an overlooker at Garnett’s Mill. The frequency of such violence led the ‘Textile Manufacturer’ to remark in December, 1875, that overlookers seemed to believe that they could treat children as they pleased. It recommended that notices be posted telling overlookers that they could not strike children.” • Evidence provided to the Factory Commissioners in 1832 stated “Discipline was the responsibility of the overlooker and was invariably maintained using a strap. In some mills it was not unknown for the overlooker to use a spindle from one of the machines to discipline children; particularly boys, who seem to have been dealt with more harshly than girls. One overlooker said that he had occasionally seen girls of 15 or 16 strapped, and on one occasion a woman of 20, although he had not strapped any girl over the age of 14. The same man said that he had sometimes seen parents of boys come to the mill to complain about excessive beatings. He also said that he thought that many parents did not complain about excessive beatings because they were afraid that it would encourage the overlooker concerned to find a reason to dismiss the child as quickly as possible. Interestingly, the majority of children giving evidence did not appear to feel aggrieved at having been beaten.” 4 • Sutcliffe Rhodes, frequent commentator in the local Press in the 1860s, cites “the sight of an emaciated form of a spinning girl rendered helpless by the scandalous abuse of an overlooker. And the dying spinner boy who said ‘Ellis Brook (overlooker) has pawsed me right hard”. There are many descriptions of the condition of children in mills in literature, including Disraelis ‘Sybil’ or ‘The Two Nations’ (1845) Dickens ‘Hard Times’ Charlotte Bronte ‘Shirley’ (1849) Frances Trollop ‘Michael Armstrong’ (1876) Gaskells ‘Mary Barton’ and ‘North and South’ (1854) Mrs Tonna ‘Helen Fleetwood’ (1839) I could find little evidence of extreme sexual abuse, such as that demonstrated in the 2015 film ‘Suffragette’ starring Meryl Streep as Emmaline Pankhurst and Cory Milligan as Maud Watts a laundry worker. A male supervisor has been sexually abusing girls in the laundry for years, including Maud and currently a friend’s young daughter. It may be that even when sexual abuse was known about it remained covert and was not publicised - certainly not in courts or newspapers. For example, between 1870 and 1914, 39 cases of sexual abuse came before Hamstead magistrates. Only a quarter were committed for trial. Three quarters were dealt with summarily. 60% of these received a conviction for common assault or indecent exposure and 40% were dismissed. As in other areas of the country, cases of sexual abuse were either acquitted or trivialised as minor public order offences. And from the Office of National Statistics we have • “In excess of 500 people were dealt with by the courts per year during the 1920s, rising incrementally to over 5,000 by the 1960s. • Throughout, however, this represented merely the tip of an iceberg. It is likely that the ten-fold increase was a result of changes in police and criminal justice procedure (enabling more cases to be reported and recorded) rather than an increase in prevalence. • Whilst the number of cases reported to the police increased incrementally across the period, evidence suggests there was a significant decline in the proportion that resulted in guilty verdicts. The law had been constructed as a reaction to Victorian moral anxieties – including concerns about homosexuality - rather than the need to protect and safeguard children. This means that children (as those against whom offences were committed) were only partially visible within the criminal justice statistics. In sum, the British state did not effectively monitor abuse of children. Ultimately it is only possible to conclude that the law and criminal justice system were woefully inadequate in dealing with child sexual abuse.” 5 However, there are examples of sexual harassment such as:- “There were one fellow, and we used to call him ‘Touchy’ because every time he come reckoning to look at the box he’d touch your behind. I remember one time I were on the box, and we used to warn each other when he was coming. They all used to say ‘watch him with Hilda’. And of course this day I didn’t know he were on and I was doing something with my machine and he come and put his hand right across my bottom. So I turned round, picked up a bobbin and hit him with it. So they took me to the office for it. The gentleman that was over the overlookers asked me what I hit him for. I said, ‘when he stops touching my arse I’ll stop hitting him with bobbins.” (Textile Voices) Women’s rights were very limited in the Nineteenth Century. The following is a reminder of what they were:- “1857 Matrimonial Causes Act – a man could divorce his wife for adultery, but she had to prove his adultery and also an additional ‘matrimonial offence’ such as cruelty, desertion, bigamy or incest. The reason was that a wife’s adultery ‘might introduce a spurious child into the family whereas a man’s promiscuity would have no such deleterious effects’. Under common law a married woman’s independent identity was totally subsumed in that of her husband under the doctrine of ‘coverture’. She was not able to enter into legal contacts and had no rights in her own property. All she had earned or inherited belonged to her husband. The 1870 Married Women’s Property Act was passed but inadequately gave women further rights. Husbands could gamble or drink away their wife’s earnings. Wives could not even have custody of their own children since the father was deemed to be the ‘natural’ guardian regardless of his faults. In 1878 the Matrimonial Causes Act enabled brutalised wives to obtain a Protection Order with the force of a judicial separation in the Magistrates Court to receive custody of their children and be awarded maintenance. However this did not constitute divorce and the woman could not remarry.” (From Sex, Gender and Social Change In Britain since 1880 by Lesley A Hall) Fortunately there are also examples of overlookers motivating their workers using more easy going methods. For example:- “We made a parcel up. We put orange peel, mucky bobbins, sweepings up, and made a lovely parcel and wrote on it ‘To our beloved overlooker from his doffers’. Well he got hold of it and looked at it you know, he’s looking right slyly around him, and he crept out and went into the men’s toilet. When he came out he shied the bobbins at us, orange peel, apple cores, banana skins. Anyhow he were a lovely overlooker and we loved him.” (Textile Voices) But there are other ideas about discipline and control in mills When Robert Owen took over control of the New Lanark Mill in the early 1800s he devised a new way for overlookers to control his workers in the workplace. He introduced the silent monitor. This was a four-sided piece of wood 2 inches long and one inch wide, each side coloured – one side black, one blue, one yellow and 6 one white, with a hook on top to hang it near to every person employed. The colour to the front told of the conduct of the person on the preceding day. Books of character were provided for each Department with the names of employees listed and monitor readings were noted in the book. The books were changed six times a year and were preserved. This system was similar to Jeremy Bentham’s Panoptican, a model prison featuring a central tower with several wings radiating out from it. The prisoner can always see the tower but never knows when or from where he is being observed. Prisoners self police their own behaviour because the guard may be watching, Each individual is seen but cannot communicate with the warders or other prisoners. The panopticon induces a sense of permanent visibility that ensures the functioning of power. Surveillance is permanent in its effects even if it is discontinuous in its action. Michelle Foucault was a French philosopher who had well formulated ideas about the nature of power in various social settings. He looked at diamond mines, prisons, schools, hospitals and the military, and saw common features in the way in which they impose disciplinary power in order to create ‘docile, obedient bodies’. That is, discipline must come about without excessive force through careful observation. Individual personal differences are not acknowledged unless they are related to skill, promotion or production. The Mill is divided into discrete departments and workers are classified in this way. The disciplinary power of the Mill is that it controls this system, and individuals become workers (or ‘operatives’). In Saltaire, this system of discipline is extended because the houses which the workers rented are owned by the Mill and linked with their employment . There are two local examples of this form of disciplinary surveillance. Saltaire Primary School has a balcony extending all the way around a central hall below which classrooms are situated, each with glass windows which enable a headteacher to observe the classroom from above without being seen. Salts Mill has huge open galleries (especially ‘The Lobby’) within which the textile machines were situated, enabling overlookers to observe a number of machines without actually approaching them. In a Bradford Mill Rachel Bellerby (‘Chasing the Sixpence – the lives of Bradford Mill Folk’ published by Fort Publishing Ltd) describes an overlooker who “had his own small office at the end of the weaving shed, which had glass sides so that he could always see what was happening on the floor”. Part Two The local scene in Saltaire 7 Titus Salt had mills in Bradford before starting to build Saltaire in 1851. Between 1851 and 1853 Salts Mill was built, and in 1853 house building began. Jack Reynolds notes that Saltaire had a selected population – key workers from Salt’s Bradford mills. Overlookers were amongst the first to go to Saltaire. Groups of workers were influenced by overlooker choices and followed them to the village. Warp dressers whose work was crucial at an early stage in the textile process were treated in the same way. Other groups moved more slowly. Overlookers and other senior workers formed an element in the so called workers committee which was responsible for allocating tenancies in the village. Titus Salt had seen Saltaire as being a place where the mistakes of Bradford could be rectified and a model industrial community could be created meeting his workers spiritual, moral, educational, housing, environmental and social needs – very different to the Bradford which his workers had left behind. The original plans for Saltaire specified two types of housing – workers and overlookers houses. This distinction has never narrowly determined their actual occupancy. The overlookers houses were larger and more expensive to rent and therefore more likely to be occupied by people in Jack Reynold’s ‘executive’ group of employees which includes wool buyers, designers, engineers, chief cashiers, managers, foremen and overlookers. Their size also means that they are more suitable for large families or for use of two families which wanted to live together and share the rent whatever their social position. These houses were initially on William Henry St, and George St, followed by ‘improved’ overlooker houses on Victoria Rd, Albert Rd and on Gordon Terrace and Myrtle Place. House building continued uphill towards Bradford Rd, with the improved housing of later build appealing to overlooker choices and there was a lot of tenant mobility. Reynolds says “Removals within the village were a persistent feature of village life. Of those who stayed between 1861 and 1871, over 50% moved to better or newer houses as they were completed and left older property to newcomers”. The following table shows overlooker choices over time according to Census returns. Overlookers Choice of Houses by street Street 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 Ada St 6 4 1 1 2 Albert Rd 6 4 3 4 5 Albert Ter 1 1 3 Almshouses 4 Amelia St 5 2 2 Bath Buildings 1 Caroline St 2 4 1 6 2 Constance St 1 2 5 2 2 Daisy Place 1 8 Dove St 1 2 4 2 7 Edward St 2 1 1 1 2 1 Fanny St 4 1 1 Fern Place 1 1 Garden 1 1 1 1 Cottage George St 11 10 10 9 7 11 Gordon Ter 4 4 2 3 Harold Place 1 1 1 1 1 Helen St 4 2 1 3 3 1 Herbert St 4 4 3 1 2 3 Higher School 1 1 St Jane St 2 1 6 3 Katherine St 1 1 Lockwood St 1 1 2 2 3 Lower School 1 5 2 2 St Mary St 6 3 1 1 1 3 Mawson St 3 4 4 2 2 Myrtle Place 1 1 Shirley St 2 1 8 1 1 3 Titus St 8 13 12 7 6 3 Victoria Rd 1 7 7 4 4 4 Whitlam St 4 3 4 2 1 William Henry 3 2 3 1 2 2 St This table shows one thing very clearly – that in the Mill the overlookers were part of the management structure but at home they lived on the same streets as fellow workers and were regarded as working men. I looked in detail at both overlooker and ordinary worker’s families and found very little difference in terms of number of children or lifestyle. One difference is that overlookers tended to be better educated than the ordinary workers. They had to have a better level of literacy to embark on an apprenticeship, and to follow their overlooker training. They also arranged for their children to remain in education for as long as possible, recognising that this was necessary to enter a skilled trade on leaving school. However, education was expensive at secondary level, and it is suggested that a foreman earning less than £100 per year could not afford to send their children to school beyond 13 or 14 years. The children of ordinary workers left school earlier, as soon as possible to begin work in the mill and earn a wage. Many were half-timers. Overlookers wives and families were closely involved in village life, living alongside the families of ordinary workers. Married women and their children, whatever their husband’s occupation, shared the everyday life of the village. It might not be 9 possible to know all 4,300 inhabitants of the village in 1906, but gossip was a common commodity , and Edward Stanners remarked at a later date that the women on the factory floor would often get to work half an hour early in order to ‘cal’ and catch up with the latest events in the village. The fact that Saltaire village had clear boundaries and was widely publicised as a model village gave workers of all kinds a sense of pride, belonging and a shared commitment to each other. Many employees and their families had known each other for many years working for the same firm even before moving to Saltaire and there were often kinship links. Some overlookers had worked as ordinary workers in the past. My hypothesis Overlookers were in a position to take the lead in contributing to community initiatives “Skilled men played a greater part than others in the administration of village facilities” (Reynolds) The following is a look at the evidence that this was the case. In Parliament The Nine Hours Movement. “Began with engineers and craft unions nationally, and only became a real issue when taken up by textile workers, led by overlookers. It was headed by Mundella, MP for Sheffield who consulted with the Overlookers’ Short Time Committees in Bradford and Leeds and brought a Bill before the House in 1872 to limit the working hours of women and children in factories to nine hours a day. A group of employers opposed the Bill, suggesting that although they worked longer hours than most craftsmen they did not work as hard in ten hours as the men did in nine. A deputation including Edward Salt presented their views to the Home Office. They claimed that there was no widespread desire among workers for a reduction of hours, for many textile workers were on piece rates and the prospect only faced them with diminished earnings. They claimed that the overlookers who had brought the agitation did so to bring their own hours into line with mill craftsmen who had obtained the reduction through their unions. Mundella’s Bill did not pass the House but a less generous Bill, the Ten Hour Bill was passed by the Disraeli administration.” (Reynolds) and “Working men were beginning to demand a more real political authority, either through a Radical/Labour wing of the Liberal Party or in a new Independent Labour Movement. In 1892, Saltaire men joined with Shipley working men to indicate that they were no longer willing to accept the political leadership of the local mill owners, and in particular the special authority of Salts. They produced their own Liberal/Labour candidate for the general election of 1892 – WP Byles had backed the strikers at Manningham Mills in 1890/91. He won the seat, leading to the resignation of Charles Stead as chairman of the Shipley Liberal Executive. Seth 10 Bentley, manager of Saltaire Baths, and a regular critic of the Salt authority, took Stead’s place. Among the men who supported him on the Executive were vice presidents Alex George, J Cryer, and Isaac Sanctuary. Isaac Sanctuary later joined the Bradford Independent Labour Party in 1893 when a branch was formed in Shipley, and his place on the Liberal Executive was taken by his brother Jacob.” (Reynolds) There were two political organisations in Shipley Shipley Liberal Club. Charles St, off Briggate, Shipley. Opened 1887. 