Salt's secret

I don't often wander round the back of Saltaire's church but I was attracted by the beech leaves glowing in the sunshine, so I walked right round. There is a 'secret' that I guess a lot of visitors miss, which is Salt's Mausoleum, tacked on to the side in 1861 after the church was completed (in 1859) and rather ornately decorated with carved embellishments and a funerary urn. Interred there are Sir Titus Salt himself, who died in 1876; his children Whitlam, Mary and Fanny who predeceased him; his wife, Lady Caroline; his son Titus Jnr and his wife, Catherine (she was cremated but her ashes were sealed in the vault) and Mary Jane, son Edward's first wife. It seems that Salt wanted the family's remains buried together; Whitlam and Mary's remains were exhumed from their original burial place in Lightcliffe, to be reinterred here. For all the drama of Victorian graves, there is nevertheless something peaceful about these places. 

You can sometimes see inside when the church is open. It is rather lovely actually. (See HERE)