Barlo & Shaw's A to Z of Saltaire street names
It is an irony that we end this series of articles on Saltaire street names with William Henry Street – alphabetically the last, but effectively the first street in the village to be named after a member of the Salt family.
William Henry was the first child of Titus and Caroline Salt. Born on 5th Dec 1831, when his parents were still living in their first Bradford home on North Parade, he spent his early years in Bradford, the family moving to the grand estate of Crow Nest, near Halifax, when William Henry was 12. After attending Huddersfield College until he was 16, followed by a further year at Mill Hill School, London, he joined his father’s business in Bradford. In 1854, with production now transferred to a rapidly developing Saltaire, William Henry married Emma Dove Octaviana Harris of Leicester, living first at Ashgrove, near Halifax, and later at Summer Hill, Rawdon.
Having spent a quarter of a century working in his father’s business William Henry, while still in his 40s, retired and moved to his wife’s home county of Leicestershire, to live the life of a gentleman farmer. It was a move which would, in time, sever the close link between the village and the baronetcy of Sir Titus. On the latter’s death in 1876, William Henry succeeded to the title, but the family line has never returned to live in the West Riding.
William Henry died in July, 1892; he and his wife lie buried in modest graves in the churchyard of St Paul’s, Woodhouse Eaves, Maplewell.
