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SALTAIRE FOLK: Maria Glot, Local Historian and Tour Guide
Maria Glot first came to Saltaire as an impressionable 9 year old whose main language was Polish. She headed for her nearest library, which in 1962 was housed in Victoria Hall. There she was befriended by one of the staff who could see Maria’s desperate need to improve her skills in the English language, and together they read all the great literary classics. From that time, Saltaire has been a very special place for Maria, and she returned to live here in 1987.
She is now one of the best known and most easily recognized residents around the Village, especially because of her guided tours which she leads on a regular basis. Those of you who recognize that Saltaire’s future lies in its tourist industry will welcome her efforts. She works with Anne and Roger Heald at the Information Centre at 2, Victoria Road, organizing school and University groups, and tours for all ages and interests. All want to experience Saltaire, through Maria’s charismatic tours.
Maria’s interest in tourism is long standing. Educated at St Walburga’s, St Josephs College, and Liverpool University (where she did a Degree in Politics and History), she progressed to working in the Local Authority Recreation and Research Dept. She soon heard (in 1980) that they were looking for a Tourism Officer in the Economic Development Unit. There were not many applications - - after all, who believed that a Bradford which was experiencing depression in the Textiles and Engineering industries, and where The Yorkshire Ripper was at large, was worth promoting as a holiday destination. The interview panel gave Maria the job (“as the best of a poor bunch” they told her). With it came funding for just 1 year, and the backing of a small but talented team in the Marketing Section. It was the sort of challenge which Maria could rise to. She’s determined, pro-active, optimistic and dynamic.
She believes in herself. This is the young woman who, at 26 years old, was told in an interview for the Civil Service that “as an alien, you’ll never progress beyond a certain level” – she walked out!
After visiting all the jewels in Bradford’s crown, she put together 2 package holidays – “In the Footsteps of the Brontes” and “Industrial Heritage”. She went around persuading hoteliers, shopkeepers, mill owners, and canal boat companies that it might just work. All were pessimistic, but with Maria’s persuasion they agreed to give it a go. The first tourist to sign up was given VIP treatment. Ted Adams alighted from his Inter-City 125 train onto a red carpet, with the Hammonds Sauce Works Band playing “Ilkley Moor Bar ‘Tat”, and the Lord Mayor holding a giant stick of Bradford rock. TV cameras and the Media followed Ted around the District. And to cap it all, The Ripper was caught in Sheffield soon afterwards.
Maria’s contract had just one month left to run!! Immediately 700 bookings were made on the holiday packages, generating £250,000 worth of publicity for Bradford. Further advertising in women’s magazines such as Womans Realm brought a further 2,000 bookings in the first year.
Maria remained in post as Tourism Officer until 1995. Her memories include Edward Stanners, Managing Director at Salts Mill, who had the vision to believe that Maria’s plans for conducted tours of the Mill might work. The workforce rose to the occasion, cleaned up their workplaces, and were soon generating an extra £10,000 per year and providing jobs for workers who would otherwise have been made redundant. This in turn generated the idea for a Mill Shop (one of the first in the country) selling “over-run” quality designer clothing.
And of Jonathan Silver, who was such a huge influence on the future of the Mill from 1987 onwards. Maria remembers him as a decision maker, and a man who made things happen. Just like Sir Titus before him. She has great admiration for them both.
Maria has similar qualities herself. She’s strong, resourceful, intelligent, and (as we’ve seen) can make things happen too. She looks ever to her family background, and her Catholic religion, to inform her opinions and her decision making. She was born in Dewsbury in 1953 to a Polish mother and a Polish/German father. One of 5 children, she spoke Polish all the time until the family came to Shipley after her father had died. They came to live with her maternal grandfather on St Pauls Road. He was a powerful influence on her life. He was proud to have been a “kulak” or landowner in Poland, but when the Russians took over the country under Stalin he was put under great pressure to join a “collective” or to abandon his land and get out. In 1940, with 4 million other Poles, the family was sent to work camps in Siberia. They endured many privations, before seizing the opportunity to escape from the area. They travelled through Uzbekistan (where her grandmother starved to death), Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Persia, to live for 5 years in Northern Rhodesia. It was remarkable that Maria’s grandfather and mother survived. Meanwhile, her mother’s brother had joined the Air Force and was stationed in Britain. He asked the Red Cross to trace his family, and they were persuaded to come to Britain in 1948. Maria is very proud of her background, and lives by its standards. Her Grandfather taught her to value and use the gift of learning, and to learn every skill you can.
Maria took his advice to heart, and she now uses her skills and experience in her self employed marketing ventures for local enterprises. There’s also a larger than life quality about Maria, which she uses to good effect in her lecturing and after dinner speaking. Her knowledge about the Salt family and Saltaire is considerable, and she spices her commentary with many humorous asides. Life’s never dull when Maria is around. We look forward to her portrayal of a burler and mender in period dress at the next Saltaire Festival.
I tried to get her to comment on her hopes for the future for herself and for Saltaire. Her Grandfather had always encouraged her to look for today, and not to dwell on the past. She would only say that he insisted that she should live in hope, make the most of every opportunity, and do the best you can. For Saltaire, she believes that it will do well if its people keep it alive and if it can remain commercially viable. Unfortunately there’s not a Sir Titus or a Jonathan to provide the driving force and the direction, but they sowed the seeds.
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