Titus Salt is sometimes rumoured to have been against the consumption of alcohol. Receipts from his wine cellar tell a different story! Like any good myth, there is a grain of truth to this – Salt did not allow the building of a public house anywhere in Saltaire. Although not part of the Temperance Movement, he had seen families in Bradford suffering in poverty when workers went straight from being paid to drinking their wages away. Salt hoped that by providing other activities at the Institute, workers would choose these over a walk to the nearest pub outside the village.
As times changed, so did restrictions on Saltaire and today there are many pubs and bars in the village. One has to wonder what Salt would think of Don’t Tell Titus…