RELATIVES of a man who donated an insight into life in a Bradford district village from the 1920s onwards to an archive collection have been urged to come forward.
The Saltaire Collection, based in Shipley College, has many historical items that provide insights for visitors, historians, and students into the village’s heritage.
It has been boosted by a comprehensive record of childhood, social life in Saltaire and Shipley and work in Salts Mill, titled ‘Life on Caroline Street’ from a village resident, who has since died.
The items were donated to Saltaire Collection by Percy Price. He was born in Caroline Street in 1921, and in later life lived in Wycliffe Gardens in Shipley. He died aged 89 in 2010.
Covering the late 1920s onwards, Mr Price’s work offers a glimpse of everyday life during this period, including a detailed piece about the air raid precautions at Salts Mill from 1939.
He also donated drawings he made of the residences on Caroline Street that had been the former bath and washhouses.
Saltaire Salts Mill company sale of the village's houses and shops to Bradford Property Trust in 1933 and his work as a roof slater at Salts Mill are also documented. The file is split into 18 sections and includes work on sports and leisure in Saltaire and Shipley Glen in the 1930s.
His file is too large to share easily with historians, researchers and others and Saltaire Collection are hoping to select extracts that can be viewed by visitors and published as short stories on their website; saltairecollection.co.uk
The collection's volunteers want to find any relatives of Mr Price to ask for their views about this proposed use of his work and invite them to visit the collection to look at his comprehensive file.
Maggie Smith, Saltaire World Heritage Education Association trustee, said: “There is stuff we would really love to use. It’s just wonderful. “It’s just fascinating. It features an everyday history that does not usually get the limelight.
“We work really hard at the collection celebrating more on the workers and residents of Saltaire.
“We want to put the memories of Percy Price on our website.
“He was living in Caroline Street when he recorded this amazing record of his life.
“We want to find Percy’s relatives. He has given us one enormous file, it’s absolutely massive.”
Any relatives of Mr Price are urged to contact the Saltaire Collection on 07917 357763 or email saltairestories@gmail.com
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