400 members. Shipley Conservative Club. Atkinson St, off Westgate, Shipley with 300 members. Plus Saltaire Manhood Suffrage Association. “By 1866 there was a powerful branch of the National Reform League in Saltaire with secretary Robert Power, ‘an uncompromising radical’, son of Edward Power who had been imprisoned in 1848 in Bradford for Chartist activity. In 1866 and Easter Tuesday in 1887 the Manhood Suffrage Association turned out in force with the blessing of the firm which closed for the 1866 occasion since it was not a public holiday. The Saltaire Brass Band played the accompaniment to the march from Saltaire to Leeds. The National Reform League was a working class movement which asserted the intrinsic dignity and worth of working men as individuals and as members of a class. Unlike Chartism it did not demand social reform – it was a franchise for men who were properly ‘residential and registered”. (Jack Reynolds) In Saltaire Let’s begin by looking at organisations which provided safeguards against death and sickness. Saltaire Funeral Brief Society Open to anyone over 7 years old living in Saltaire and in good health pay 1.5d under 21, and over 21 they pay 3d as an entrance fee. Then a levy of 2d is made on those over 21 and 1d under that age. They receive £5 on death if over 21 and £4 under that age. The Society was formed in 1857 and by 1879 it had nearly 3,000 members. Originally Thomas Greenwood of 22, George St, an overlooker, was the secretary. Like the savings bank it was run by senior workers. In 1879, James Rushton was President, James Paley, (spinning overlooker) secretary, and the committee of 15 was made up of overlookers, specialist mechanics and warehouse men with only one ordinary ‘millhand’. Among the committee were men who were constantly active in the affairs of the village – Sharp Varley (weaving overlooker), Samuel Baldwin (overlooker), Edwin Cox and John Lambert. Saltaire Men’s Society 11 For relief of the sick. John Wood of 9. Mawson St, Secretary. Members above 18 and under 25 pay 6d per month, and above 25 but under 50 pay 8d per month. During sickness they are entitled to 8s per week for the first six months, 4s for the next six weeks and 2s per week after that. In addition to payments from members, Sir Titus Salt pays the Society 4d per month for each member enrolled. Saltaire Women’s Society For relief of the sick. Thomas Greenwood (overlooker), 22, George St, Secretary. Members over 16 pay 4d per month. They are then entitled to 5s for the first six months of sickness, and 3s per week afterwards. Sir Titus Salt pays the Society 6d per month for every member enrolled. Other organisations which encouraged saving to meet times of need included:- Saltaire Penny Savings Bank. Formed in 1857 by a number of senior workmen with Joseph Dawson, foreman of the wool warehouse as secretary. Post Office Savings Bank Opened in 1861 enabling the GPO to provide a simple savings scheme for ordinary wage earners. By 1914 it had more than 8.5 million accounts, almost 80% of which were under £25. Bingley, Shipley and Keighley Building Society. Established 1851. Opens in Shipley at Yorkshire Bank Chambers, Otley Rd twice a week to collect subscriptions. Branch of Bradford Old Bank. Open daily on Market Place, Shipley. Friendly Societies To ward off the effect of sickness, injury or death amongst working men. The three largest Friendly Societies were the Oddfellows, the Foresters and the Royal and Ancient Order of Buffaloes. 8% of the population in 1815 were in Friendly Societies. Legislation to encourage the formation of Friendly Societies came as early as 1793. This was consolidated in 1850 with an Act of Parliament and a government department was established to administer the Act. By the early 1830s the Oddfellows had 30,000 members and 561 lodges, increasing to 90,000 members and 3,500 lodges by 1842. There were lodges in every county of England. By 1874 there were 489,237 members and 1908 there were 868,190. The Bradford branch of the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows was the richest in the West Riding and had 27 lodges, 3,382 members and paid out over £3,000 a year in death, sickness and medical benefits in 1850.’ Royal Antedeluvian Order of Buffaloes (The Buffs). Formed in 1822 as a Fraternal organisation who’s mission was Justice, Truth and Philanthropy. They aided members and their families in times of need and supported local charities. Branches were called Lodges, in imitation of Freemasons. Overlookers in Bradford had the Power Loom Overlookers Society and the Amalgamated Overlookers. They had a motto of ‘United to help, not combined to injure’. They had no connection with strikes or trade unions. Their object was to benefit each other in employment and to assist each other in sickness and death. 12 They were originally Friendly Societies. The first was in 1827, Bradford No 1 Overlookers Provident Society; the second in 1833, Bradford No 2 Managers and Overlookers Society; the third in 1862, Bradford No 3 Overlookers Provident Society. All three merged in 1911 to become Bradford and District Managers and Overlookers Society. Some Mills required apprentices to join them. But help still came mainly from relatives or the pawnshop. The peak year for pawn shops came in 1914 when there were 5087 shops operating under licence in Britain. The number declined after this point. Co-ops In the 1830s/40s chandler’s shops were popular. They advanced goods on credit but often the goods were adulterated, over priced and of poor quality – and the same with firms operating the truck system. The Rochdale Pioneers bought good quality food at wholesale prices, cutting out the middle man and avoiding adulteration. Then in 1862 the Co-operative Wholesale Society was formed with similar ideas. This also provided a dividend (a payment Society profits once a year in proportion to the buyers expenditure). It had 400,000 members in 1883, reaching 2.3 million in 1913, 3.2 million in 1923 and 6 million in 1937. Saltaire Industrial Coal Society – Formed in 1864 when W Tiffany (wool sorter) was Secretary. Offices were at 13, Victoria Rd. Members received dividends and bonuses dependant on the amount of coal sold and profits made. In 1871 it had 600 to 800 members. In 1876 and 1877 there were newspaper advertisements under the heading ‘Coal! Coal! Coal!!!’ listing all the types of coal stocked and profits made. Orders received by W Tiffany of 30, Albert Rd. Jabez Copley of 20 George St was then Secretary. With Isaac Constantine they were the organisers of the Society. Independent Co-operative and Industrial Society Ltd – 6, Victoria Rd. Michael Holdsworth of 4, Gordon Terrace (overlooker and later weft room manager) was secretary. Closed in Saltaire in 1881. Leeds Co-operative Society. 8, Victoria Rd. James Wilkinson, storekeeper – Isaac Constantine, President of 33, Victoria Rd. Closed in Saltaire in September, 1885. Windhill Co-operative Society opened a branch at 30/31 Caroline St in May,1881. Abraham Barras was a director. Religion Saltaire Congregational Church. Opened for divine worship in 1859, and by 1860 had a regular weekly congregation of 400, plus a Sunday School with 110 on register. It was the elite church in Saltaire with Titus Junior as a member and principal benefactor and George Morrell and Frederick Wood, Chief Cashier, among the deacons. A number of well-to-do Shipley people also formed part of the communicant membership. Saltaire Wesleyan Methodist Chapel drew its leaders from a wider social circle than the Congregational Church, and included the manager of the wool warehouse, 13 the mill engineer, several of the overlookers and woolsorters and four or five woolcombers. Low Lane Primitive Methodist Church, off Saltaire Rd, Shipley. Opened in 1840 and closed in 1960 when it was demolished. St Paul’s Parish Church, Kirkgate, Shipley Built in 1826 St Walburger’s Catholic Church (Parish of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Built 1878. Saltaire Society of the New Church (Swedenborgians) In his history of this Church, Bernard Leather describes that in 1870 a group of men (many of whom were Salts Mill workers), looking for rooms to rent where religious services could be held. They first used 13, Victoria Rd but in 1882/3 they “took the tenancy of two small rooms in Saltaire Rd, Saltaire which were part of the group of almshouses”. This was also known as Chapel House which held Sunday services for the Congregational Church. It was No 6, Alexandra Square (later renumbered as 29, Victoria Rd). Services were held there until 1924 and Leather describes the rooms in detail. Isaac and Jacob Sanctuary, Albert Cawthra, Robert Power, John Preston (an artist), Ben Preston (writer and poet), Abraham Holroyd (bookseller and stationer), Jonathan Mitchell (warp twister), Richard Barker (warp twister), Seth Bentley (manager Saltaire Bath-house), and James Mattack of Baildon (shopkeeper of various wares and street trader) were the founders. They were articulate, strong minded men with firm political and religious ideas. I understand that Swedenborgianism is an interpretation of the Bible which can be incorporated into other religious beliefs and so the members came from a number of religious backgrounds. In 1901, the group bought land in Park St from the Trustees of Sir Titus’ will and Sir Titus Salt Bart. Sons and Co Ltd, but never built a church there. In 1924 the Saltaire group amalgamated with the Bradford Society of the New Church and opened a New Church at Ashfield Avenue, Frizinghall. Apart from all these formal organisations, there were many societies for Saltarians to join in their leisure time. Fire Brigade – S Shackleton, Foreman, 29, Victoria Rd. Floral and Horticultural Society – Founded 1861. Renamed the Horticultural, Pig and Dog Society in 1873 and then the Horticultural, Pig, Dog, Poultry and Pigeon Society in 1876. W Tiffany, 30 Albert Rd, Secretary. “It had about 100 members, most prominent among them were long serving and skilled employees such as Eli Lambert, Isaac Constantine, John Hanson, James Ellis, Sam Baldwin and James Rushton. Men of this type were most likely to be allocated and to keep the allotments which the firm provided, though they could not establish a total monopoly since there were 100 allotments and 38 piggeries along the canal-side. It had an annual show and exhibition which was a highlight of the village social life. In addition to a produce competition (judged by the Head 14 Gardener from Methley Park) there were athletic events attracting a nationwide field and games were arranged for the children”. (Reynolds) In 1869 there were also horses jumping hurdles and a velocipede race. From 1867 to 1876 it was “held in a field owned by Mr Titus Salt situated on the Baildon side of the River Aire – the entrance to which was rather difficult and inconvenient owing to the fact that the construction of a new bridge is going on just now” (Bradford Observer). This presumably was what, since 1871, was Saltaire Park (later Roberts Park). There were no shows between 1877 and 1881, but in 1882 it was held on a recreation ground on Albert Rd. Cricket Club – William Parker, Secretary. It was destined, like the gymnastics club and the brass band, to achieve national fame. It was founded in 1865 with 140 members and promise by Salt to provide a playing area. It was reorganised in 1871 when the firm began to take a more positive interest in its affairs. The managing director, Charles Stead became President and Titus Salt was on the committee. The firm (under Sir James Roberts) provided a ground in the new park and generous financial help. The Half Moon Café was built for the Club. (There is a book by Patsy Quinn called ‘Run of the Mill’ which describes the history of the Club but which unfortunately concentrates on professional players like Sidney Banks and doesn’t mention the ordinary members at all. It does however have a photo of the Veterans team which is worth looking at). String and Reed Band – Anthony Hill of Caroline St was bandmaster. Saltaire Brass band. Challenged the already famous Black Dyke Mills band for pre-eminence in national competitions. It was originally founded in 1855 and called the Saltaire Brass Band, supported financially by Titus with £1,000 per year. There were two bands originally – a drum and fife band for the boys and a brass band for the men of the village, all of whom worked in the Mill. It began to enter national competitions, gaining first prize at the Crystal Palace in London in 1861, and second prize at the Belle Vue September Contest in 1872. There were numerous prizes at more local contests, but from the early 1870’s it was no longer entering national competitions. In 1894 it was disbanded, and the instruments were called in by the Company. Then there was a time gap until 1932 when it reformed as Salts Silver under the tuition of Mr HB Hawley, and they used to practice in the Royal Café (Salt’s old dining hall on Victoria Road). It changed its name to Salts (Saltaire) Band and was very successful on the national scene. Mr Hawley continued as its sponsor, but in 1946 he decided to form a new junior band and link this with his thriving business – he was managing director of Hammond’s Sauce Company. Some of the original senior band members transferred to this new band and Hammond’s Sauce Works Band was born, to go on to national fame and recognition. Hawley died in 1981, leading to changes in the management at Hammonds, and sponsorship was finally withdrawn in the early 1990s. Fortunately Yorkshire Building Society came in with a new offer to sponsor, and the name changed to the Yorkshire Building Society Band, and then to the YBS Band. 15 In January, 2009, the band was renamed the Hammond’s Saltaire Band. Gymnastics Club. Housed at the Institute it became a leading club in the north of England. Glee and Madrigal Society – John Johnson, Secretary. In 1869 J Giles of 47, George St was secretary. Saltaire Prize Choir Formed in 1877 as the Saltaire Wesleyan Choir, this choral group went on to achieve huge successes on the national musical scene. All over Britain, competitions were held with cash prizes, encouraging groups to form in order to win substantial rewards. The Wesleyan Choir became the Saltaire Prize Choir in 1889, and here are a few of their most notable achievements:- • Held at Hawes, the Hardraw Scar Brass Band and Choral Contest was set in an natural outdoor amphitheatre. Saltaire Prize Choir won first prize in 1890, and went on to compete here with the same success for many years. • In 1891, they performed at the Welsh National Eisteddfod in Swansea and picked up a second prize. They endured a 10 hour train ride to get there, performing before 30,000 people in a canvas tent in the rain. • At Tanfield, near Newcastle, they were invited to the mansion of Sir Frederick Milbank, Bart, there they sang and were given the freedom to explore the house and gardens. • After winning first prize at Morecambe in 1896, they returned home by train at 1-30am on Sunday morning to be greeted on the station by hundreds of supporters to welcome them back. In the pouring rain the crowd demanded a short concert on the railway bridge where the choir sang “The Sea Hath its Pearls” by Pinsuti and “Great God of Love” a madrigal in 8 parts by Pearsall – all without copies and under umbrella canopies. But perhaps the best know of their achievements was their performance at the Second Annual International Music Traders’ Exhibition, Royal Agricultural Hall, London in July, 1896, where they were awarded first prize of a Gebruder Knake white grand piano, worth 100 guineas. Angling Association – GH Bayley of 12 Victoria Rd and J Hall of Market St, Bradford were agents. Jack Reynolds notes that “There was a fishing club with one of there woolsorters as secretary which provided sport for about 100 men. It was supported by Titus Junior who established a trout farm at Milner Field and kept a stretch of the River Aire inside the Park stocked with fish”. Thirty-ninth West Riding Rifle Volunteers – J Crowther, Captain. Established in summer 1859. Edward Salt, George Salt and Titus Junior Salt held commissions in it for short periods and 90 young men in the village joined the ranks. Its armoury was located in Victoria Hall. Sir Titus provided beer for the men on manoeuvres. Shipley Musical Union Club. Wainman St. Established 1880. Gentlemen only. 16 Shipley Temperance Union. General Committee meets at Rosse St School. Established 1892, for the promotion of temperance and general moral well-being of the community, by efforts of an educational, remedial and preventative character. In 1906 the Shipley Temperance Union was located at The People's Hall, Otley Road, between Dale Street and Cross Banks. (thanks to David King for this information). President Mr George Morrell. There follows extracts from overlooker biographies, with their involvement in local organisations highlighted Baldwin, Samuel 1815 – 25 July 1888 Samuel Baldwin was born c1814 in Guiseley. He married Sarah Greenbough 2 February 1840 at Christ Church Bradford. They had five children. By 1861 they were living at 34 (renumbered 60) George Street in Saltaire with Samuel working as an overlooker. In August 1864 Samuel won a prize at the Saltaire Horticultural Show for his roses. By 1871 Samuel and his family had moved to 28 Victoria Road (renumbered 45 in 1880 then renumbered 71 in 1898) in Saltaire. In March 1879 Samuel was elected as an officer of the Saltaire Funeral Brief Society. Samuel died 25 July 1888 at 6 Mawson Street in Saltaire Barras, Abraham c1846 – 20 January 1925 Abraham married Sarah Horne 1 June 1868 at St Wilfrid’s Calverley. They had six children, with one dying as an infant. They lived all their lives in Windhill. In March 1885 Abraham was appointed to represent Windhill on the Central Committee of the Shipley Liberal Party. In February 1895 he was elected onto the Shipley School Board. He began work as a boy at Saltaire Mills in the spinning department and was a spinning overlooker for many years. On leaving Saltaire Mill he took up the insurance business for upwards of 20 