Installation in Shirley Street house as part of Saltaire Arts Trail 2008.
The children in situ, with work by Terry Wragg and Sue Wray
The 'poor' children
I was intrigued by various aspects of the Saltaire ‘story’ – Titus Salt naming the streets of Saltaire after his eleven children; the appalling pollution in Bradford, with life expectancy for the working class of only 18 – 20 years; the resistance of other Bradford mill owners to accept that the smoke from their factories damaged peoples health and Salt’s subsequent move to a green field site outside of Bradford; and the contrast between Salt’s progressive philanthropy and support of the Chartist movement and his opposition to the abolition of child labour. The contrast between Titus Salt’s children and the children who must have lived in this house in Shirley Street led me to look at the census returns –
In 1871 there was Mr Cudworth, a tallow chandler, in 1881 James Dinsdale, a wool washer and in 1891 Samuel Hull, a stoker. Mr Walker ran a drapers shop at the end of the street. So the ‘children’ emerged –
-
the ‘posh’ children – the Salt girls in velvet, lace, watered silk, and fine wool, the Salt boys in the luxury worsted produced in Salt’s mill and later entertaining royalty with all the glitter and glamour
- Shirley Salt who went on to become a barrister in London
- every family has a rebellious child, though stencil graffiti hadn’t been thought of in those days
- the mourning child – two of the Salt children died in infancy and another at 20
- the poor girl in her Sunday best
- the tallow chandlers children
- the child from smoky Bradford
- the stokers children
- the drapers daughter
- William Salt in finest worsted, Titus S. jnr fit to entertain royalty, Shirley S. barrister and the Chartist child
Salt girl in mourning, Salt girl in velvet and lace
Lynette Willoughby - Artist .... 
Leave a Reply