Left: Statue of the mill-owner Sir Titus Salt (1803-1876), seen from the side by Francis Derwent Wood, R.A. (1871-1926). Right: Whole monument from the front. The statue, which was erected in 1903, is in bronze on a tall ashlar stone plinth carrying bronze bas-reliefs of an angora goat and an alpaca, the animals that provided the fleece for Salt's nearby mill. The statue stands in a prominent position in Roberts Park, Saltaire, Yorkshire, the model mill-town constructed for Salt” by the Bradford architectural firm of Lockwood & Mawson.
Left: Bas-relief depicting the heavily fleeced angora goat. Right: Statue in its setting. As well as the two bas-reliefs on either side, there is a bronze plaque in front of the plinth explaining that the monument commemorates the centenary of Salt's birth, and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the mill. The statue faces not the mill itself, but the East-West terrace through the park, which was landscaped in 1870-71” by William Gay (1814-1893). What looks from here like a broad bay off the terrace is in fact the rooftop balcony of a semi-circular pavilion on a level with the sports green beneath. The ornamental stone wall around the "bay" serves as a balustrade for this. While the statue is better seen from above, the whole ensemble is even more impressive when seen from below. It was designed by Lockwood & Mawson in collaboration with Gay (see "Saltaire," p. 26).
Related Material
Photographs and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this UR or cite the Victorian Web in a print document.]
Bibliography
Balgarnie, Rev.R. Sir Titus Salt, Baronet: His life and Its Lessons. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1878. Internet Archive. Web. 22 September 2011.
Discover Saltaire: Unesco World Heritage Site. Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Leaflet available from Bradford Visitor Information Centre, Vity Hall, Bradford.
Leach, Peter, and Nikolaus Pevsner. Yorkshire West Riding, Leeds, Bradford and the North. The Buildings of England series. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Saltaire: Conservation Area Assessment, March 2004. Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Web. 22 September 2011.
Last modified 6 March 2012