years. In his early manhood was a prominent member of the Windhill Young Men's Institute. Later he became associated with the Windhill Wesleyan Mission, and for nearly 60 years was a well-known local preacher. He was also actively identified with the local cooperative movement and was a director of the Windhill Co- operative Society for 23 years. He was for many years a member of the Shipley Veterans Association, and during the absence of Mr. Hulme (chaplain) conducted the weekly services. Boddy, John 1843 – January 1915 John worked at Saltaire Mill for fifty four years in various jobs; warehouseman, weft man, worsted overlooker and clerk. He was an active member of the Saltaire Wesleyan Church and at one time or another held practically all the offices open to a layman. Amos Brear 17 Amos died 14 March 1919. Report from the Shipley Times 21 March 1919 as follows: - Originally a worker in Saltaire Mills, at which he became a spinning overlooker, he commenced in 1866, along with his brother, the drapery business in Saltaire Road. Mr. Brear was held in great respect and esteem by the tradesmen of Shipley, and this feeling found expression in 1906 when he was elected President the Tradesmen's Association. His connection with the Association dated from its formation. At the time of his death Mr. Brear was the senior deacon of the Saltaire Congregational Church, and he had served on the deaconate for 37 years. For over 20 years he was also treasurer of the church. With the church and Sunday school at Saltaire he had indeed been closely connected for over 65 years, Mr. Brear was a director for the last 15 years of the Bingley Building Society, a meeting of which he attended a fortnight before his death. A lifelong Liberal, and a member of the West Ward Liberal Club, he unsuccessfully contested two Urban Council elections in 1899 and 1913. After he was 50 years of age, he became a keen and enthusiastic cyclist, and rode many thousands of miles, Carr, John Francis 1896 – 26 October 1917 John was born c1896 in Saltaire. In 1911 he was living with his parents at 60 George Street in Saltaire. John Francis was employed as a worsted piece overlooker in Saltaire Mill. He was well known as the scorer for the Saltaire Cricket Club Second X1. He was also connected with Saltaire’s Men Own and the Saltaire Horticultural Society. Carr, Henry 1855 – 1924 During WW1 Henry served as secretary of the Shipley & District Ambulance Corps. Mr. Carr was one of the founders and the first secretary of the Shipley Gala Committee when it was formed in 1885, and up to these last few years had always taken an active part in the annual gala. He was also for several years’ secretary of the Yorkshire Voluntary Charitable Association, having to resign owing ill-health. As an ambulance worker. Mr. Carr had gained several honours for long and valued service. Constantine, Isaac 15 November 1827 – 5 November 1898 Isaac was a wool sorter, which was his occupation throughout his life. Isaac was a keen gardener. Living in Saltaire he won first prize for his potatoes at the Airedale Floral & Poultry Show 19 August 1856. This was the first of numerous awards he won for his vegetables. In the 1861 census Isaac and his family were living at 5 (renumbered 10) Edward Street in Saltaire. Isaac was active in politics and in local affairs. In April, 1866 he chaired a meeting to consider the Government’s Franchise Bill as part of the National Reform League In March, 1871 he chaired a meeting celebrating the Saltaire Branch of the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society Limited and the Saltaire Industrial Coal Society 18 Limited. Isaac was director of the Saltaire branch of the Leeds Co-Operative Society. By 1871 Isaac and his family had moved to 33 (renumbered 76) Victoria Road in Saltaire, where they remained the rest of their lives. In April 1874 at the annual meeting of the Saltaire Club and Institute Isaac was elected as one of sixteen committee members. At the funeral of Sir Titus Salt (5 January 1877) Isaac was one of twelve foremen of the works invited to officiate as a bearer, to carry the coffin into the Saltaire Congregational Church from the hearse. In July 1882 Isaac was reported as presiding at a meeting of the Saltaire Coal Society. In January 1886 Isaac was elected to and appointed auditor for the Shipley Liberal Hundred. Throughout his life Isaac was involved with Saltaire Cricket Club and in 1893 was vice chairman. Frank Dickinson Report from the Shipley Times 3 June 1953 as follows: - The award of the 0.B.E. to Mr Dickinson, of 58 Marlborough Road, Shipley in the birthday honours announced on Monday will be welcome news to many of Mr. Dickinson’s friends and business associates. He became the first full-time secretary of the Bradford and District Power-Loom Overlookers' Society in 1915. and in 1949 he was appointed a director of U.K. Wool Disposals, Ltd. Mr. Dickinson has been secretary of the Yorkshire Association of Power-Loom Overlookers ever since its inception in 1921. He was one of the founder members of the National Association of Unions in the Textile Trade 1916, was its chairman from 1943-46 and is still an Executive member. Mr. Dickinson served the Wool Control Board in both world wars; He was connected with the formation of the Wool Textile Industrial Council and has been a member of the management committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions since 1936. He has been a member of Bradford Employment Committee since 1920 and a member the Appellant Tribunal, for conscientious objectors' appeals since 1940. In Shipley Mr. Dickinson is a vice - president of Northcliffe Amateur Bowling Association and a member of Shipley Musical Union. He was born in Saltaire and commenced work at Saltaire Mills when he was 10 years of age. Frank died in 1962. Doyle, Thomas Francis c1855 – 6 March 1933 Mr Doyle lived in Shipley for well over thirty years and was a departmental manager at the firm of Messrs. Salt’s (Saltaire) Ltd. He was perhaps best known for his political activities. In 1913 he contested the West Ward as a Labour candidate and was elected a member of the Shipley Urban Council, but on four subsequent occasions he was returned unopposed as an Independent candidate for the same ward. In all he served on the Council for 14 years, and rendered valuable service as chairman of the Baths, Public Health, and Promenade Concert Committees, and vice-chairman of the Education Committee. During the war he was a member of the Military Service Tribunal. 19 A very keen musician. Mr. Doyle was a past president of the Shipley Musical Festival, with which he was associated for many years. He was also a member of the committee of the old Saltaire Institute Society, and a past president of the Mills Male Voice Choir. Mr. Doyle was also a former chairman the Shipley I.L.P, a past president of the Saltaire Mills Bowling Club: member of Laycock’s Debating Society, Bradford: a speaker on political economy; a member of the Astronomical Society; and a member of the old Shipley Operatic Society. As a young man he was an enthusiastic Rugby Union player and played wing three-quarter for the Buttershaw Club. His brother, Eddie Doyle, was the famous Bradford and Yorkshire full back. Ellis, Fred 19 Mar 1853 – 1947 He began work at eight in the Saltaire Mills and became a combing overlooker ten years later. He retired on a pension in 1927, after 66 years’ service without a break. In his younger days he was a notable cricketer. He assisted in the formation of the Saltaire Cricket Club and played with the first team as batsman and wicketkeeper until he retired from the game in 1887. In those days the club consisted largely of employees of the Saltaire Mills, and the team was known as the “Millboys in white.” In 1877 he played with the Saltaire and district “XV.,” which defeated the full Notts County team, and he scored nearly 100 runs against the bowling of Billy Barnes, Morley, and Flowers. Two years later he was selected by the M.C.C. to play with a team of All-England colts at Lord’s and scored an outstanding success. Ellis, Edwin 27 April 1855 – 19 September 1940 Edwin Ellis was the son of Joseph Ellis a wool warehouseman. In 1871 & 1881 they were living at 21 Victoria Road with Edwin working as a piece hooker then a weaving overlooker. In 1891 they lived at 14 Almshouses (renumbered 37 Victoria Road). In 1901 & 1911 Edwin was a weaving manager living with his family at 34 Albert Road (renumbered 67). Around 1914 they moved to 29 Avondale Road in Shipley where Edwin would spend the rest of his life. Report from the Shipley Times 28 May 1920 as follows: - “In the year 1864, before he was nine years of age, young “Ted” came to work in the mills as a half-timer and attended the school for half-timers held by the firm in the building now known as the Royal Café in Victoria Road. At this tender age he worked in the drawing room of the spinning department, but after a few months, and before he attained the solemnity of ten years, he became a jobber, which occupation he followed for some four years. At thirteen he was transferred to the weft room of the weaving department and was employed there in pegging bobbins. From the weft room he advanced to piece- hooking and weavers wages clerk, and at sixteen years of age, some 49 years ago, he took up the practical side of weaving. At that time the workers were employed on the noted Donskoi wool, when three pieces per day were turned off the loom. This employment lasted some six months, 20 and in 1873 his future was definitely decided, when, on Sir Titus Salt’s 70th birthday, young Ted became an apprentice weaving overlooker. For nine years, including his apprenticeship, he worked on ladies’ goods in the Dresses Department, and subsequently for eleven years was employed on men’s wear in the Coatings Department. A further period was spent in charge of the Pattern Weaving, and on December 13th, 1894, a few months after the advent of Mr. James Roberts and his co-directors, Ellis was promoted to be the manager of the whole of the Weaving Departments, which position he has held up to the present time, making a total length of service of 55 years. Natural capacity and determination resulted in a very wide and thorough technical knowledge, and this was recognised by the local authorities when, at the inception of the Shipley Technical School in 1887, Mr Ellis was placed in charge of the textile Department, and he held this position for five years. He is a well-known character in old Saltaire, and in his younger days played in the first eleven with the Saltaire Cricket Club. He was in the team on the memorable occasion when they put out Scarborough for eleven runs. Mr. Edwin Ellis is leaving with the tale of fifty-five years to his credit, and his brother, He was presented with a gold watch. Excell, John (Jack) 1 May 1879 – 6 March 1959 Mr John Excell, of 10 Springcliffe Street, Green Lane, Baildon, who died on Friday at the age of 79, retired last July after 69 years unbroken service at Saltaire Mills. He came of a family with a remarkable record of service, even at a firm where there is a tradition for generation to follow generation. His father, who lived to be 95, actually helped to build houses in Saltaire. and worked at the mill for more than 73 years. Mr. Excell’s sister worked there for 47 years, and his son, Mr. Harold Excell, has been at the mill for 50 years. Mr. John Excell was at Delph Hill, Baildon, and started working in the drawing department at the mill when only ten years old. For more than 40 years he was a carding overlooker. In his youth, Mr. Excell played cricket with Baildon Green. He was a member of the New Prosperity Lodge of the Shipley District. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Manchester Unity, and of the Wood bottom Veterans’ Association. Ferrand, William c1821 – 27 February 1903 In 1861 William was a spinning overlooker living with his family at 46 George Street (renumbered 72) in Saltaire. From 1881 they lived at The Green in Baildon where William was a wool buyer and merchant. William died 27 February 1903. Report in the Shipley Times 6 March 1903 as follows: - Mr Ferrand was well known and respected among all classes in the village, having held various public offices. He was throughout his life a sterling Liberal, and his death awakens memories of political struggles in the days before the household franchise was given to the counties, in which he took an active part. Born at Cottingley, he had early in life to begin to earn his own livelihood, which he did first in a humble way as weaver, then as hand comber in Bradford. He was 21 employed at Messrs Forster Fison’s when that firm removed from Bradford to Greenholme, Burley in Wharfedale. He graduated from one position of trust to another until about the year 1860, when he obtained the appointment of wool buyer at Saltaire Mills, a position which he held for many years, ultimately retiring from the firm to commence a business as a woolstapler on his own account in Bradford. Mr Ferrand was a member of the Baildon Local Board for about twelve years and was a district representative on the Wharfedale Board of Guardians over nine years. He was also on the executive committee of the old East Division of the West Riding Liberal Association and of the Otley Division Liberal Executive Committee, and for many years a prominent member of the Otley and Baildon Liberal Clubs. George, Alexander c1840 – 28 March 1910 Alexander was a clothier with a shop on Commercial St, Shipley. By 1874 Alexander and his family were living in Saltaire. He was very active politically and felt strongly about a number of issues. He was a staunch Liberal He was prosecuted and fined for refusing to have his children vaccinated against smallpox. In August, 1903, he presided at a mass meeting of 7,000 people welcoming home two men who had been imprisoned for refusing to have their children vaccinated. He was president of Saltaire Industrial Co-operative Society He objected to half-timer children being compelled to attend Albert Rd Board School. He presided at the Sunday Lectures held at the Temperance Hall He spoke at the meeting held at Wellcroft Field involving 2,000 attendees objecting to the House of Lords refusal to pass the Franchise Bill. He presided at a meeting of the Shipley Liberal Association to elect members of the Liberal Hundred. In January 1900 Alexander was elected President of the Shipley Tradesmen Association at their annual meeting. He supported the candidature of Tom Townsend for re-election as the Liberal representative for the West Shipley Division on the County Council. Gilbert, George 24 March 1857 – 24 August 1927 Report from Shipley Times 6 December 1901 as follows: - Employees of Saltaire Mills met at the Victoria Hotel to bid farewell to two of their older overlookers, Mr. Arthur Nutter and Mr George Gilbert who had been employed at the mill forty and thirty-six years respectively. Mr Nutter left to take charge of the weaving department at Buttershaw Mills and Mr Gilbert to an appointment at Yorkshire College. Hanson, John 1833 – 21 January 1919 John Hanson born in 1833 in Keighley. Aged just eight he worked for Daniel Salt (father of Sir Titus) in Bradford and subsequently he worked for Sir Titus too. When Saltaire Mills opened in 1853, John was the first overlooker in the spinning department. Later he would become an overlooker in drawing and combing. 