DEAR reader, I’d like to introduce you to a real life couple who lived in Victorian Saltaire. Join me on the time machine as we travel back to circa 1871.

Pollie and Silvester Toothill are living in the Saltaire Club and Institute (now Victoria Hall). Silvester was a true character in all senses of the word who brought ‘scandal’ on the Toothills and the whole village...

So let’s travel a little further back to 1852; Pollie Toothill is born Mary Ackroyd in the Bradford Moor district. At some point 17 or so years later the young dressmaker meets Silvester Toothill, an accountant of Saltaire. They are married in 1870. Silvester, who was born in Haworth, is 19-years-old and Pollie is around 18-years-old.

Mary changed her name to Pollie, as many young women did at the time.

The Leeds Mercury of July 1878 carries a story that Silvester Toothill, an accountant of Saltaire, has been in Court for failing to pay his train fare. He has been travelling on the Midland Railway from Leeds to Bradford. An Inspector alights Silvester’s carriage at Apperley Bridge and finds him without a ticket! Oh, a serious crime back in the day.

The Midland Railway had been encountering a lot of fraud. Silvester was accused of defrauding the Midland Rail Company and was fined 40 shillings, and if failing to pay would receive a month-long prison sentence.

Forty shillings was a lot of money back then - equivalent to approximately two and a half weeks wages. Thankfully, Silvester did miss going to jail.

Travel forward now to 1881. Mary is back living with her parents in Bradford Moor and working as a dressmaker. No sign of Silvester! He has disappeared.

The 1881 Census shows that Edward and Deborah Toothill, Silvester’s parents, are still living at the Saltaire Club and Institute (now Victoria Hall) where Edward is the curator - office keeper. Also living there are Silvester’s married Sister Frances, her two-year-old son and her husband Benjamin Norfolk, a furniture salesman.

Perhaps this was a grace and favour flat, thanks to Edward’s role as curator at the Saltaire Club and Institute; the apartment is in the basement of the building, behind the iron railings, next to the gymnasium that is there today, and must have been very cosy with all those Toothills living there.

A legacy from Silvester’s mother, Deborah Toothill: Records for 1889 show Silvester is back in Saltaire, working as a Corporation clerk and living at 15 George Street, which was also shown as his mother Deborah’s address in the National Probate Register when she died in 1889.

A sum of approximately £800 was left to Silvester and Benjamin Norfolk, his brother-in-law. Was this legacy the catalyst for Silvester to invest in a new business venture? Perhaps...

Shortly after the death of his mother, Silvester joins forces with a Mr Baldwin of George Street, Saltaire. In April 1890, newspaper reports show Silvester having set up a business, namely Baldwin and Toothill, Worsted Spinners, Thornton Road, Bradford. They have only gone into competition with the great man himself - Sir Titus Salt. Doomed to fail, and fail it sadly did.

By 1896 newspaper reports show that the firm of Baldwin and Toothill has re-located to Prospect Mill, Wibsey and has become bankrupt, with liabilities of over £14,000.

The Debtors Petition for Bankruptcy was filed, according to press reports, on June 18, 1898 and on March 21, 1899 the bankruptcy final hearing was held in Bradford.

Then Silvester disappears from Saltaire yet again. The census for 1901 has Silvester working in Leicester as a worsted yarn agent - and living with Pollie. We’re not sure how they arrived in Leicester, probably not by the Midland Railway!

By 1911, Silvester is working back in Shipley as a worsted yarn agent and living with Pollie at 221 Bingley Road, Shipley. Sadly Pollie died in 1912 and Silvester re-married in 1915.

Mary (Pollie) and Silvester are both buried in Scholemoor Cemetery. Recently, Wendy Robinson and I went in search of their graves and came across a very simple grave stone, for M. Ackroyd, in the area of the cemetery where Mary is buried. This we believe is the grave of Pollie Toothill.

So despite being a bankrupt, and sometime after Mary (Pollie) died, Silvester somehow came into money. For he left a not inconsiderable sum to his second wife when he died.

One can conclude that this character Silvester Toothill had a somewhat colourful life; he was not afraid to take risks and was probably quite an engaging character with many an interesting tale to tell. He certainly kept Pollie on her toes and the press busy then - and today, more than 150 years later, he’s still making headlines, here in the Telegraph & Argus!

* Joanne Crowther, in costume as Pollie Toothill, leads a guided tour around Saltaire on the first weekend of every month. “Listen to these true tales, and more stories of the families and people who lived and worked in the village during the time of Sir Titus Salt, and find out why Saltaire came to be,” says Joanne, who is also a guide with Salts Walks & Talks.

Joanne’s next tour is on Sunday, September 3. To book visit www.joanne-edutainment.co.uk