Roberts Park — Attraction in Bradford

Beautiful Park in the UNESCO village of Saltaire, the river runs through it, the ducks and geese amble for access to handouts along the canals in a most competitive zeal. The Park is large and has walking trails to and from other points of historical interest. The one issue I found, the public washrooms they do have, were never open on my visits to the park and this must be more frustrating to mums than middle aged men like myself who can dodge into the Boat House for a pint and free use of their facilities and Skysports. People should not be at the mercy of local restaurants to find a washroom facility at a public park. It might be a good idea to hold a fund raiser to get the washrooms they do have located for public access, reopened for the public, specially for mums and young children. Ideally you want people to go to the park and enjoy the O2 coming off the canals and river, it enhances the quality of the air. As Titus Salt would tell you if he was still around, it's better for your health and he'd still right about that point, even today. Titus would have those washrooms fixed and reopened in a fortnight if he was still in charge, I guarantee it! This is also a bicycle accessible park, easy to get to along the canal trails so you can leave your smog machine parked at home...

This park is local to me, it has a great, genteel, recently restored vibe with the river, Half Moon Cafe in the park and Boathouse pub overlooking from the other side of the walks, cricket pitch, grassy areas for picnics, nationally important collection of hollies amongst other trees, and formal beds, pavillion, decoratively lit and painted bandstand with ramped access, walks within and extending from the park, both flat/accessible firm surface and original stone steps. I'm not such a big fan of the canons, but provide historic interest with the stocks. The popular adventure style play area with sand looks great and has plenty to entertain plus a skatepark popular with bigger kids and younger ones on skooters: some of the items need maintenance, musical wooden blocks that tip were great when new but sadly no longer. The built shade shelter isn't really adequate on a hot day, but rocks around the edges under the trees are popular for sitting on. There's a quieter old school playground over the road in the direction of the delightful and affordable Shipley...

Attended the Saltaire Festival on Saturday 21/09 as we do every year. Enjoyed the bands and stalls, though saddened by the absence of the fish finger butty van this year! Opted for German sausage instead which was tasty but at £6, well overpriced. Seemed much busier this year too, likely due to the fine weather, but it did make moving around frustrating (particularly crossing the Aire footbridge). Skipped the fairgrounds this year as they are quite isolated from the rest of the festival and can be quite intimidating later on due to groups of teenagers.

To finish off the day we walked over to the canal and took a ride on the 'Titus', the Saltaire trip boat which takes a 40-min route up and down this beautiful stretch if the Leeds & Liverpool Canal up to Shipley and back. Very relaxing and atmospheric at twilight with the dappled sun between the trees. The mix of nature and industrial architecture / archaeology and the brief explanation given by the boatman of the canal's history is well worth the £4 fare....