Trips & Adventures – 14 February 2019

Happy Valentine’s Day to all! (singles as well as couples). The ancient Romans may be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on February 14 in the 3rd century AD. Their martyrdom was honoured by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St Valentine’s Day.

On this romantic day we travelled to Saltaire – a village near Bradford in West Yorkshire. It is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill, known as Salts Mill, and this village on the River Aire. Designed by architects, Lockwood and Mawson, Salts Mill was opened on Sir Titus Salt’s 50th birthday, 20 September 1853. In December 2001, Saltaire was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

We had a fantastic lunch in the Boathouse Inn – a chic contemporary pub / restaurant set in a refurbished, riverside Victorian boathouse. The food and service were excellent even though the place was very busy.

We explored Salts Mill which features exhibitions of paintings by David Hockney as well as books and lots of interesting curios. Unfortunately we were not able to take a cruise down the canal as we were off-season, but we had a very pleasant walk round Roberts Park on the other side of the River Aire. It was a great day out.