22 In 1861 they were living at 6 Titus Street in Saltaire, in 1871 at 6 George Street. John was the oldest member of the Overlookers’ Union in the Bradford when he died 21 January 1919. Edwin Holdsworth c1839 – 8 April 1920 Report from the Shipley Times 16 April 1920 as follows: - Death of a Shipley Veteran. At the advanced age of 81 years, Mr. Edwin Holdsworth, 40 Victoria Road, Saltaire, died at his residence on Thursday in last week. For 46 years he was employed as a weaving overlooker at Saltaire Mills. Mr. Holdsworth was connected with the Rosse Street Baptist Church, Shipley, ever since its erection in 1866, and he was a life deacon of the church and one of the first trustees. When the Sunday School was opened, he took charge of the infants’ class, with which he kept up his connection for the long period of a quarter of century. For some years he was teacher and superintendent. In November 1878, he was appointed superintendent of the Sunday School, a position which he held until November 1906. The deceased was one the oldest members of the Shipley Veterans’ Association, member of the Tree of Life Lodge, of the Shipley District 1.0.0. F. (M.U.), and of the Saltaire Liberal Club. Holdsworth, Michael c1822 – 1896 In 1871 Michael was living with his family at 4 Gordon Terrace (renumbered 57 Bingley Road), Saltaire. In 1871 he was an overlooker; 1881 a weft room manager, and by 1891 he had retired. Chaired a public meeting of the Liberation Society in March, 1864 President of the Saltaire Band of Hope in May, 1866 President of the Saltaire Branch of National Reform League in February, 1867 which advocated residential registered manhood suffrage protected by ballot, and that the position taken by the government was vague, indefinite and unsatisfactory. Gave a lecture to the British Temperance League in February 1867. Chaired a meeting of the Shipley and District Temperance Society in July, 1868 Addressed a meeting of the Shipley and District Temperance Society which set up a Band of Hope at a tea meeting in September 1868 Was secretary of the Saltaire Independent Co-Operative and Industrial Society Limited – 6 Victoria Road; Michael Holdsworth, 4 Gordon Terrace Michael & Martha lost their son, Alfred aged 24, in May 1878. His body was found in a canal in Birmingham. He was a cabinet maker and he had found employment. At the inquest into his death an “open verdict” was recorded. Ince, John 19 December 1862 – 18 May 1926 In 1891 John was a spinning overlooker, in 1901 a worsted foreman spinner, and 1911 was spinning manager. He is active in Saltaire Wesleyan Church. Lamb, Joseph 23 27 August 1877 – 1939 His father, John, played cricket for Baildon Green, then he was a “pro” for Manningham, and he was subsequently coach to Oxford University. John died in 1918 and Harriet in 1929. In 1911 they were living at 48 George Street in Saltaire. By 1914 they had moved to 3 Myrtle Place in Saltaire, where they remained until 1934. From 1935 they lived at 13 Albert Road. Joseph worked at Salt’s Mill for over 50 years. He started as a doffer aged just 10 in 1883. He was a spinner overlooker for over 40 years. Like his father Joseph was a keen cricketer. He played for Saltaire when Sydney Barnes was captain of the club. Mansfield, Alfred c1839 – 11 September 1915 In 1871 the family were living at 19 Amelia Street in Saltaire with Alfred working as a worsted spinning overlooker. By 1881 they had moved to 4 Lockwood Street where they remained the rest of their lives. Alfred was a faithful member of the Rosse Street Baptist Chapel for many years and he was secretary of the Shipley Veterans Association. Minakin, Fred 1860 – 21 March 1903 Fred died 21 March 1903. He was a twisting overlooker at Salts Mill. As a sportsman he was on several occasions well to the front and was at one time first in the averages of the Saltaire cricket team, that being during the time of the membership of Harry Mosley and other well-known cracks. He was also owner of several prizes and medals which he had won in the sports at Saltaire Park, but his supremacy in any branch sport was only short-lived, though when he was at his best in any particular branch of athletics he was looked upon as a hero at Saltaire. At the formation the Saltaire Football Club be was installed as secretary and held that position throughout the whole career of that now defunct club, and although he did not take any part in the working of the affairs the club, he was referee in the Yorkshire Rugby Union. Joining the Shipley & District Working Men's Club as assistant secretary, which be held for 3 or years, afterwards taking over the office of secretary, which he held at the time of his death, having been 7 years in that office. He was also a member of the Shipley Brass Band Social Club and was for many years’ auditor for the Baildon Working Men’s Club. He leaves a widow and two children. Mosley, Henry (Harry) 8 March 1850 – 1 June 1922 Local cricketers who can recall the Saltaire Club in the eighties will learn with regret of the death of Mr. Harry Mosley, who about 30 years ago was a professional for Saltaire, and was regarded one of the best left-arm bowlers that time, he being associated with Dickie Barlow, who also was one of Saltaire’s professionals. Mr. Mosley was a native of Shipley, and was employed as a drawing overlooker at Saltaire Mills, and about 30 years ago he emigrated to Sanford, Maine, U.S.A., 24 where was employed a similar capacity for an American firm, where eventually he became manager over the drawing department, and retired pension some time ago. He was succeeded as manager by his son. Regarding his cricketing career, a local enthusiast informs that Mosley played as a professional for 17 seasons—from 1874 to 1890 inclusive. He was considered the most destructive left arm bowler in the whole of the Aire Valley. In 1881 he was tried for Yorkshire County, for his bowling. Pearson, Robert Crowther Wilkinson 5 April 1841 – 15 November 1897 Mr Pearson, who was 58 years of age, had followed the employment of spinning overlooker at Saltaire Mills for about twenty years. About three or four years ago he went to Manningham Mills as a sweeper out. The deceased only arrived back on Wednesday last from London, where he had been spending a month with his son. In his younger days Mr Pearson was a vigorous Radical, the interests of which party he consistently advocated and promoted up to the time of his death. He was member of the Working Men's Club Redman, Ogden 1847 – 12 October 1890 Ogden was not an overlooker. He was employed as a wool sorter at Salts Mill. His only involvement in village life was in the Saltaire Industrial Co-operative Society. He was appointed a compounder (along with Holdsworth and Stell) when a motion was put forward to wind up the Society in August 1876 he moved to Dalry in Scotland, where he was involved in the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society in 1888. Rushton, James Wilkinson 15 August 1825 – 22 September 1893 James married Sarah Whiteoak 18 January 1846 at St Wilfrid’s Calverley. They had a daughter, Ellen Elizabeth, born 23 September 1847. In 1851 they were living at One Street in Bradford with James working as an alpaca sorter. In 1861 they were living at 28 (re-numbered 54) George Street in Saltaire. Sarah, James’s wife, died in 1869. She was buried 1 September. In 1871 widowed James was a wool sorting manager living at 19 Victoria Road, Saltaire. James married widow Amelia Smith (nee Ellison) 28 March 1872 in Bradford Cathedral. They had a son, Charles, born in 1875. Amelia died in 1877. In 1881 & 1891 James was living at 74 Victoria Road in Saltaire. James married Sarah Drake 11 January 1882 at St Paul’s Shipley. Report from the Wharfedale & Airedale Observer - Friday 30 September 1887: - Presentation of a portrait on the occasion of his retirement after 53 years service in Salts Mill as foreman woolsorter. He had joined the firm before Sir Titus created Saltaire - in fact be was the oldest employer about the premises. James died 22 September 1893 aged 68 years. He lived at 32 Moorhead Crescent, Shipley (formerly of George Street, Saltaire), Sanctuary, George 1857 – 12 October 1932 25 Spinning overlooker with 60 years employment at Salts Mill. Secretary of the Prize Choir and member of Congregational Church choir. He was a staunch Liberal and his wife was one of the founder members of Shipley Women’s Liberal Association. Stell, John c1850 – November 1917 John’s father George had been a spinning overlooker, and John was a spinner in 1861. He had a varied career. He then worked as a merchant’s clerk, before becoming cashier in a worsted factory in 1891; in 1901 he was a manager in a braid factory and in 1911, he was an electrical cable manufacturer. In 1878 he was involved in Saltaire Industrial Co-op, and was appointed one of the auditors when it was decided not to close the Society. For many years he was churchwarden at St Paul’s Church in Shipley and a teacher in the Sunday School. At the annual vestry meeting of St Paul’s Shipley in April 1885, John was nominated as one of twelve sidesmen. At the annual meeting of the Shipley Conservative Association in January 1889 Edward Salt was elected as President and John Stell was elected as one of two auditors. By 1897 John was living with his family at Wellington Crescent, Shipley. At a special meeting of the Shipley District Council in May 1897 John was part of a three-man deputation who addressed the council about the condition of the back street of Wellington Crescent. In 1914 he was elected as secretary of South Ward Unionist Polling District Association William Tiffany rd th (3 October, 1835 to 27 June, 1899) Secretary of Saltaire Floral and Horticultural Society and Saltaire Industrial Coal Society. 1851 William was a spinner aged 16. 1861he was a wool sorter aged 26. 1869 he lived at 31, Helen St 1871 Census he was working as a wool sorter and living at 30, Albert Rd (renumbered 59). He was the eldest of 3 children who were employed as factory operatives. He marries Susannah Airey and they had 10 children – Joseph (1858); Susannah (1859); Emily (1862); Fred (1864); Martha (1866); George (1868); Mary Ann (1870); William Arthur (1872); Elizabeth (1874); Lavinia (1877); Edith (1879 died Dec 1879). Wife died 1884 and he remarried Sarah Locker 1881 census William still a wool sorter and living at 68, George St. Varley, Sharp c1836 – 1881 Sharp Varley was born c1836 in Bingley as Sharp Cowgill, son of Mary Cowgill, father unknown. Mary married William Varley 2 October 1836 at St Michael’s Haworth. Sharp then took the Varley name. 26 In 1851 they lived in Wilsden with William working as a labourer and Sharp as a power loom weaver. By 1861 they had moved to 1 (re-numbered 27) George Street in Saltaire with William working as a farm labourer and Sharp as a weaver. Sharp married Elizabeth Illingworth in 1866. They had four children. In 1871 & 1881 they lived at 57 Titus Street with Sharp working as a weaving overlooker. In May 1875 Sharp was reported as being a past provincial grand master of the Bingley branch of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows. In March 1879 Sharp was elected as an officer of the Saltaire Funeral Brief Society. Sharp was associated with Saltaire Cricket Club in a non-playing capacity. th Sharp died 4 Qtr. 1881. Others Bentley, Seth 28 October 1833 – 23 June 1897 Seth Bentley was the son of James Bentley. James was born c1793 in Baildon. He married Sarah Robinson 19 May 1912. Seth, the youngest of 10 children, was born 28 October 1833 in Baildon. He was baptised 10 November 1833 in Otley. Seth married Hannah Pollard in 1862. They had two children: Fred born c1864 and Sarah b c1869. In 1871 & 1881 they lived at 26 Caroline Street in Saltaire. By 1891 they had moved to 5 Bingley Road in Shipley. By 1897 the family has moved to 29 Bradford in Shipley. Seth died 23 June 1897. He was buried in Nab Wood Cemetery in Shipley. The following article was published in the Shipley Times 26 June 1897: - ‘For some years he was a worker in the Saltaire Mills, under the late Sir Titus Salt, who had a high regard for him, and who selected him for post of manager of the public baths and wash house built by the late firm. For over twenty yean Mr Bentley filled this position, which brought him in contact (often friend and helper) with nearly every family in the place. Seven or eight years ago, when the baths were closed, he went into business on his own account as a laundry proprietor. Mr Bentley was man of strong religious convictions. Many years ago, he became follower of Swedenborg, and was one of the founders of the New Jerusalem Church at Saltaire. He remained an active supporter of that church to the end, and he will be much missed by the community which meets there. In politics he was a staunch Radical, a strong anti-vaccination, and land reformer. Early in 1891 he headed an important deputation of influential working men from Shipley and district to invite Mr Byles to become a candidate for the Shipley Division, on the retirement of Joseph Craven. He was at the same time, and for the express purpose of advocating this candidate, elected a member of the Executive of the Shipley Division Liberal Association, of which he was afterwards for several year the president. Mr Bentley, who enjoyed good health during the whole his life until his last illness, left behind him widow and one daughter. His only son was killed in America in 1891’. 27 Rhodes, Sutcliffe 26 March 1837 – 19 September 1916 Sutcliffe married Alicia Ann Wallace 13 January 1862 at St Paul’s Shipley. They had five children. In 1851 he was a woolcomber. Letter in the Bradford Observer Thursday 04 April 1867: - Sutcliffe makes a plea for woolsorters who are laid off when demand is poor and re- employed when it picks up again. He was living at Ada St. Letter in the Bradford Observer Thursday 25 July 1867: - Sutcliffe wants investigation into anthrax – ‘clouds of dust and keenly penetrating hairs’ which cause woolsorter deaths. th And on 30 January, 1868, he reports that a philanthropic gentleman and an eminent physician are interesting themselves in the problem. Then on 12 March, 1868, he writes to praise the discussion taking place to look for solutions to this problem, albeit with the rejection of a mask. Report in the Leeds Times Saturday 26 December 1874 of a meeting at the Temperance Hall devoted to discussion of the woolsorter’s disease, at which detailed medical evidence was advanced. Sutcliffe was one of the main speakers. Letter in the Bradford Observer Thursday 05 March 1868: - A plea for the creation of a place in Shipley for young men to meet for self improvement, similar to the Saltaire Literary Institute. Writing from Baildon. In 1871 Sutcliffe was a wool sorter living with his family at 14 Wycliffe Place in Shipley. Letter in the Bradford Observer Thursday 25 November 1875 entitled ‘Slavery in the Spinning room’. Sutcliffe deplores the practice of overworking child spinners and physically abusing them. He cites the sight of an emaciated form of a spinning girl rendered helpless by the scandalous abuse of an overlooker. And the dying spinner boy who said the ‘Ellis Brook has pawsed me right hard’. Sutcliffe is living at Mildred St, Bradford in 1875. In 1881 Sutcliffe was a commercial traveller living at 10 Orchard Street in Bradford. Alicia, Sutcliffe’s wife, died 3rd Qtr. 1890. In 1891 Sutcliffe was living alone at 130 Mildred Street, Bradford. He married Harriet Lord 9 May 1891 at All Saints, Bingley. Report from the Bradford Daily Telegraph Saturday 19 March 1892, that Sutcliffe was before the Bankruptcy Court for public examination and was allowed to pass. He admitted having appropriated money belonging to the Liverpool, Yorkshire and Lancashire Tea Company but was re-engaged by them at less salary, the difference going to pay off his defalcations. In 1901 Sutcliffe was living alone at 19 Moorhead Lane in Shipley. Sutcliffe married his third wife, Charlotte Squires, in 1910. In 1911 he was living with her family at Sibsey in Lincolnshire. (Sibsey is a village 4m north of Boston. In 1911 it had a population of 1,004). Sutcliffe died 19 September 1916 aged 79 years In conclusion There is ample evidence that overlookers performed essential management roles in Salts Mill. 28 Without their innovative and organisational skills in the community, life for Saltaire residents would have been much less rich and rewarding. They are the unsung heroes of the Saltaire story. We shouldn’t forget the broader picture too. Bringing large numbers of workers together in factories stimulated an awareness of their shared condition. It encouraged their involvement in the political process, in the growth of trade unions, in manhood suffrage and the National Reform League, and ultimately in the Independent Labour Party in 1893. The more radical and active Saltaire overlookers played a role in this journey, as their biographies reveal. Roger Clarke February, 2020 29
Mounded coloured photograph of the almshouses
Almshouses, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Mounted copy of postcard of Victoria Road almshouses
Almshouses view up. One of a collection of Slides relating to Saltaire compiled by Albert Bowtell.
Almshouses (46). One of a collection of Slides relating to Saltaire compiled by Albert Bowtell.
Almshouses (47). One of a collection of Slides relating to Saltaire compiled by Albert Bowtell.
Almshouses (48). One of a collection of Slides relating to Saltaire compiled by Albert Bowtell.
Almshouses Monogram. One of a collection of Slides relating to Saltaire compiled by Albert Bowtell.
C2b-131: Saltaire village Images (Places)
Photocopy of coloured postcard of upper part of Victoria Road with almshouses - with text 'Saltaire, Victoria Road'
C2b-132: Saltaire village Images (Places)
Photocopy of Black and White postcard of upper part of Victoria Road with Almshouses - with text 'Saltaire, Victoria Road' - Showing people on both pavements and a horse drawn wagon at the junction with Saltaire Road
C2b-145: Two postcards showing Roberts Park and the almshouses
Two postcards showing Roberts Park and the almshouses
Laminated copy of two postcards. One of women with pram sat in Roberts Park by Bandstand (coloured); One of the top section of Victoria Road showing the Almshouses
Roberts Park, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Roberts Park, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Promenade with bandstand
C2b-147F: The Saltaire almshouses with the Methodist Church
The Saltaire almshouses with the Methodist Church
Photograph of The almshouses with the Methodist Church (6)
C2b-151a-b: Saltaire village Images (Places)
2 Postcards of coloured print of one of the Almshouses drawn by David Smeaton: (a) original card; (b) laminated card
C2b-277: Saltaire village Images (Places)
One of a set of mounted photos on long cards, 'The Almshouses'
C2b-286c: Almshouses, and Half-Moon Cafe
One of a folder of mounted postcards and photographs of Saltaire.Almshouses, and Half-Moon Cafe in Roberts Park
C2b-323: Sir Titus Salt's Hospital & almshouses
Photograph of the Sir Titus Salt's Hospital and adjacent almshouses on Victoria Road, Saltaire.
Sir Titus Salt's Hospital building, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
C2b-350: Saltaire village Images (Places)
C2b-351: Early residents of the Saltaire alsmshouses
Early residents of the Saltaire alsmshouses
Plaque remembering early residents of the almshouses
C3a-163: Saltaire village, Documents (People),
Spreadsheet; 'Occupants of the Almshouses from the Census 1871-1911' by Colin Coates
C3a-163b: Saltaire village, Documents (People),
Typed information on the history of the Saltaire almshouses
C2b-032.2: Victoria Road, Saltaire in the 1920s
Photograph of Victoria Road pointing down towards the mill with hospital on right, around 1920s. Almshouses are visible.
