Titus Salt

Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet (20th September 1803 - 29th December 1876) was a manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford.

Titus became his father's partner in the business of Daniel Salt and Son. He was also the creator of the lustrous and subsequently very fashionable cloth called 'alpaca'. In 1833 he had taken over the running of his father's business and within twenty years had expanded it to be the largest employer in Bradford and in 1848 Titus Salt became mayor of Bradford. 

Around 1850, he decided to build a large mill to consolidate his textile manufacture in one place and he bought some land three miles from Bradford, next to the River Aire, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Midland Railway: there his mill was begun in 1851. He also paid for the building of the houses, bathhouses, institute, hospital, almshouses and churches, that make up Saltaire.