Digging in the past. The Salt of the Earth.
It is incredible to have the opportunity to talk with the near relatives of people who have had a significant impact on the history and heritage of a place. It really does bring the past to life in a very personal way. So it was when I recorded Penny and Mick Cook, life-long residents of Buxton, Derbyshire.
Penny Cook is the granddaughter of Micah Salt, an important and significant Victorian archaeologist although he would have probably referred to himself as an antiquarian. Micah was unusual because, along with his 4 sons, he was not of the class which normally had the power, money, education or time to devote to archaeological excavations however his discoveries have real significance.
Micah was born in 1847 and his interest probably started when he saw two men exploring a barrow on Hollinsclough Moor.He subsequently discovered that the two men were the eminent archaeologists Llwellwyn Jewitt and Captain Lucas. Micah was born to Eliza, a poor silk weaver, but no father is recorded. There is however a strong family belief that his father was one of the powerful and wealthy Harpur Crewe family. This maybe explains why, when he moved to Buxton from Hollinsclough in 1886, he was able to earn a living as a tailor, eventually becoming a master tailor and owning his own shop and that her other sons were similarly set up with trades in the town. They attended school in Hollinsclough and the school fees were paid for by Sir John Harpur Crewe.
James, one of Micah’s brothers, became a master builder and owned the local firm which was selected to build The Town Hall in Buxton, at a tender of £8,900! He also built the Entertainment Stage or old Hippodrome Theatre which now houses the Buxton Cinema.
Interestingly, and perhaps as an homage to Hollinsclough, he built both Hollins Street and Clough Street in Buxton and in Hollinsclough chapel are two stained glass windows paid for by James in 1902.
So what did Micah an “intelligent tradesperson, as one author described him, discover?
This area, and Buxton particularly, has a very rich history going back to the earliest historic times. There are numerous ancient burial mounds, known as barrows in the area. From the top of Solomon’s Temple on Grin Low in Buxton are at least 20 barrows which can be seen on the tops of the neighbouring hills. The word low means burial mound, Grin Low, Fairfield Low, Thirkel Low, were all excavated by Micah, along with the delightfully named Gospel Hillock near King Sterndale. Micah and his sons excavated Grin Low on numerous occasions finding several human skeletons and one of a dog. Flints and vases were also found.
Fairfield Low, known locally as Skellybob Wood, was first opened in 1895 and a skeleton found in an advanced state of decay. About three months later, he returned to the site and found a second adult skeleton and that of a child. The skull of the adult was given to Buxton Museum and sits on the desk in the Boyd Dawkins study. In fact, he donated many of his finds to the museum and they are on display in the museum. You can see the skull sitting on the desk in the picture below. He also donated approximately 180 stuffed birds, perhaps another potential link to the Harpur Crewe family, who also had a huge collection of stuffed birds and were avid collectors. Micah apparently also kept a pet raven!
Not satisfied with excavating barrows he also turned his attention to many of the local caves. In 1884, he made the first of many visits to Thirst House Cave in Deepdale. News of the discoveries he made there reached the press and there was for a period of time a frenzy of activity from a variety of “treasure hunters” as they were frequently called. The man who owned the land threatened trespassers with prosecution and eventually things settled down. The cave though yielded many, many finds. Eventually they contacted Professor Boyd Dawkins of Owen’s College, Manchester who was able to confirm that most of the finds were Romano British. He said of the collection he received, “It is not a little remarkable to hold in ones hands fragments that have been brought from countries and places hundreds, nay ,perhaps thousands of miles apart from one another, and there deposited and used by people many centuries before Christ, and the most recent at least fifteen hundred years before Mr Salt disturbed them from their resting places.” (Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol 12 1890)
Micah was an extraordinary man in many ways and very well respected in the town. Penny told me that on the day of his funeral the town came to a standstill and townsfolk lined the streets as a mark of respect. His grave is in Buxton cemetery and is a listed grave. As Mick Cook observed you could say that one brother looked to the past but the other helped build the future of Buxton. Walter, one of Micah’s sons was Penny’s father and he went on to have an antique business in what is now Scriveners Bookshop on the High Street. Down in the basement there is even an homage to Micah (pictured above left).
Micah’s other sons also owned shops on the High Street. One owned a pharmacy, just below the Cheshire Cheese pub, and another lived at 48 High Street, which was possibly a tailors. This was the shop that was ploughed into by a runaway lorry in the 1970’s (pictured above right). The legacy of the wider Salt family on the town of Buxton can be seen everywhere and their contribution significant.