Saltaire Images of Places: Folder and first page
C2b-032.25: Saltaire almshouse in winter
Photograph showing one of the almshouses in Alexandra Square, Saltaire, in snow.
C2b-032.26: Lodge house in Roberts Park, and an almshouse in Saltaire
Lodge house in Roberts Park, and an almshouse in Saltaire
Postcard showing two colour photographs. One is the lodge house in Roberts Park and the other is one of the almshouses in Alexandra Square. Both photos are showing the large hydrangeas in bloom.
Sir Titus Salt’s Hospital was opened in Saltaire in September 1868 and provided crucial medical help many decades before the foundation of the National Health Service.
Salt, Titus, Sir: Portrait photograph of Titus Salt in later life
2019.27.1: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1867-1899
2019.27.10a-b: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1938-1941
2019.27.11: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1942
2019.27.12: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1943
2019.27.13: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1944
2019.27.14: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1945
2019.27.15: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1946
2019.27.16: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1947
2019.27.17: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1948-1949
2019.27.18: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1950-1952
2019.27.19: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1953-1959
2019.27.2: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1900-1906
2019.27.20: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - hospital governors from 1902 to 1939
2019.27.3: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1907-1913
2019.27.4: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1914-1918
2019.27.5: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1919-1923
2019.27.6: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1924-1927
2019.27.7: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1928-1930
2019.27.8: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1931-1934
2019.27.9: Saltaire Hospital Timeline - 1935-1937
C2b-192: Saltaire village Images (Places)
C3b-347: Newscuttings relating to closure of Sir Titus Salt's Hospital
C3b-353: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
C3b-554: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
C3b-555: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
C1-014a-b: Saltaire village - Maps & Plans
C3b-352: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
C3b-404: Items on the Sir Titus Salt Hospital
C3b-442a: Programme of service for centenary of Sir Titus Salt's hospital
B1-356-22: Messrs Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. (Sir Titus Salt's Hospital)
B1-356-23: Messrs Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. (Sir Titus Salt's Hospital)
B1-356-24: Messrs Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. (Sir Titus Salt's Hospital)
C3b-442b: Service marks Salts hospital centenary
D1-068e-g: Programmes for Hospital concert 12 March 1925
H2-210.3: Page 2 from a book of James Roberts' newspaper cuttings 1905-1918
H2-210.4: Pages 3-4 from a book of James Roberts' newspaper cuttings 1905-1918
B1-356-21: Messrs Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. (Sir Titus Salt's Hospital)
C3b-361: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
C3b-440: News cuttings related to closure of Sir TItus Salt's Hospital
D1-068a: Hospital concert 18 November 1925
D1-068b: Programme for Hospital concert 18 November 1925
D1-068c: Notes for ticket prices for Hospital concert 18 November 1925
D1-068d: Typed notes for Hospital concert 18 November 1925
D1-068h: Advert for Hospital concert 12 March 1925
C3b-551: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
H2-139: Sir Titus Salt Hospital Re-opening
2022.33: A Dose of Salts by Vera Hornshaw
C3b-550: Newscuttings concerning Sir Titus Salt's Hospital
C3b-553: Article on Salt Auxilliary Hospital during the First World War
Sir Titus Salt's Hospital: C2b-190: Sir Titus Salt's Hospital with two storeys (late nineteenth century)
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Titus Salt was determined to ensure a decent quality of life for his workers, even after they left his employ. In addition to the many educational institutions he built to allow workers to better themselves, he also commissioned the almshouses on Victoria Road. The 45 almshouses were built to provide shelter for those who couldn’t support themselves, such as widows and injured workers. Although preference was given to workers in Salts Mill and their families, anyone of ‘good character’ and unable to support themselves was eligible. Although this was unusually generous by the standards of the time, residents were subject to strict rules on their behaviour and the maintenance of the houses. In what is now No. 29, there was originally a small chapel to save residents walking down to the Congregational Church. On opening it, Salt is reported to have said: 'My sole desire is that you should be happy, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to know that you are so'.
2025.100: Saltaire Journal Vol. 1 No.3 July 2009
2024.34: 1872: When samurai came to Saltaire
A research document from local historian Les Brook on the visit in 1872 of the Japanese Iwakura Embassy visit to Saltaire. The Iwakura Embassy was a high-level governmental group from Japan who toured the world to investigate the latest developments in industry and technology. They visited Saltaire to view the renowned Salts Mill and the model village of Saltaire. Contents include: What was the Iwakura Embassy? The Embassy’s historical backstory The members of the Embassy The Embassy in the USA Four months in Britain The visit to Bradford and Saltaire DAY 1: Thursday 24 October 1872 DAY 2: Friday 25 October 1872 DAY 3: Saturday 26 October 1872 DAY 4: Sunday 27 October 1872 DAY 5: Monday 28 October 1872 From Yorkshire to London The Embassy in continental Europe, and beyond
Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE The Iwakura Embassy’s visit to Bradford and to Titus Salt’s model village Compiled and edited by Les Brook with support from members of the Saltaire History Club Special thanks to Colin Coates and to Tomoe Murai of the Iwakura Mission Society March 2024 1 Leaders of the Iwakura Embassy photographed in San Francisco in 1872 L-R: Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Masuka aka Yamaguchi Naoyoshi, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi, Ōkubo Toshimichi 1 https://www.historyofjapaneseinny.org/blog/artifacts/iwakura-mission/ 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 2 CONTENTS PREFACE ................................ ................................ ......................... 3 What was the Iwakura Embassy?................................ ........................ 4 The Embassy’s historical backstory ................................ ..................... 5 The members of the Embassy ................................ .......................... 14 The Embassy in the USA ................................ ................................ . 16 Four months in Britain ................................ ................................ .... 18 The visit to Bradford and Saltaire ................................ ..................... 20 DAY 1: Thursday 24 October 1872 ................................ ............... 20 DAY 2: Friday 25 October 1872 ................................ .................... 22 DAY 3: Saturday 26 October 1872 ................................ ................ 30 DAY 4: Sunday 27 October 1872 ................................ .................. 31 DAY 5: Monday 28 October 1872 ................................ .................. 32 From Yorkshire to London ................................ ................................ 32 The Embassy in continental Europe, and beyond ................................ 33 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING ................................ ................... 37 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 3 PREFACE This paper summarises what we know of a remarkable event that occurred in 1872, when Titus Salt’s now universally-celebrated Saltaire 2 played host to a group of Japanese dignitaries. However, Saltaire’s ‘remarkable event’ was just one small episode in the extraordinary story of the Iwakura Embassy. Whilst I shall set out the details of the Embassy’s visit to Bradford and Saltaire, it is essential that readers understand what the Embassy was and the context of its many visits, in order to appreciate the high significance of the Embassy, for Japan and for the world. The original account of the Iwakura Embassy’s global odyssey was compiled by Kume Kunitake (pictured), secretary to the Embassy’s leader and chronicler of its travels. In 1878, it was published in Japanese in five volumes under the title Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki 「特命全権大使米欧回覧実記」. In this paper, Kume’s account is often mentioned or quoted and this invariably refers to text from the full English translation, also in five volumes. A full translation into English was published by The Japan Documents in 2002. It was edited by Graham Healey and Chushichi Tsuzuki and entitled The Iwakura Embassy 1871-73. A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary's Journey of Observation through the 3 United States of America and Europe . The translators were Andrew Cobbing, Martin Collcutt, Graham Healey, P F Kornicki, Eugene Soviak and Chushichi Tsuzuki. Japan Rising, Cambridge University Press 2009, is a one-volume abridgement of the English translation. It was prepared by Chushichi Tsuzuki with the assistance of R. Jules Young. It includes an introduction 4 by Ian Nish. 2 now universally-celebrated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 3 I believe this to be a faithful translation of the original title. 4 I acknowledge a heavy reliance on Nish’s introduction in drafting The Embassy’s historical backstory. I have not made multiple individual references to that work. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 4 What was the Iwakura Embassy? ‘Iwakura Embassy’ (or ‘Iwakura Mission’) refers both to a group of leading Japanese statesmen and their support staff, and also to their round-the- world diplomatic voyage that lasted for more than 20 months, from 23 December 1871 to 13 September 1873. The aims of the Embassy were threefold: • to gain recognition for the new Japanese imperial dynasty under the Emperor Meiji • to begin preliminary renegotiation of unequal treaties with the dominant world powers and • to make a comprehensive study of modern industrial, political, military and educational systems and structures in the United States and Europe. ‘Iwakura’ refers to Iwakura Tomomi, the Embassy’s leader. He was 5 Japan’s Foreign Minister . He was also Minister of the Right: in effect, the 6 Deputy Prime Minister . For the purposes of the Embassy’s journey, he was ‘Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Europe and the United States’. 5 When the Embassy set out, Taneomi Soejima was made Japan’s Foreign Minister. Thanks to Tomoe Murai for this information, and for that in the next footnote. 6 At this point in history, the most senior ministerial post was the Daijō-daijin (Grand Minister) and his deputies were the Minister of the Left (Sadaijin) and Minister of the Right (Udaijin). The Sadaijin was the more senior of the two, but the post was vacant. As a result, Iwakura was second in command of Japan’s government. His importance and qualities are made plain in the following, from https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e- culture/sannomaru/zuroku-79.html : The young Emperor still in his teens, was to face many difficult situations, supported by [Grand Minister] Sanjo Sanetomi… and Iwakura Tomomi… [Iwakura] was from a family not so highly ranked [as the Grand Minister], but he stood out with his brilliance and became a close advisor of [the Emperor]. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 5 The Embassy’s historical backstory 7 The Embassy’s backstory is one of national revolution. Until 1867-1868 - and for 700 years!- Japan was governed by the shōgun 8 based at Edo, later called Tokyo. The shōgun was the representative of a warrior family which kept Japan under strict control. Not the same family: there were three distinct periods in which different families held sway. At the time of the revolution, the Tokugawa family was at the helm – as it had been since 1603. The shōgun was the lord at the apex of a feudal system (the han system) of roughly 280 hereditary land holdings (domains or fiefdoms) throughout 9 Japan . Power was split between the shōgunate in Edo and the feudal lords. The lords had a degree of local sovereignty in exchange for loyalty to the shōgun who was responsible for foreign relations, national security, coinage, weights, and measures, and transportation. The extent of Japan’s revolutionary change can be gauged from the fact that the han system was abolished. Roughly 280 fiefdoms were turned into 72 prefectures, each under the control of a nationally-appointed governor, not a local lord. The dramatic incident which precipitated upheaval in the years building to revolution was the visit, on 8 July 1853, of the US East India Squadron. The expedition was commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, under orders from President Millard Fillmore. The USA’s primary goal was to force an end to Japan's 220-year-old policy of isolation and to open Japanese ports to American trade - through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. Perry's 'Black Ships' sailed into a small port at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. The vessels were symbols of the technological progress being made in other nations. It scared the Japanese. The shōgun accepted a US presidential letter brought by Perry. 7 Note that the Japanese do not use the term ‘revolution’ for this change – but looked at from a European standpoint, the scale of the changes were certainly ‘revolutionary’. 8 Shōgun (= Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians) was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Though nominally appointed by the Emperor, shōgun s were the de facto rulers of the country. Shōgun ate = government of the shōgun . 9 Han = fiefdom or domain. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 6 By this bold step, the USA broke the seclusion which had marked Japan for over two hundred years. Equally dramatically, the event lit the fuse for 10 huge national, social and constitutional change in the country. Perry returned on 13 February 1854 with eight vessels and 1600 men. By the time of Perry's return, the Tokugawa shōgunate had decided to accept 11 virtually all the demands in Fillmore's letter. 12 10 Pulitzer prize-winning US historian John Dower has described the two Perry missions as a moment when the world stood on the cusp of phenomenal change. Note ‘the world’. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Mission_of_Commodore_Perry_to_Japan_i n_1854_%28BM_2013%2C3002.1_105%29.jpg 11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Expedition 12 Perry’s fleet. A contemporary image. Wikipedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ca._1853_Kawaraban_- _Commodore_Perry%27s_Arrival_in_Edo_Bay.jpg 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 7 13 Perry called for a response to US President Fillmore's letter and presented a draft treaty. Though impressed by the opulence and resources of the Americans, the shōgunate was not inclined to talk, and procrastinated. As a result, it took until 31 March 1854 to conclude the US-Japan Treaty of Peace and Amity (the Convention of Kanagawa). The main provisions were for two small ports to be opened, primarily for refuge, and for the opening of a US consulate in Japan. A further US-Japan treaty was concluded in 1858. It opened five more ports to international trade. Within six months of the earlier treaty, the fears of the Japanese about yet more foreign intrusions were confirmed. The British Far East Squadron visited Tokyo Bay. Pursuing Russian ships in East Asian waters as part of the Crimean War of 1854, they asked for access to Japanese ports for the repair of their vessels and the shōgunate opened the ports of Nagasaki and Hakodate. Within months, the Dutch, Russian and French governments sent their representatives to negotiate treaties. 13 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Commodore-Perry-Visit- Kanagawa-1854.jpg 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 8 But the shōgunate ’s compliance with the foreigners ran into domestic 14 opposition, especially from the emperor's court in Kyoto . Attacks took place on foreigners and their Japanese associates. The samurai of the Chōshū and Satsuma fiefdoms in Japan’s far southwest were heavily implicated in these attacks. In 1863, following the killing of a British merchant in Satsuma, the British government authorised the bombardment of Kagoshima, Satsuma’s capital. Later, in retaliation for attacks on American and French ships off Shimonoseki, Western powers took punitive action against this Chōshū port too. 14 Since the late C12th until this period, there were two ruling classes in Japan: the emperor who acted as ‘chief priest’ of Shinto, the official religion, and the shōgun , head of the army who also enjoyed civil, military, diplomatic and judicial authority. Although in theory the shōgun was the emperor's servant, the shōgun was the power behind the throne. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 9 15 The response of the clans was surprising: they changed their attitude. Sonnō jōi (尊王攘夷), ‘Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians’, was the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s. But with the increasing number of incursions by foreign ships, the 16 17 sakoku (‘closed country’) policy came increasingly into question. The ‘expel the barbarians’ portion of sonnō jōi, changed into a reaction against the Convention of Kanagawa which opened Japan to foreign trade. Signed under duress, it was vehemently opposed, not least in the Imperial court. The Tokugawa shōgunate was seen to be powerless against the foreigners, and this was taken as evidence that ‘revere the Emperor’ was not being observed. The conclusion? That the shōgunate must be replaced by a government loyal to the Emperor. This philosophy was thus adopted as the battle cry of the rebellious regions of Chōshū and Satsuma. And surprisingly, from being seclusionist and hostile to foreigners, they developed a desire to catch up with the West. They even started to send their ambitious young men overseas to learn foreign skills – and they sought help from Western experts. 15 I find confusing the use of the term ‘clans’ in the literature. There were “ancient clans” which appear to have faded into history by the C19th, a “royal clan”, and four “noble clans” (see https://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clans) – but in descriptions of the revolutionary period, ‘clan’ appears to be used to mean people from a particular fiefdom. 