Echoes of the past

I've been doing a lot of work on my family tree during lockdown and I'm finding it an absorbing and addictive hobby. I don't have anyone famous or obviously remarkable in my lines; they were mostly coal miners and agricultural labourers but their lives fascinate me nevertheless. It's odd how it has made me feel quite close to my ancestors, especially the women in the family. They had baby after baby and looked after their large families on a meagre income and through all sorts of privations. 

My head was full of these thoughts when I went on a reconnaissance trip up to the site of Milner Field, before a (planned but ultimately rained off!) camera club outing. For those that don't already know, Milner Field, half a mile or so up the valley from Saltaire, was the site that Titus Salt Jnr chose to build his family mansion in 1870. The house, designed by Thomas Harris, was a solid, heavy looking place, with towers, turrets and Gothic arches, designed as a statement of Salt Jnr's wealth and taste. It was full of innovative features, including an experimental telephone system linking it with Salts Mill.   

It had a large conservatory full of exotic ferns and plants, with a mosaic floor which can still be seen. 

The house, however, became linked to stories of bad luck. In 1887 Titus Salt Jnr, aged only 44, suddenly collapsed and died (in the billiard room -  reminiscent of a game of Cluedo - though thankfully he wasn't murdered!) Later residents (directors of Salts Mill) suffered family tragedies and ill health. By 1930 the house was empty and unsaleable. It was plundered for materials to repair the mill, vandalised and knocked about, left to decay gradually until very little was left of it. Even now there are piles of stones, the remains of cellars and all sorts of odd traces of the huge house, although the site is overgrown with trees that have taken hold among the ruins. It's rather an eerie place.