Tuesday 14 October 2014

Yorkshire :: Part 5...Salts Mill

Hello Lovelies,
this is my final post on this years Yorkshire weekend. Two days which  Mum and I enjoyed so much. 
This was the day after my Yarndale visit and the same day we so enjoyed looking around Skipton and Cliffe castle....a packed day for sure!

After looking around a former mill owners home, we headed to Saltaire to look around a mill.....Salts Mill.

Evidence of the industrial revolution and this area's textile manufacturing history is still prominent to this day.
Nowadays the mill buildings are often converted to homes or offices.


But this wonderful mill has a more interesting use. According to their web site today it's....

" Shopping, Dining and Art in one Glorious Building"


We arrived early in the afternoon and were feeling pretty hungry, so we headed straight to the second floor to find "Salts Diner". It was a buzzing place and I'm surprised I managed to take this empty looking picture..........

How I loved the furniture and all the colours in here....not to mention the pretty flowers on every table

And the building ......just look at those columns and the height of the ceiling........


the space made the perfect setting to display lots of artwork. Salts mill has a strong link with the Yorkshire artist David Hockney........those are his portrait paintings around the walls...........


And  his cute little doggy design features on all the crockery........


We ordered the leek and potato soup, it was dEliCiouS.

 I loved soaking up the atmosphere of this place and enjoyed the views across the rooftops out of the windows................



Soon my soup was all gone and I was smiling at the discovery of another doggy in the bottom of my bowl...........


It's a very industrial space, with all the "bones" of the building on show....but here they had been made stylish, colourful and fun............


The atmosphere in this  exhibition space was much calmer. It covered the history of Salts mill. I loved these interesting pictures of all the stages of cloth production, from sorting the raw wool to checking for any faults in the finished cloth.............

Mum, who worked in a mill before I was born ( as their occupational health nurse), still knew the correct name for all these processes.

Here you can see this area was very different to the cafe space, but once again pops of colour brought it to life............


A little further along there was some interesting information about the building of this mill and the surrounding village. The man responsible for  its construction was a philanthropist. You can read a little about Titus Salt ( and the terrible state of Bradford at the time)  HERE 


Many years ago I enjoyed studying the industrial revolution at school, so this was fascinating to me. And having been born in Bradford myself It certainly made me grateful to live now not then.


After mum managed to tear me away from the exhibition we found the gorgeous , light filled bookshop.............



It was the sort of space you could spend hours just browsing. I loved the stone floors and the industrial feel......


And of course the views out of the huge windows..........



It was getting close to the time we had planned to leave now, but the was just a little while spare to browse the ground floor gallery. I was thrilled to see the original of a Hockney painting I've admired for many years now............The Road Across the Wolds looked amazing in this setting..........

next to a scary old dentists chair!

You can see ( and hear)  more of what this beautiful place feels like HERE. Click on the 1853 gallery. It's a 360 degree tour.

I did make a few more small purchases that Sunday. A Yorkshire tea towel from Skipton and some inexpensive Hockney postcards from Salts Mill............


The bookshop also had loads of greetings cards from many different artists. I couldn't resist this one........


Here's the blurb on the back.............

so nice to get a little insight into the life and inspiration of the artist don't you think.

How we both loved Salts Mill and hope to return one day.

I do hope you have enjoyed these posts Lovelies. I know they have been rather information packed at times.
Sometimes I  go a bit Linky mad don't I :0)

Jacquie x

13 comments:

  1. Thank you, I love your posts and in my opinion you can't have too much information! I noticed that the greeting card you bought has in it the exact Autumnal colours of the yarn you bought recently :) You inspired me to buy the same colours in the Stylecraft Special DK plus a couple more and I'm thinking I might make a blanket from your hexagon pattern. I haven't used this yarn before and I like it very much, especially the price! It certainly feels more expensive than it is. Have made a few hexagons but a couple of them look a bit 'vegetable soupy' so having to rethink the order of colours lol. Keep up the good work.

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  2. All lovely, Jacquie. Thanks so much for sharing your lovely break away with Mum. Hugs, Chris x

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  3. I've loved the history in this post Jacquie and appreciate you taking the time to share your lovely time away. The view out the windows certainly is beautiful.
    Anne xx

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  4. I've loved and enjoyed each post in the series! Thanks for taking the time to share it all. :)) What beautiful cards you chose, I love the last one.

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  5. I so enjoyed your posts! There is never too much information, especially for those who long to travel. This makes us feel we've visited your part of this big world.
    Blessings,
    Betsy
    Http://Betsy-thesimplelifeofaqueen.blogspot.com

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  6. Wonderful posts about your Yorkshire weekend, Jacquie. I have so enjoyed reading them. Yarndale was the start of a very enjoyable time in the Dales for us too - made even more special coming home to your prezzie. I hope you got my email? Thank you so much again, you are too kind.
    Jones xx

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  7. This is beautiful - I love old mills. They are so full of history. I'm hoping to blog a little bit about our stay at the mill in New Lanark - soon, if possible. My mother also worked in a mill when she was in her teens. She left to become a nurse and then a midwife. She would have been a midwife in the late 1950s so when I watch Call the Midwife it makes me think of her.

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  8. My compliments to you on your posts.. I get to see things I never will "in real life" and learn things and see art.. thank you. I think it's fabulous when a big old industrial building is re-purposed with fun shops and offices, etc. We've done that here in Portland, Oregon, too. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  9. Salts Mill looks fantastic, I'm glad you enjoyed it there so much. I love to hear a bit about artists and their inspiration too. And I've loved your Yarndale posts, the very next best thing to actually going there. Thank you for all of the time and effort you've put into them, they have been so enjoyable. CJ xx

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  10. Thanks so much for sharing your lovely trip with your mum, xx

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  11. I've loved your Yorkshire posts! The Hockney painting did look fantastic in the mill..

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  12. My goodness, Jacquie, you and your Mom really did have a full day...of exploring, beauty and fun.

    I've seen pictures of Salts Mill in other bloggers' posts over the years, and it does seem to be a fabulous place, that is able to both look back through history and also forward to what's being created now.

    Thank you so much for reminding me of what a magnificent part of of the world Yorkshire is.

    xo

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  13. There are some lovely places in Yorkshire. Your photos are great so colourful.

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