Micah Salt

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.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

File:Micah Salt's Tombstone at Buxton Cemetery.jpg

He died aged 67 in 1915.England and Wales Death Registration Index 1915 for Chapel En Le Frith district, volume 7b page 1159 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.{{NHLE|num=1259427|desc=Tombstone of Micah Salt in Buxton Cemetery, Tomb No.2798|access-date=17 October 2020}}

Salt was a major donor to the Buxton Museum in its early days, providing numerous artefacts on loan, which were subsequently bestowed as gifts.{{Cite web|date=2020-04-15|title=Buxton Museum: The Early Years|url=https://buxtonmuseumandartgallery.wordpress.com/2020/04/15/buxton-museum-the-early-years/|access-date=2020-10-17|website=Buxton Museum and Art Gallery|language=en-GB}} His large personal collection of pottery, antique furniture and paintings was sold at auction over 3 days in 1927.{{Cite web|title=HANLEY AUCTION CATALOGUE 1927 MICAH SALT BUXTON -POTTERY/FURNITURE {{!}} #275211216|url=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/hanley-auction-catalogue-1927-micah-275211216|access-date=2020-10-17|website=Worthpoint|language=en}}

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.{{cite book|last=Langham|first=Mike|title=Buxton: A Peoples' History|publisher=Carnegie Publishing Ltd|year=2001|isbn=1859360866|location=Lancaster|pages=74-76, 91-96}}

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.{{Cite web|title=Thirst House Cave|url=https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/facts/thirst-house-cave/|access-date=2 April 2020|website=Wonders of the Peak}}{{Cite book|last=Leach|first=John|title=The Book of Buxton|publisher=Baracuda Books Limited|year=1987|isbn=0-86023-286-7|pages=22, 29}}File:Enamel_bronze_brooch_found_in_Thirst_House_Cave.jpg

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.{{Cite web|title=MDR290 - Roman bath (possible site of), Manchester Road, Buxton - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record|url=https://her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR290|access-date=2020-10-17|website=her.derbyshire.gov.uk}}

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.

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.{{Cite web|title=MDR267 - Fairfield Low, Fairfield, Buxton - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record|url=https://her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR267|access-date=2020-10-17|website=her.derbyshire.gov.uk}}

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.{{NHLE|num=1008940|desc=Five Wells chambered tomb|accessdate=17 October 2020}}

Salt found a flint dagger at Hurdlow in 1899, which is now on display in Buxton Museum.{{Cite web|title=MDR1199 - Flint dagger, Hurdlow, Hartington Middle Quarter - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record|url=https://her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR1199|access-date=2020-10-17|website=her.derbyshire.gov.uk}} 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.{{NHLE|num=1011204|desc=Bull Ring henge, oval barrow and bowl barrow|access-date=17 October 2020}}{{Cite web|title=MDR200 - Bull Ring Henge Monument, Dove Holes, Chapel-en-le-Frith - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record|url=https://her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR200|access-date=2020-10-17|website=her.derbyshire.gov.uk}}

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.{{Cite web|title=Roman Buxton – Silverlands|url=https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/facts/roman-baths-silverlands/|access-date=2020-04-04|website=www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk}}{{Cite web|title=MDR320 - Possible Roman settlement, Holker Road, Buxton - Derbyshire Historic Environment Record|url=https://her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR320|access-date=2020-10-17|website=her.derbyshire.gov.uk}}

• "Ancient Remains Near Buxton - Archaeological Explorations of Micah Salt" by William Turner FSS was published in 1899.{{Cite book|last=Turner|first=W|title=Ancient Remains Near Buxton : Archaeological Explorations of Micah Salt|publisher=C.F.Wardley|year=1899}}
• "On Mr.Micah Salt’s diggings around Buxton" by John Ward FSA was published in The Journal of the British Archaeological Association in 1900.{{Cite journal|last=Ward|first=John|date=September 1900|title=On Mr.Micah Salt's diggings around Buxton|journal=Journal of the British Archaeological Association|volume=6|issue=3|pages=209–226|doi=10.1080/00681288.1900.11893726|via=Taylor & Francis Online}}

Category:1840s births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:English archaeologists

Salt, Micah

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