16 The key points of the 1635 edict included: • The Japanese were to be kept within Japan’s own boundaries. Anyone trying to leave the country, or who managed to leave and then returned, was to be executed. Europeans who entered Japan illegally would face the death penalty too. • Catholicism was strictly forbidden. Those found practising the Christian faith were subject to investigation. Prevention of missionary activity was also severely restricted. • Trade restrictions and strict limitations on goods were set to limit the ports open to trade, and the merchants who would be allowed to trade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakoku_Edict_of_1635 17 Japanese passports only became freely available in 1866 after the long-standing ban on leaving the country was removed. The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 John Breen, Oliver Checkland, Andrew Cobbing and Akiko Ohta 1998 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 10 In 1865, the Satsuma fiefdom sent a mission to England, one of the aims of which was to request assistance from Platt Brothers of Oldham to instal a modern cotton textile factory. Thus, the first mechanized cotton spinning and weaving mill in Japan started operating in Kagoshima in 18 1867. 19 In his introduction to the story of the Iwakura Embassy in Japan Rising, Nish sees this as “an essential ambiguity about the Embassy itself”: On the one hand, the Japanese leaders of the time were fearful and suspicious over the imperialist ambitions of the West. On the other, they admired the West and wanted to learn from it. So their fundamental object was to study the West in order to resist the West. 18 As the visit to Bradford/Saltaire shows, the Embassy was deeply interested in mechanised textile production. A very interesting reference is https://galleryoldham.org.uk/oldhams-incredible-mark-on-japanese-industry/. See also Andrew Cobbing The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West, and Serguey Braguinsky and David A. Hounshell Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) Then and Now 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Brothers 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 11 This action by Satsuma clearly challenged sakoku and this confrontation was typical of Japan in the late 1860s. The shōgun was losing control but still in power: • in January 1868, the court proclaimed the restoration of imperial rule; • agreements between the shōgunate and the rebels were made and then collapsed; • the fiefdoms on the periphery of the country took up arms against the shōgun and civil war (the Boshin War) ensued; • it was November 1868 before the shōgun resigned, but his followers 20 resisted and were not defeated until late 1869. 21 The Tokugawa family handed power to a coalition of rebellious clans. Mutsuhito, the teenager occupying the national throne, was invited to become head of state. The court of the emperor had for centuries been in Kyoto. Mutsuhito moved his capital to Edo which was renamed Tokyo. He 22 was given the title of Meiji (‘enlightened rule’). 20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji 21 Image from the civil war aka the Boshin War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ueno 22 For the non-Japanese observer, the use of Meiji is a little confusing. As well as being used as Mutsuhito’s imperial name, it refers to a period and to the emperor Mutsuhito’s ‘posthumous name’. ”On 23 October 1868 the era was changed from Keiō to Meiji, or "enlightened rule", which was later used for the Emperor's posthumous name”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 12 23 This tumultuous change of government, after centuries of tranquility, was (and is) described in Japan as the ‘Meiji Restoration'. It heralded a 24 transformation, from the old to the new Japan . But the impact of the Meiji Restoration would not be confined to the homeland. It was global: 25 today, Japan has the fourth largest economy in the world . On the domestic front, the new government made huge and fundamental social changes, abolishing the han system, ending feudalism and bringing 26 an end to the role of the samurai . It centralized national administration. Feudal lords, court nobles and government officials were pledged to support the Charter Oath which set out the programme of modernization. The Restoration government felt confident that its new progressive measures to abolish feudalism would be welcomed in Western countries. As early as February 1868, the head of Japan’s Board of Foreign Affairs 23 The palanquin and procession of Emperor Meiji, from Kyoto to Edo/Tokyo. https://www.lesleydowner.com/jsnw-online-talk-on-17th-september/ 24 The New York Times summarized this transformation at the emperor's funeral in 1912: "the contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed it was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji 25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Japan. The extent and speed of Japan’s modernisation during this period is well described at http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm 26 Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early- modern Japan from the late 12th century. They were the well-paid retainers of the great feudal landholders. They had high prestige and special privileges. Many of the Iwakura Embassy had been samurai. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 13 called together the diplomatic corps at the port of Kobe and informed them of the restoration of rule by the emperor. Foreign governments duly recognized the new administration. The new government thought that the treaties of earlier years were humiliating and 'unequal'. It blamed the Tokugawa rulers for their weakness in agreeing to them and emphasized its desire to renegotiate them. The idea had been maturing that an exploratory embassy from the new government to its treaty partners was necessary. On 29 August 1871, Iwakura Tomomi - an aristocrat and former court official who had come to accept the need to open Japan to trade - was appointed Foreign Minister. He announced that he would head a special mission to observe Western countries at first hand and exchange views on treaty revision. The Embassy set off on 23 December 1871, carrying letters from the Emperor to heads of state. Iwakura was clearly charged with the task of discussing the treaties, but the authority he had was somewhat ambiguous. This led to complications, especially in the United States. 27 27 The ship in the background is the SS America which carried the Embassy to the USA. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 14 The members of the Embassy The members of the Iwakura Embassy were young. Apart from Iwakura, their average age was 32 – but the revolution had given them government experience. Although Kume’s report refers to these members as ‘we' and tends to omit mention of individuals by name, they were significant statesmen and strong-minded individualists. They were not always in agreement over policy, and they squabbled. Ambassador Extraordinary Iwakura was supported by Vice-Ambassadors: • Kido Takayoshi and Ōkubo Toshimichi represented the Restoration government. They were the most prominent politicians from Chōshū and Satsuma respectively; • Itō Hirobumi of Chōshū was from the Ministry of Public Works. The most Westernised of his senior colleagues, Itō had already spent 28 time as a student in London , and six months in Washington in 1870 as a finance official. As a result, he was able to speak passable English and was the deputy ambassador often called upon to deliver formal addresses at receptions; and • Yamaguchi Masuka aka Yamaguchi Naoyoshi of the Hizen clan was assistant vice minister of foreign affairs. Itō Hirobumi’s participation in the Embassy indicates its heft and the longevity of its impact on Japan. As a 29 young man, he was the samurai we see here , but by the early days of the Meiji era, he was leading the writing of a constitution for the newly-formed Empire of Japan. He has been described as “the most powerful figure in the Meiji government”. Little wonder: he was Japan’s first Prime Minister and went 30 on to become Prime Minister, a further three times! In addition to these leaders, there were staff charged with writing specialist reports, and junior officials and students who ran errands. The retinue of councillors and officials from various ministries totalled forty- 31 eight in all . In total, 108 people left Japan's shores – but it would be inaccurate to say that the Embassy consisted of that number. For 28 See the UCL references listed in SOURCES AND FURTHER READING below. 29 In the 1860s, when in his early 20s? 30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Hirobumi 31 This figure is somewhat flexible! 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 15 example, 6 year old Tsuda Ume (later, Tsuda Umeko) was on board, 32 destined to be schooled in the USA. 33 It was remarkable that, in a country like Japan which had recently come through civil war and revolution, so many important leaders could be spared for such a lengthy journey. At the point of departure, of course, it could not be foreseen that the Embassy would encounter the very lengthy delays that occurred in both the United States and Britain. But the sheer size of the group was amazing, and created many administrative problems. It goes without saying that there were acute jealousies between those who were able to join the deputation and those who were left behind in Tokyo. 32 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuda_Umeko 33 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuda_Umeko 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 16 34 The Embassy in the USA On the morning of 15 January 1872, the SS America, a US-owned mail steamer, arrived at San Francisco with its 108 Japanese passengers. That the Embassy could start in the USA was facilitated by the fact that its advancing frontier had by this time reached California, a neighbour of Japan on the coastline of the Pacific Ocean and one that was, from 1869, linked by a trans-continental railroad to the States’ eastern seaboard. This spectacular railroad gave the ambassadors their first major experience of the advanced technology of the outside world. Unfortunately, the Union Pacific railroad on which they embarked in February could not cope with the heavy snowfalls in the Rocky Mountains and beyond. The ambassadors were snowed up in Salt Lake City for eighteen days, visiting the famous Mormon Tabernacle and meeting Brigham Young. Despite the snow and the floods that followed, Kume reported enthusiastically that Thanks to the admirable engineering achievement of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, we were able to cross much of this vast territory in a train, comfortably relaxing or sleeping. Japan was not industrialised and had only small-scale agriculture. The delegates were astonished at the agricultural states they passed through. But they were equally amazed at the smoke rising from chimneys of factories in the urban centres. They unquestionably suffered culture shock. The delegation arrived in Washington DC at the end of February. On 4 March, ten of its principal members met US President Ulysses S. Grant. When they had arrived in San Francisco, the Embassy had received a warm and generous welcome: Kume wrote that The citizens of San Francisco had learnt of the Embassy’s visit from newspaper reports, and the news of our actual arrival was telegraphed from the Golden Gate to City Hall and to our consul. As a result, when we passed Alcatraz Island we were greeted with a fifteen-gun salute from the battery on its cliffs. 34 The main focuses of this paper are on the Embassy, its historical context, and the visits to Bradford and Saltaire, so the Embassy’s journey through the USA is not described in detail. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 17 Now, they were in the US capital and the doors of the White House were open to them. Their status and importance had been recognised from the start – and was now confirmed, at the pinnacle of US power. But there was a problem. Whilst there appeared to be a distinct possibility that the State Department might be responsive to the idea of revising the 1858 treaty, the Embassy had not been given a specific mandate to negotiate and had not brought adequate powers of accreditation. The crucial decision was made that two senior members, Okubo and Itō, should return to Japan in order to procure the necessary documents. They left Washington on 20 March for their daunting journey of 8,000 miles by land and sea. This meant a significant hiatus which Mission members filled by taking what Kume entitled 'The Journey Through the Northern States'. On their return to Washington on 22 June, they found that diplomatic business was almost at a standstill. Such a lengthy stay for such an enormous retinue was a burden for the Americans. However, Congress had made an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose and so part of the Embassy's expenses was paid by American leaders who clearly saw great potential in looking after a delegation which was likely to include the next generation of Japanese leaders. Okubo and Itō did not return until 20 July. They brought better credentials but were given instructions not to conclude a new treaty solely with the United States, and to propose convening an international conference on the subject. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish would not agree to negotiations alongside other powers, especially if they were to be held in Europe. The result was that the Embassy did not pursue re-negotiation during the rest of its world tour: its members ventilated the issue but merely explored the views of the countries they were visiting. Two days later Iwakura went to the White House and announced that his party would soon be leaving the country. On 6 August, after short visits to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, the ambassadors left from Boston for Liverpool. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 18 35 Four months in Britain The Mission landed in Liverpool on 17 August 1872. It had travelled from a pioneering society moving rapidly towards industrialisation to a country which had already experienced an industrial revolution - and its dire consequences. No sooner had Kume reached the south bank of the Mersey than he records: [T]he smoke of coal fires billowed up in dense clouds [over Liverpool] to a height of two or three hundred feet, permanently darkening the blue sky. Our escorts pointed to this and said, 'The people of the city have to breathe in the midst of that black haze.' Between September and early November the delegates travelled over 2,000 miles and visited twenty British cities - either individually or in groups. It is important to note this last point, because whilst Kume might record that ‘we’ visited a particular place, it might have indicated that only a handful of ambassadors and/or junior staff did so. Young-Suk Lee of South Korea’s Guangju University has written an overview of the Embassy’s itinerary in Britain – and perhaps most importantly, has set out solid information on how this itinerary was 36 devised . Lee tells us that it was immediately after their arrival in Liverpool that the Iwakura Embassy left for London by special train. On August 20, Iwakura visited Lord Granville, the British Foreign Minister, and requested a formal audience with Queen Victoria. At the time, the Queen was at Balmoral Castle, her Summer residence. The mission decided to stay in Britain until the Queen’s return… and, with a different timetable in mind, began to amend the existing itinerary. The new itinerary would reflect the Embassy’s latest priorities. As a result of their frustrating experience of treaty revision in the USA, many had almost given up on revision of the UK-Japan trade treaty. Their interests were pivoting towards the collection of information on industry, technology, or commerce in the major industrial cities of Britain. 35 Much of this section of the paper relies on Kume’s account. This is supplemented by local newspaper reports when we get to Bradford and Saltaire. 36 Young-Suk Lee The Iwakura Embassy and British Industrial Cities…Gwangju University, South Korea …Downloaded from Brill.com 12/07/2022 09:49:41PM via free access. I have drawn extensively from the work, and what follows in this section, in italics, is an edited version. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 19 The re-planning of their itinerary was largely the work of Sir Harry Parkes, the British envoy to Japan, and William Aston, a diplomat who had been 37 translator to the British legation in Japan since 1865… On June 3, before the Mission arrived in Britain, there had been an exchange in the House of Commons. Arthur Kinnaird MP asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Byng, “whether the Government are preparing to take steps to receive the eminent Japanese statesman Iwakura and the other distinguished persons composing the Japanese Embassy”. Byng’s reply was that “Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Aston, interpreter to the Legation in Japan, have been appointed to attend to the Japanese Embassy on their arrival and during their stay in 38 this country”... Meanwhile, Parkes was selecting the cities and factories that the Mission could visit, and organising a schedule of all the events that they would attend. This cannot have been easy for him because his personal life was demanding. His health was very poor and his wife was pregnant. His elder son hung between life and death, suffering from a fever during his return home, and his elder daughter died of diphtheria immediately after her mother’s delivery. In spite of this misery, he continued the planning and then accompanied the Mission throughout their round-Britain journey. After they had stayed in London from August 17 to September 28, the Mission started out. Between September 29 and November 9 they visited 39 Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Highlands , Newcastle, Bradford, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Coventry, Birmingham, and Cheshire, 40 and returned to London. 37 On May 22, 1871, writes Lee, Parkes left Japan by steamship for America and he only reached Britain on 8 August. He emphasized to the Foreign Office that, in Japan, Britain’s trade rival would not be European countries but the United States. The National Archives (Kew), Foreign Office 391/15, Hammond Papers, June 15, 1871. ‘Parkes to Hammond’. William George Aston (9 April 1841 – 22 November 1911) was a British diplomat, author and scholar-expert in the language and history of Japan and Korea. He wrote Shinto (“the way of the gods”). Shinto is the indigenous faith of the Japanese people and as old as Japan itself. It remains Japan’s major religion alongside Buddhism. 38 In addition to Parkes and Aston, the Foreign Office asked G G Alexander, Major- General of the Royal Marines, to act as escort to the Mission. However, he does not appear to be travelling with them when the Mission arrived in Bradford. 39 When they reached Edinburgh, they were so exhausted by the daily round of receptions, factories and offices that their escort urged them to visit the Scottish Highlands and relax says Lee op cit 40 Kume reported that The view of the flat English landscape and of the Scottish lowlands was one of unrelieved monotony. The hills of Edinburgh were pretty enough, but there was more than this to the beauties of the Scottish landscape. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 20 The visit to Bradford and Saltaire 41 DAY 1: Thursday 24 October 1872 Kume tells us that, at 10 in the morning, the Embassy left Newcastle and travelled ninety miles south through County Durham to West Yorkshire, arriving in Bradford at 2.30 in the afternoon. 