Thursday Doors – 20 August 2026

Doors 367 – Doors of Saltaire, Part II – May 2025

A couple of weeks back I posted some doors from Saltaire which I photographed during a work trip to celebrate the declaration of a new National Nature Reserve (Bradford Pennine Gateway NNR) in May 2025. This week’s selection of doors features some of the residences of Saltaire and the old tramway up to Shipley Glen on the north side of the River Aire.

I will explain a little bit more about the hierarchies linked to the houses that were built by the Salt family for workers in the textile mill in the next and final post from this remarkable village. I hope you enjoy this week’s selection:

The next two pictures are from the Shipley Glen Tramway and I asked AI to help me with a short potted history of the tramway, which is as follows:

The Shipley Glen Tramway is a historic cable-hauled funicular in West Yorkshire, opened in May 1895 by local entrepreneur Sam Wilson to carry visitors up the steep hillside to the popular attractions at Shipley Glen, including a fairground and wooden toboggan ride. Originally powered by a gas engine, the twin-track, narrow-gauge tramway carried passengers in open-sided cars and quickly became a much-loved part of the area’s Victorian leisure scene.

It was converted to electric power in 1920 and, despite periods of closure and changing fortunes, has survived remarkably intact. Today the tramway is preserved and operated by volunteers on behalf of the Shipley Glen Tramway Preservation Company, continuing to carry visitors up the wooded hillside and standing as one of Britain’s oldest working funicular railways.

And at the top of the tramway is part of the Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve.

That’s probably enough Yorkshire culture for one day. The final part from Saltaire follows next week, until then, have a lovely weekend.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post and his Sunday recap.