Saltaire could be thronging with alpacas -- the beasts on which the village's wealth was created.

A little known society devoted to these creatures is being invited to hold its annual meeting in the village created by Sir Titus Salt.

Villagers hope the Alpaca Society will hold its annual meeting in the village and bring some of the animals along with them.

Saltaire's founder, the industrialist Sir Titus Salt, specialised in the use of the hair from alpacas - a cousin of the llama - to produce a luxuriant cloth which enabled him to out-perform most of Bradford's other textile manufacturers.

Now Saltaire Village Society is organising a trip to the Lake District, which will include a visit and tour of the Alpaca Centre - a unique farm near Penrith devoted to the animals.

Village society chairman Clive Woods said: "We'll be going back to our roots with this trip to see the animal which built Saltaire.

"You sometimes come across llamas but not alpacas - I've never seen one myself - so it's a very rare chance for people to see them. It will be nice to come face to face with the animal which - through the genius of Sir Titus Salt - helped create Saltaire.

"We've also suggested the British Alpaca Society holds its AGM in Saltaire next year and hopefully if they do they'll bring some of the animals with them for people to look at.''

According to historical records even before Sir Titus moved to Saltaire in the early 1850s he had built a reputation as a model employer - paying good wages and refusing to lay workers off even during slumps - thanks to alpacas.

Whereas most of Bradford's textile firms in the 1840s made a cheaper cloth from a combination of sheep's wool and cotton, Salt concentrated on more expensive fabrics made from alpaca and mohair - the hair of the Angora goat - combined with cotton or silk.

Although expensive and available only in small quantities, alpaca in particular was extremely well suited to producing a lustrous cloth that proved very popular for women's dresses during the mid-19th century.

Having first bought a neglected cargo of long-fibred alpaca wool from a Liverpool warehouse as a purely speculative venture Sir Titus was one of the first to successfully use it.

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