42 In the C19th, Bradford became ‘Worstedopolis’ , the worsted capital of the world. Its global pre-eminence in woollen textiles made it a required place for an Embassy visit. Kume described Bradford thus: The city of Bradford… lies in Yorkshire… [and] is rich in coal and iron… manufacturing is carried on there on a very large scale… In prosperity it rivals Lancashire, which lies on the other side of the mountain range… [It is] possible to transport goods by water all the way to the sea… Bradford is noted in Britain for the spinning and weaving of wool and the production of sheepskins… We saw that all round the city, on the hills and in the valleys, were great heaps of spoil from the mines, staining all the earth black, and that a forest of factory chimneys darkened the sky with black smoke. Bradford’s much smaller but very close neighbour, Saltaire, is today a World Heritage Site, but in 1872 it was not even complete! However, it was gaining a reputation for the innovative approach of its capitalist founder, the recently-ennobled Sir Titus Salt. Alongside a colossal factory, he was only 4 years away from completing the construction of an entire village, primarily for his workers. Saltaire had good quality services and a remarkable range of splendid public facilities. That Parkes chose to include Saltaire in the itinerary surely indicates he regarded it as amongst the best of Britain. The Embassy was welcomed at Bradford’s station by the town’s leading citizen, the Mayor, Matthew William Thompson - indicating the importance Bradford accorded this encounter. 41 The Bradford Daily Telegraph 25 October 1872 is a significant source of the text that follows. 42 A word coined by Bradford historian William Cudworth in 1888 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 21 43 The visitors then went by carriage to the Victoria Hotel . Bills had been posted in the streets announcing Japanese Ambassadors Will Arrive On Thursday, Escorted By The Mayor and, both inside the station itself and lining the street leading to the hotel, was what Kume describes as an uninterrupted throng of onlookers. Crowds turned out to see us in every other city we visited, both before and after, but this was the largest such reception we received. When they arrived at the hotel, the ambassadors found lunch had been prepared for them at the Mayor's behest and, after the meal, he came in person to present an address of welcome. “His hospitality knew no bounds”, Kume reports. In the evening, the Mayor hosted a formal dinner at the hotel and there were speeches. In reply to addresses by Bradford Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce, the “Chief Ambassador” responded in Japanese. He expressed gratitude for the cordial welcome the Embassy had received and said he realised that one nation cannot maintain the highest prosperity without the co-operation and sympathy of others. He said that the Embassy was charged with searching out the sources of the wealth and prosperity now enjoyed to so great a degree by “our brethren of a Western Civilisation”. The Japanese had made their journey in order to select, from amongst the various institutions in “enlightened nations”, which of them are best suited to Japan’s present condition. They planned to adopt them through gradual reforms and improvement. But they were not there just to examine factories, mines and shipbuilding. 43 Almost certainly the present Great Victoria Hotel in Bridge Street (pictured). According to the hotel’s current administration, the building dates from 1867 and is the oldest in Bradford. Its first name was The Great Northern Victoria Hotel. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 22 They wanted to make personal contact with the people in order to establish relations of peace and friendship and a feeling of lasting brotherhood between the two countries. DAY 2: Friday 25 October 1872 Kume records that At ten o'clock in the morning we travelled about [three] miles by train to the village of Saltaire, and his co-traveller Kido Takayoshi tells us in his diary that The scenery is superb [and the] most 44 famous woollens [sic] factory in England is here. Introducing Saltaire, Kume noted that Until twenty years ago this had been open moor-land, used only for the pasturing of sheep and cattle. But since Sir Titus Salt had built a mill for weaving the wool of the animal called the 'alpaca', industrial and commercial enterprises had flocked there from all quarters, eventually creating a village. It was now a considerable town with a population of 5,000. Kume explains what an alpaca is before recounting the story, popularised 45 by Dickens , of how Titus came across “useless” alpaca wool in a warehouse in Liverpool and went on to work out how it could be used to make cloth. This innovation was to make him immensely rich. Kume explains the building of Salt’s Mill and the village, and Salt’s elevation to the baronetcy. 46 The Bradford Daily Telegraph reported that The members of the Embassy left the Midland Station at twenty minutes to ten and travelled by special train to Saltaire. Considerable preparations had been made for their reception but the number of people who assembled was not large. The station platforms were kept clear, and the crowd was therefore confined to the lodge and Albert Terrace. Comparatively few men were present, they being mostly 44 Kido Takayoshi The Diary of Kido Takayoshi. For more on ambassador Kido, see https://alchetron.com/Kido-Takayoshi#Early-life 45 A footnote in the translation of Kume’s A True Account… says this: “The story of how Salt, having examined a handful or two of alpaca from bales which he had found abandoned and rotting on the Liverpool docks, bought up the whole consignment - to the gratified astonishment of the owner - for eightpence a pound, first gained wide currency in a version by Charles Dickens, embellished with characteristic comic effects, published in Household Words”. 46 Bradford Daily Telegraph 25 October 1872. The report has been lightly edited. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 23 at work in the mill, which was kept running all day. Titus Salt’s son Edward, and Charles Stead, partner and senior director of Sir Titus Salt and Co, received the Embassy on the platform. Their Excellencies were accompanied by Matthew Thompson, the Mayor of Bradford, and Alderman Law, president of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce. After the formal introductions, the Mayor and his Excellency the Chief of the Embassy, took the lead and proceeded to view the village and then repaired to the schools. They first visited the boys’ school, where they found all the scholars at work - some ciphering, some reading, some writing, but all clean and orderly. Mayor Thompson, who was with Iwakura, drew His Excellency’s attention to a map of Asia that hung on the wall, and pointed out Japan with his umbrella. His Excellency was evidently pleased with the compliment the Mayor had paid him. The Ambassadors were delighted with the orderly and intelligent appearance of the children, and asked several questions of Messrs. Edward and George Salt, who accompanied the party, answers to which were given by the interpreter. Before leaving the room, the lads gave three hearty cheers. The party then went to the infant school in which they seemed particularly interested. Some of the children are fine looking. When a question had been asked by the Ambassador and answered by the schoolmistress, one little girl was called out, and the whole of the children lifted their hands as she did, clapped, cheered, and were silent at her command. The girls' school was then visited, and here as in the other departments considerable interest was taken by the Ambassadors in the occupations of the children. After leaving the school the party repaired to the almshouses, and visited the domicile of Elizabeth Gill, No. 26. Her sitting room, bedroom, &c., were each viewed, and some surprise was felt when it was explained to the Ambassador and his associates that these buildings were endowed for ever by the munificence of Sir Titus Salt, and that the only thing required to fit for entrance [sic] was good 47 moral character. 47 Colin Coates informs me that number 26 Almshouses in 1872 is 30 Victoria Road today. In this photo, it is through the left arch of the facing pair of cottages in the very middle of the photo. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 24 48 The Infirmary was the next place of interest that was visited. There are only two patients present, and both of these were seen. The party afterwards went through the Saltaire Institute [now Victoria Hall], beginning with the reading room. They appeared to take great interest in the Gymnasium, and a remark from Sir Harry Parkes to one of the members of the Embassy, that if he had been brought up to exercise his muscles he would have been twice as big, seemed to be relished extremely. The gentleman addressed was the most diminutive of the 49 party. The visitors afterwards went to the Dining Hall adjoining the station, over the entrance of which the Japanese flag was hoisted, and then the whole party went to the works where they were shown the whole process, from carding up to 50 finishing. 48 Some of the almshouses at Saltaire today. Author’s photograph. 49 !!! 50 Not an image from 1872 of course, but a playful view of what the Dining Hall might have looked like. Author’s photograph, photoshopped by Judy Robinson. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 25 Note that Sir Harry Parkes was with the Embassy on this visit, and actively participating. Earlier, this paper mentioned him as a key player in developing the British itinerary which the Embassy adopted, and it will be remembered that Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Aston, interpreter to the Legation in Japan, have been appointed [by the British government] to attend to the Japanese Embassy on their arrival and during their stay in this country. We now have evidence that he was doing just that in late October 1872 in West Yorkshire. The party then lunched with Sir Titus Salt, reports the Bradford Daily Telegraph. But maybe it didn’t!? Kume tells us that on the day of our visit he was away from Bradford and we were not able to meet him. [However] we were conducted round [the mill] by Sir Titus's sons. And Kume’s record is supported by fellow ambassador Kido: Salt was 51 absent today. Kume adds details the Bradford Daily Telegraph omits. Lunch was in the boardroom52, and afterwards they walked to a park on the edge of the village [Saltaire Park, now Roberts Park]. This, too, had been provided by Sir Titus as a gift to the workers. It occupied a sloping site on the banks of the river Aire, backed by rolling hills, and presented a very fine prospect. Kume is full of admiration for what Salt has done: “At none of the factories we saw before or after [my emphasis] were there such provisions as these” he writes, in a lengthy eulogy: Sir Titus had built a primary school in the village and arranged that the villagers' children, both boys and girls, went to the factory to work at their trades for half of each day and for the rest of the day attended school to receive an education. By this excellent method, practical skills and theoretical understanding progressed side by 51 Kido Takayoshi op cit 52 Like so many of the Saltaire locations visited by the Embassy, the Mill’s boardroom still exists. The fact that the C19th village is largely intact was one of the reasons it was awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 26 side. Moreover, not only did the children benefit by receiving a wage from the mill, but their work there was, in return, of benefit to the enterprise. The British regard it as a point of honour to look after their employees and to do their utmost to succour the poor [sic]. The provisions made by this factory-owner are to be admired… In front of the school were the almshouses. Those among the workers who were no longer able to work because of old age were placed there to be cared for. There were [sic] also a hospital, which treated those in the village who were ill, and a church, which the residents of the village attended in order to hear sermons and thus 53 rectify their moral natures . At none of the factories we saw before or after were there such provisions as these. Every one of the five thousand inhabitants of the village looked up to the Salt family. This way of organising the town in which the mill-hands were housed was of great significance as a way of encouraging work. At the end of their visit to Saltaire, the ambassadors boarded a train which took them to Manningham station in north Bradford, and then a carriage to Manningham Mills (better known today as Lister, or Lister’s, 54 Mill) . Kume notes that the mill, which had stood on this site for 27 years, had been destroyed by fire in the previous year and there were 55 plans to re-build it on a larger scale. Indeed, whilst the Embassy was visiting, building work must have been continuing and well advanced. The fire took place in February 1871 and 56 building was completed two and a half years later . The new mill was opened, complete with a magnificent coat of arms and the completion year. 53 The positioning of this reference to a church suggests Kume is referring to the small chapel that was in one of the almshouses. Indeed, it was next door to Elizabeth Gill at No. 26 and was for almshouse residents’ use. 54 This, and most of what follows, is from an article headlined The Ambassadors at Manningham Mills in the Bradford Daily Telegraph, 26 October 1872 55 The resulting factory was colossal, and along with its huge chimney, dominated and still dominates the skyline in the north of Bradford. 56 The original was called Lilycroft Mill. A very good newspaper article tells the story of the 1871 fire and the re-build: https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/19891658.look-back-lilycroft-mill-fire/ 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 27 Notwithstanding the building work, it is clear from Kume’s account that the Mission was able to see a factory which was in production. Moreover, this visit must have been particularly interesting because Lister’s was a silk mill. Commodore Perry’s arrival in 1853 played a key role in taking Japan’s silk market on to the international stage. At the same moment that Japan was opening its ports, the demand for its raw silk greatly increased. In 1855, French silkworm nurseries became infested with disease which eventually spread across Europe. In addition, China was experiencing the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) in which the sericulture regions were greatly damaged. Thus, at this time, Japan had hardly any competition in the silk 57 markets and profited tremendously. The Bradford Daily Telegraph 58 tells us that The Embassy was welcomed by several partners of the firm - but not by [the firm’s founder and owner] Mr Lister who was confined to his office with a sprained ankle. The party went to his office to meet him. 57 https://samurairevolution.omeka.net/exhibits/show/vtj/section2/cmo 58 Bradford Daily Telegraph 26 October 1872 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 28 They then visited the store-house where the raw materials were kept, as they are received from the East Indies, China and Japan. The Ambassadors had in this department the pleasure of seeing several bagfulls [sic] of cocoons, which had been exported from their own country. This must have been of special interest to the visitors! The tour lasted 2.5 hours and encompassed every stage of silk/velvet production – and 59 included inspection and explanation of the very latest machinery. Kume’s description of the use of silk to make textiles is typically technical and detailed. Little wonder that, as the Bradford Daily Telegraph reports, One of the [Japanese] party took voluminous notes during the walk through the works, and he seemed to write with considerable rapidity. This description starts with a link to a Salt innovation: This mill wove velvet in particularly large quantities. The ingenuity of the process exceeded even that of the process used to weave 60 alpaca… and continues with an epic, 1,000 word description of spinning waste cocoons and waste silk yarn… 59 I have deliberately included some long passages, in part to indicate what accurate observers and note-takers Kume and his team were, but also to demonstrate just how much detail was reported. Goodness knows how much was actually recorded! For example, There were several kinds [of raw wool]…First, the hair of the 'angora' goat, which is also called ‘mohair’. This is produced in 'Asia Minor' (a region which belongs to Turkey…). Its price was from three to four shillings a pound. It has a long staple and a high gloss. Second, 'alpaca' wool, which comes from South America. Its value was three shillings and sixpence a pound. It resembles mohair, but its lustre is somewhat inferior…… and so on, and so on… 60 Titus Salt solved the problem of how to use alpaca wool in the production of textiles. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 29 … concluding with the revelation that, currently, Lister’s eldest son had gone to Yokohama in Japan to acquire silk raw material! 61 The party returned to central Bradford and in the evening, Alderman Law, President of the Chamber of Commerce and the members of the Council entertained their Excellencies the Japanese Ambassadors. the Mayor and Corporation of Bradford and a select 62 party of gentlemen, to dinner in the Victoria Hotel. The President of the Chamber of Commerce occupied the chair, supported on the right by his Excellency the Chief Ambassador, and on the left by his Worship the Mayor of Bradford, Matthew William Thompson, Esq. Among the guests at the dinner table were Sir 63 Harry Parkes KCB, Gen Henderson, Major Aston… Amongst the “select party of gentlemen” was one of Bradford’s most 64 famous, Jacob Behrens , plus the German Consul, the President of the Halifax Chamber – and Titus Salt… but not ‘Sir Titus’ so I assume it was Titus Jr. It appears that the meal itself was very special: “The dinner was of the most recherché description” according to the local news report. 61 What follows (in italics) is a lightly-edited version of the report headed The Banquet at the Victoria Hotel in the Bradford Daily Telegraph of the 26 October 1872. 62 James Law was the President of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce according to ambassador Kido Takayoshi in his diary, referenced above. I assume that ‘Alderman Law’ indicates that he was also a Bradford Council alderman, but the ‘Council’ referred to here was the Council of the Chamber. 63 I cannot identify Gen[eral] Henderson but he could be a soldier assigned by the British Government to support/protect the Embassy. Major Aston must be William Aston mentioned earlier. 64 https://behrens.co.uk/our-story/biography-of-sir-jacob-behrens/ 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 30 DAY 3: Saturday 26 October 1872 At five to ten in the morning we boarded a train near our hotel to travel 8 miles to Halifax… Law [James Law?] took us to Halifax at 9.30… [We] returned to the 65 [Bradford] hotel at 3… The Embassy’s target was Dean Clough, the famous and huge carpet factory of John Crossley and Sons. It sits in the very centre of Halifax. 