Micah Salt (c. 1847 – 22 January 1915) was a tailor and amateur archaeologist from Buxton in Derbyshire.[1][2]
Life edit
Micah Salt was born in Alstonefield, Staffordshire in about 1847. He lived in Hollinsclough with his mother Eliza between 1851 and 1871. He married Maria Mellor in 1877. By 1881 he had moved to High Street in Buxton.[3]
He died aged 67 in 1915.[4] The gravestone of Micah Salt, and of his wife Maria (1857-1927), in Buxton Cemetery is a replica of the Anglo-Saxon cross in Eyam Cemetery. It is a Grade II listed structure.[5]
Salt was a major donor to the Buxton Museum in its early days, providing numerous artefacts on loan, which were subsequently bestowed as gifts.[6] His large personal collection of pottery, antique furniture and paintings was sold at auction over 3 days in 1927.[7]
Micah's brother James Salt also came to Buxton and became a master builder. He operated from the Devonshire Works on Market Street and he built Buxton Town Hall, the Entertainment Stage theatre, Hollins Street and Clough Street.[8]
Excavations edit
Micah Salt, his son William and Robert Milletts (a local builder) excavated Thirst House Cave in Deep Dale in the 1880s and 1890s, after boys had found a bear's skull in the cave. They discovered Roman artefacts, including bronze jewellery, enamelled brooches, pottery fragments, coins and an iron and bone knife. Many of these objects are on display in the Buxton Museum.[9][10]
A possible Roman bath was found in Buxton (the Roman spa settlement of Aquae Arnemetiae) in 1883 during the digging of the foundations for the Clarendon Hotel. Salt inspected the discovery but there are no records of his findings.[11]
In 1894, Salt excavated the burial barrow at the summit of Grin Low hill, before Grinlow Tower (now known as Solomon's Temple) was rebuilt there between 1894 and 1896. He discovered the remains of three burials and two cremations, as well as a decorated bowl, a flint tool and other artefacts.[10]
Salt also excavated Fairfield Low's Bronze Age burial mound in 1895. He discovered the remains of a human skeleton and the skull is now on the desk of the Boyd Dawkins study in Buxton Museum.[12]
The Five Wells neolithic chambered tomb on Taddington Moor was first excavated by the local archaeologist Thomas Bateman in 1846. The chambers have paved floors. Bateman discovered the remains of at least twelve human skeletons. Subsequent excavations (by Llewellyn Jewitt, William Lukis and Micah Salt between 1862 and 1901) found further human remains, pottery and flint tools in the chambers and passages and a separate cist (stone coffin) within the mound.[13]
Salt found a flint dagger at Hurdlow in 1899, which is now on display in Buxton Museum.[14] In 1902, Salt dug a trench across the west ditch at The Bull Ring neolithic henge at Dove Holes, although his findings have since been lost.[15][16]
In 1903, Salt discovered Romano-British remains in the basement of a house on Holker Road, in the Silverlands district of Buxton. He found an area of 30 feet by 10 feet paved with blocks of limestone and hundreds of artefacts including a silver coin, tiles, leather sandals, gritstone hearths, glassware and many fragments of fine Samian pottery. Pottery inscriptions indicate that they were made in 60-100 AD and from Verulamium (modern St Albans). Many of the items are on display in the Buxton Museum.[17][18]
Publications edit
References edit
- ^ "Collections Online | Micah Salt". The British Museum. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "Bronze penannular brooch". Wonders of The Peak. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ English Census records for 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881. England and Wales Marriage Registration Index 1877 for Chapel En Le Frith district, volume 7b page 311
- ^ England and Wales Death Registration Index 1915 for Chapel En Le Frith district, volume 7b page 1159
- ^ Historic England. "Tombstone of Micah Salt in Buxton Cemetery, Tomb No.2798 (1259427)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "Buxton Museum: The Early Years". Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. 15 April 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "HANLEY AUCTION CATALOGUE 1927 MICAH SALT BUXTON -POTTERY/FURNITURE | #275211216". Worthpoint. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ Langham, Mike (2001). Buxton: A Peoples' History. Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing Ltd. pp. 74–76, 91–96. ISBN 1859360866.
- ^ "Thirst House Cave". Wonders of the Peak. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ a b Leach, John (1987). The Book of Buxton. Baracuda Books Limited. pp. 22, 29. ISBN 0-86023-286-7.
- ^ "MDR290 - Roman bath (possible site of), Manchester Road, Buxton - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record". her.derbyshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "MDR267 - Fairfield Low, Fairfield, Buxton - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record". her.derbyshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ Historic England. "Five Wells chambered tomb (1008940)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "MDR1199 - Flint dagger, Hurdlow, Hartington Middle Quarter - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record". her.derbyshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ Historic England. "Bull Ring henge, oval barrow and bowl barrow (1011204)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "MDR200 - Bull Ring Henge Monument, Dove Holes, Chapel-en-le-Frith - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record". her.derbyshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ "Roman Buxton – Silverlands". www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
- ^ "MDR320 - Possible Roman settlement, Holker Road, Buxton - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record". her.derbyshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ^ Turner, W (1899). Ancient Remains Near Buxton : Archaeological Explorations of Micah Salt. C.F.Wardley.
- ^ Ward, John (September 1900). "On Mr.Micah Salt's diggings around Buxton". Journal of the British Archaeological Association. 6 (3): 209–226. doi:10.1080/00681288.1900.11893726 – via Taylor & Francis Online.