Prior to 2001, somebody had clearly identified there was a gap on the list of World Heritage Sites for model villages for workers of the Industrial Revolution. I say this because, in 2001, the UK managed to get three sites inscribed on this theme in the same session: the Derwent Valley Mills, New Lanark, and Saltaire. Of these three, I think Saltaire is by far the weakest. The mills of the Derwent Valley and the model village of New Lanark both have the distinction of being first in their class, which seems a fairly inarguable case for OUV even if the visiting experience can be fairly mediocre. Sir Titus Salt had Saltaire built in 1851, over half a century after New Lanark was founded in 1796, and there were many other settlements inspired by New Lanark built in between those dates. Saltaire is probably the best preserved of all of these early attempts and presents a fairly complete model village with houses, hospital, schools, church, park and, of course, the imposing mill. That being said, the later developments in Port Sunlight near Liverpool (1888), Bournville in Birmingham (1893), and Creswell in Derbyshire (1895) are all equally good examples of this phenomenon, built for workers in the soap, chocolate, and coal industries respectively. If the purpose of Saltaire is to demonstrate how the model town evolved as the Industrial Revolution progressed then why not inscribe these three too as they show even more development and represent something other than textiles? Not to mention the many other examples outside the UK, which does not have the monopoly on industrial heritage that it sometimes seems to think it does. Crespi d’Adda in Italy is already inscribed but, if ICOMOS treated model industrial towns with the same reverence as Gothic cathedrals, we would have many, many more on the list. To me, Saltaire being one of the earliest and one of the best examples of the model worker’s town seems a flimsy justification for inscription.

If my negativity hasn’t put you off, Saltaire can be visited very easily by public transport thanks to the railway station that lies in the centre of the core zone. There are half-hourly trains from Leeds and Bradford Forster Square, which means there are about four trains an hour coming the other way from Keighley and Skipton. Still being a residential area, there is no charge to wander around the streets and the mill is likewise free to enter including myriad shops and a David Hockney art gallery, who was born in Bradford. It is possible to see everything in Saltaire in under an hour – a little longer is probably advisable but not that much more. Nearby Leeds and Bradford have no shortage of grand industrial buildings built from the profits of the mill industry, as well as the refurbished mill buildings themselves, and the Leeds Royal Armouries Museum is a must-visit for any military history buffs. Other local attractions accessible by train include Ilkley Moor, which has some glorious views and inspired the unofficial anthem of Yorkshire On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at (On Ilkley Moor Without A Hat), the large ruins of the Cistercian Kirkstall Abbey, and a heritage railway from Keighley to Haworth, the home of the Brontë sisters with its atmospheric moorlands and period buildings that were a candidate for the UK’s tentative list in 2010 but not added. Beyond Skipton, the railway continues on to form the Settle & Carlisle line, regarded as one of the most scenic in Britain and the end of this line would be a good jumping off point for the WHS of the Lake District and Hadrian’s Wall. It’s not a good sign that so much of my review has been about things to do to supplement a trip to Saltaire but there really isn’t a great deal there and, as other reviewers have noted, what is there is not particularly well explained or presented.