66 They returned to Bradford in the afternoon and then three of the ambassadors - Yamaguchi Masuka aka Yamaguchi Naoyoshi and Hayashi Tadasu aka Hayashi Touzaburō, together with scribe Kume Kunitake – took themselves off to Bolton Abbey, a local beauty spot. Kume says that it was Parkes who “invited us to have a short excursion” and they left at 67 4pm by train, and stayed in the Bolton Bridge Hotel , now the Devonshire Arms. That Parkes recommended Bolton Abbey is unsurprising: it is a beautiful and very interesting spot. But it is also the property of the Duke of Devonshire. Only a few days later, the Embassy would visit Chatsworth in Derbyshire, one of Britain’s most famous ‘stately homes’ - and the home of the Duke of Devonshire! A coincidence perhaps, but it is not improbable that, when Parkes was in London and planning the Embassy’s itinerary, the Duke (or one of his household) had shown an interest in the Iwakura Embassy and had offered hospitality at two of his properties. 65 The first quotation is from Kume. The second, from Kido Takayoshi op cit 66 https://www.visitcalderdale.com/attachment/david-glover-crossley-sons-1200x800/ 67 This excursion is confirmed by The Times, October 28, 1872, quoted by Lee op cit 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 31 DAY 4: Sunday 27 October 1872 From 10 am, ‘Team Bolton’ visited the (then) 700 year old Bolton Abbey 68 (where they attended a service), then walked upstream along the River Wharfe and its “fall” (probably the Strid 69). 70 Further upstream, we rounded a bend in the river where the banks rose to a considerable height above the stream, and here we came upon an old ivy-clad bridge across the river. Before us was revealed a high hill. Midway up it stood an old castle, a thread of smoke rising from it. This was also an entrancing view… [The Duke of Devonshire] had planted trees and laid out paths so that they were in harmony with nature, and had thus created by human artifice a landscape of great natural beauty. 68 Bolton Abbey takes its name from the ruins of the 12th-century Augustinian monastery now known as Bolton Priory. The monastery was founded close by at Embsay in 1120. Led by a prior, Bolton Abbey was technically a priory. It was founded in 1154 by the Augustinian order. The priory was closed during the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasteries. 69 Where the River Wharfe is dramatically, and very dangerously, funnelled into a very narrow, 2m wide, set of rocks, pictured on the screenshot. 70 This screenshot is from the Iwakura Mission Society’s online exhibition celebrating the th Embassy’s 150 anniversary. https://youtu.be/sAzaqEzo7Rs?t=4373 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 32 Kume’s description is suitably lyrical for such a lovely corner of the Yorkshire Dales. Sadly, the three visitors were not told that the “old castle” was actually the (remarkably large and ancient) hunting lodge called Barden Tower. DAY 5: Monday 28 October 1872 Kume reports that th The next morning [ie on Monday the 28 ] at half past ten we left the village of Bolton Abbey by the eleven o'clock train, arriving back in Bradford at one o'clock in the afternoon. Just in time! At 1:30pm, the Embassy left Bradford, arriving in Sheffield at 4pm. From Yorkshire to London The Embassy proceeded onwards to London, but by a very lengthy and roundabout route. They took in Chatsworth in rural Derbyshire and major industrial locations in Cheshire and the English West Midlands. In London, Iwakura met Foreign Secretary Lord Granville on 22 November and again five days later, making it clear that Japan's ultimate objective was to negotiate certain modifications to the existing treaties in order to bring them into line with the political transformations that had taken place in Japan since 1868. He also asked for the British troops stationed in Yokohama to be withdrawn. For his part, Granville complained about the lack of religious toleration in Japan and the inability of foreigners to go upcountry... The delegation, which had waited long for Queen Victoria's return from Balmoral, eventually had an audience with her at Windsor 71 72 Castle on 5 December and presented a letter from the Emperor Meiji. The Embassy also met the Prince of Wales at Sandringham on 9 73 December. A week later, on 16 December, they left for France. 71 Japan Rising op cit 72 These Glanville/Iwakura meetings are also addressed in John Breen, Oliver Checkland, Andrew Cobbing and Akiko Ohta The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 March 1998 http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS349.pdf 73 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakura_Mission 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 33 The Embassy in continental Europe, and beyond Although the major purposes of this paper are to indicate the significance of the Iwakura Embassy and to document in detail its time in Bradford/Saltaire, it would be remiss not to complete the story of the Embassy’s circumnavigation of the globe. The introduction to Japan Rising offers a masterly summary of the post- Britain part of their journey. So good that I make no apology for copying 74 much of it below : The Embassy arrived in Calais from Dover on 16 December at the start of its tour of Europe. Rather than deal with its visit to continental Europe country by country, let us examine in particular the general map of their travels and try to analyse what aspects interested them. The timing of their arrival in France over the Christmas period was not ideal. The initial of their activities was on Paris; and the visitors took part in talks with officials on treaty revision and on religious freedom for Japanese Christians. This was followed by shorter visits to Belgium and Holland, which naturally had a special link with Japan because of the existence of a Dutch settlement at Deshima in Kyushu island over the previous centuries. The Embassy allocated three weeks for its initial stay in Germany but it in fact returned to tour the north and south of the country later in its schedule. The delegates' stay included influential interviews with Otto von Bismarck who gave them a memorable speech which was transcribed by one of the commissioners and reproduced in full in Kume's report… The impact of the German Chancellor certainly had a considerable effect on the thinking of politicians of the Meiji period on military, constitutional and other matters. By late spring the domestic situation in Japan was causing the government that remained there some alarm. It was sufficient for them to call for the return of the deputy leaders, first Okubo and then Kido. The latter, the intellectual of the Embassy, did not want to miss visiting Russia and delayed his departure accordingly. The main party continued its circuit to Russia, which was only allocated two weeks because it was not thought to have much relevance to the problems of the emergent Japan. After this Iwakura led his members to Sweden, while Kido's group travelled round Austria-Hungary, Italy, Switzerland and France at a leisurely pace before arriving at Marseilles to board the ship for home. Iwakura with Kume went to Italy and Austria-Hungary where they 74 Japan Rising op cit 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 34 paid several visits to the Vienna Universal Exposition. This was the first exhibition in which Japan had taken part, albeit in a modest way, and was to have a great influence on its attitudes towards exhibitions later in the century. Kume expresses pride in the Japanese artifacts on view. The full Mission received instructions to return to Japan on 9 June so it could not complete its coverage of Europe by visiting Spain and Portugal. After spending a few weeks in Switzerland and southern France, it joined its ship on 20 July at Marseilles. As representatives of a new nation born out of a civil war, the Japanese were anxious to visit countries with similar experiences. While in the United States they had seen changes brought about by the civil war of 1861-5, they were the witnesses of more dramatic changes in Europe. As Kume observed, they arrived in Paris in 'France's hour of deepest mis-fortune'…. It was its defeat by Prussia which brought about the fall of the empire of Napoleon Ill. When President Thiers received his guests, he was beset by the problem of pushing through a republican constitution which would address the concerns of the Paris Commune and the urgent issue of raising the indemnity payable to Germany in order to secure the evacuation of German troops from French soil. Meanwhile Prussia used her victory over France to declare the foundation of the German Empire in 1871. This German unification brought together the various divergent principalities which made up the German Confederation. But, if German unification had been the result of a short, sharp shock, that of Italy had been created slowly over the previous decade. It reached its culmination when the Papal territories, the last link in the chain, were brought within the fold of a new Italy and Rome became the new national capital. These radical changes were very relevant to Japan where the problems of creating a nation out of a congeries of clans and the centralization of government in a new national capital at Tokyo were very much in the minds of Iwakura's delegates. Although European countries approached these issues differently, the members of the Iwakura team took pains to study their common problems… On its return journey the party travelled through the Suez Canal. They paused at Aden and the port of Galle in Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon). After they were forced to pass by Singapore because of an outbreak of typhoid, they did manage to visit hotels in Saigon, Hong Kong and Shanghai. This afforded them the opportunity to see 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 35 colonialism and the spread of the great European empires at first hand. By 13 September 1873 when the main body reached Yokohama, most of the other delegates had already returned. They found Japan in a dangerous state and not very welcoming. They made it clear that they favoured the cause of reform but found that Japan had to establish peace and stability before they could deal with the implementation of the findings reached during their travels. Kido, the deputy leader of the group, prepared an important memorandum in October advocating constitutional government, perhaps the single most significant outcome of the Mission. But reforms took time, and the leaders were determined not to rush them. In any case, Kido, who returned home as a sick man, retired from politics in 1874 and died three years later. His colleague, Okubo, died at the hands of an assassin in 1878. Prince Iwakura, who survived an attempt on his life in 1874, died in 1883. It was, therefore, the youngest of the leaders, Itō Hirobumi, who became an imperial councillor and steered through the developments in Japanese politics and industrialization for the rest of the century. Itō had had a large hand in the preparation of the Mission and was able through his public-works connections to make significant appointments of foreign nationals to posts in Japan. After four decades of public service, his life eventually ended in assassination in 1909 by a Korean. Japan itself remained a dangerous place to be a politician… Kume's report had an impact on a Meiji Japan which was ambitious for change. The lessons he drew came not from any one country but from the cumulative impression of the countries which the Embassy had visited. These formed the database for the remarkable grassroots transformation that took place in Japan as the reign of the Emperor Meiji progressed. Apart from Kume's work, but associated with it, were the many specialized reports compiled by the junior officials who accompanied the Mission. It seems to have targeted certain countries on its itinerary as special areas for study, e.g. Britain for information on the industrial revolution, and Germany for military information. In the United States it would appear that the officials were particularly trying to understand its forms of government, local, state and national, and its educational methods. They painstakingly studied the basic laws of the American constitution with the help of Japanese scholars already at US universities and paid many visits to legislatures. These comparative studies, ranging over the northern hemisphere, were to lead in time 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 36 to far-reaching constitutional amendments and to the introduction of universal education which was vital to nation-building in Japan… Kume himself merits a final word. His report was an outstanding piece of work, containing shrewd analysis and compelling observations. This was recognized by the Japanese government; and he was appointed to various official posts connected with compiling Japan's national history. 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 37 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Kume Kunitake Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki 「特命全権大使 米欧回覧実記 1878 Graham Healey and Chushichi Tsuzuki (eds) Translation by Andrew Cobbing, Martin Collcutt, Graham Healey, P. F. Kornicki, Eugene Soviak and Chushichi Tsuzuki The Iwakura Embassy 1871-73. A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary's Journey of Observation through the United States of America and Europe The Japan Documents 2002 Chushichi Tsuzuki with the assistance of R. Jules Young with an introduction by Ian Nish Japan Rising Cambridge University Press 2009 … W G Beasley Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travellers in America and Europe New Haven: Yale University Press 1995 Serguey Braguinsky and David A. Hounshell Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) Then and Now 1974 John Breen, Oliver Checkland, Andrew Cobbing and Akiko Ohta The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 LSE STICERD Research Paper No. IS/1998/349 1998 Download free from http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS349.pdf Sidney Devere Brown and Akiko Hirota (translators) The Diary of Takayoshi Kido vol 2 1871-1874 Tokyo: Tokyo University Press 1985 Sydney Checkland The Elgins, 1766-1917 Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press 1988 Andrew Cobbing The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West Routledge 2000 Martin Colcutt Education for a New Japan: Kume Kunitake's Observations on Education in 1872 America in Collcutt, Kato and Toby (eds) Japan and Its Worlds Tokyo: International House Press 2007 1872: WHEN SAMURAI CAME TO SALTAIRE 38 Asia for Educators, Columbia University The Meiji Restoration and Modernization http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm Gordon Daniels, Sir Harry Parkes, British Representative in Japan, 1865- 83 Folkestone: Japan Library 1996 Negley Harte, John North, and Georgina Brewis (eds) The World of UCL 2018 Takaaki Inuzuka (translated by Haruko Laurie) Alexander Williamson A Victorian chemist and the making of modern Japan 2021 Iwakura Mission Society Online exhibition celebrating the Embassy’s th 150 anniversary https://www.jacar.go.jp/english/iwakura_en/index.html Kido Takayoshi The Diary of Kido Takayoshi 1983 https://archive.org/details/diaryofkidotakay0000kido Shigekazu Kondo Kume Kunitake as a Historiographer in Ian Nish (ed) The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: A New Assessment Folkestone: Japan Library, 1998 Charles Lanman The Japanese in America New York: University Publishing 1872 Young-Suk Lee The Iwakura Embassy and British Industrial Cities Gwangju University, South Korea Download from Brill.com Marlene Mayo The Western Education of Kume Kunitake 1871-6 in Monumenta Nipponica 28 1973 William McOmie The Opening of Japan, 1853-5 Folkestone: Global Oriental 2006 Hiroshi Mitani Escape from Impasse: The Decision to Open Japan Tokyo: International House Press 2006 Masao Miyoshi As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860) Berkeley: University of California Press 1979 Samuel Mossman New Japan: The Land of the Rising Sun London: John Murray 1873 Ian Nish The Iwakura Mission: The Issue of Treaty Revision Japan Society, Proceedings (London) 122 1993 th University College London UCL celebrates 150 anniversary of Japan’s Choshu five https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2013/jul/
2024.91: The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No.3 July 2009. A History of the Saltaire Almshouses
The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No.3 July 2009. A History of the Saltaire Almshouses
Nemine Juvante (Saltaire) Public ations
Includes snippets about the Salts Band with photograph, a demonstration of Edison's phonograph at Victoria Hall in 1890, George Salt and a double decker steam tram and information about Titus Salt's early investigations into alpaca fibre. Also includes a book review of Saltaire United Reformed Church 150 years anniversary 2009 church history
2024.98: A Short History of the Bradford Tradesmen's Homes
A Short History of the Bradford Tradesmen's Homes
Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Coat of arms
A book about the almshouses in the Lily Croft area of Bradford. Mentions the donation made by Sir Titus Salt and the official opening of the refurbished chapel by Sir Anthony Salt in 1989
C4a-013: The Saltaire Journal volumes 1 to 5
The Saltaire Journal Volumes 1-5; Photocopies of volume 1 and 2; Originals of Volumes 3 to 5 with 2 copies of volume 5. Plus documents about the Journals and list
C4a-013.1: The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No.1 November 2007 Traces of Salt in London by Barlow and Shaw
C4a-013.2: The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No.2 March 2009 The Saltaire Conversazione by Roger Clarke
C4a-013.3: The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No. 3 July 2009 A History of the Saltaire Almshouses by Roger Clarke
C4a-013.4: The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No.4 March 2010 The Whitlam Family?....Who are they?
C4a-013.5: The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No.5 March 2012 The Second Lord of Saltaire, The Family History of Sir James Roberts by David King
The Saltaire Journal Vol.1 No. 3 July 2009 A History of the Saltaire Almshouses by Roger Clarke
C4a-015.10: Saltaire History Club Meeting for October 2008
Saltaire History Club Meeting for October 2008
A4 poster for Saltaire History Club Meeting for October 2008 'From Groundsman's Assistant to Managing Director', Edward Stanners looks back at his time at Salts Mill and 'The Saltaire Almshouses', new findings by Roger Clarke
2025.68.102: Saltaire Almshouses on Bingley Road
2025.68: Photographs of Saltaire by John Rhodes
2025.68.103: Saltaire Almshouses on Victoria Road
2025.68.104: Saltaire Almshouses on Victoria Road
Saltaire almshouses on Victoria Road (2)
2025.68.123: Saltaire Almshouses on Victoria Road
Saltaire almshouses on Victoria Road (3)
'The Tradesmen's Rest'. Magazine article taken from Yorkshire Living, December 2014. A look at the almshouses in Saltaire with images
Only viewable in the Saltaire Collection
C2b-386: Various magazine articles containing articles on Saltaire
Printed magazine of Saltaire related articles with black and white and coloured photographs. The lead article relates to 'A History of the Saltaire Almshouses' by Roger Clarke. Other articles include snippets on 'Edison's phonograph at Victoria Hall', 'George Salt's steam attraction' and 'Titus Salt's early investigations of Alpaca fibre'
Copyright Nemine Juvante (Saltaire) Public ations and individual authors