Salt and Sympathy
The Year 7 Academic Scholars, in their first meetings of the year, were examining the village of Saltaire in West Yorkshire. Founded in the mid-19th century by Sir Titus Salt and situated next to the River Aire and the Leeds–Liverpool Canal, it was a so-called “Utopian Village” (rather like Bourneville near Birmingham).
The factory at Saltaire was surrounded by parks, pleasant houses, reading rooms, refectories, and a new non-conformist church. The students began to think about why this location had been selected and used some contemporary examples of where particular industries are located to give them a sense of perspective. They also considered why some mill owners, like Salt, treated their workers better than many of their contemporaries and avoided the kind of practices illustrated in the picture.
In the spirit of the Scholarship programme, the students did some science as they examined how steam engines worked, and in the next session they will do some economics as they consider how mills fitted into the overall economic system of the time.
In Year 9, the scholars will visit Saltaire as part of their trip to Yorkshire.
