Rules drawn up by Saltaire's founder to keep his mill workers in check are proving to be best-sellers more than a century after they were written.

Regulations governing life in Saltaire were drafted by the industrialist and philanthropist Sir Titus Salt during the mid-19th Century.

Covering every aspect of life in Victorian Saltaire, they are a big hit with present-day visitors to the historic model mill village.

Four sets of rules - covering Salts Mill, what is now Roberts Park, the Almshouses and the village itself - have been produced on parchment-like paper for sale at Saltaire Tourist Information Centre, jointly managed by former Bradford tourist chief Maria Glot..

TIC manager Anne Heald said: "Sir Titus had rules for just about everything and they would have been plastered up all over the mill and elsewhere in the village.

"I think he wanted to control people but he'd also built this wonderful village and wanted to keep it as a good place for people to live and work in. People today think there are a lot of rules and regulations governing what we do but when you compare the two I think we get off quite lightly."

She added: "Visitors are very keen to know how people lived and worked in the past and are always asking us about it so we decided to do a bit of research and put these lists together. They're proving to be very popular."

One set of rules covers measures aimed at maintaining an efficient workforce - harsh punishments are threatened for tardiness and negligence at work and employees found to be drunk faced losing both their job and home.

The rules reflect Salt's strict moral values, philanthropic nature and ahead-of-his-time belief that a healthy, well-educated workforce was one of the keys to success. They promoted hygiene by requiring workers to wash properly at least twice a week, and education by insisting all children went to school.

And bans on drunkeness and swearing sought to foster a workforce healthy in body and mind.

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