After working for a number of years in the family woolstapling business, Salt set up on his own in the centre of Bradford, spinning and weaving alpaca wool. Long concerned about the squalid conditions in which his workforce lived, in 1853 he relocated to a purpose-built mill near Shipley, constructing a village next to it to house his workers.

In addition to housing them, Salt provided for their education (schools, a library, and reading rooms), for their souls (a congregational church), for their leisure (a billiards room and gym), for their health (a cottage hospital), and for their cleanliness (a clothes wash-house, slipper baths, and a Turkish bath). There were no public houses.