'You cannot tell Titus Salt's story without alpacas'

New York has Hamilton, Paris has Les Miserables and now Bradford has Salt the Musical – complete with singing alpacas.

Written by Maria Mullin and directed by Anita Adams, it tells the story of Sir Titus Salt, the 19th Century industrialist who created the model village of Saltaire to house workers at his textile mill on the outskirts of Bradford.

Produced by theatre company Show Ready, it is based, says Mullin, on her love for the village and Salt's remarkable influence on Britain's textile industry – including alpaca wool, which he helped introduce to the UK.

"You cannot tell this story without alpacas. If people come and see the show, they may see some comic singing alpacas," she said.

Mullin, who lives just outside Saltaire, said she "absolutely loved" researching the show, which explores Bradford's industrial heritage as well as Salt.

"It's [set] right in the heart of the industrial revolution and it follows him through his life," she said.

"It was quite hard to try to fit all of that into a couple of hours for a show, because he just has such an incredible life and an extraordinary story.

"I've always wanted to write something for the theatre, and you've got to find a story you really love if you're going to spend hours working on it."

Mullin, who is also the founder of the Great Yorkshire Chorus, wrote the show in 2023 and did a first workshop version in Bradford Playhouse in 2024, but said the project was put on hold when she gave birth to twins that summer.

"We're really hoping this is just the beginning for the show. We're really excited to bring it home to where it is based, but hopefully from there we'll look to do a bigger, fuller version in the future," she said.

"There's a thought that all new shows come out of London, but that really isn't the case - and I feel proud we're creating an exciting new show about Yorkshire in Yorkshire."

Salt was born to a sheep farmer in Morley in 1803. He began his career as a wool dealer in Wakefield, but when the family moved to Bradford he set up business with his father.

The family business expanded and, in 1835, Salt discovered alpaca wool from Peru in a warehouse in Liverpool, going on to create a fashionable new cloth that was even worn by Queen Victoria.

The village of Saltaire was built for his workers between 1851 and 1871 as a reaction to the poor working conditions in other mills in Bradford. In 2001, the village was designated a UNESCO heritage site.

"Lots of people had moved from the countryside to come and work in towns like Bradford looking for a better life but actually what they found were really tough working conditions, long hours, terrible housing deprivation, loads of disease," says Mullin.

"So that's what drove him to think I'm going to build a brand new huge mill out of the city in the clean air, in Saltaire, by the river and the hills and it's going to be an amazing place."

Salt the Musical is being performed in concert version at Victoria Hall in Saltaire on Saturday.

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