by Hannah Baker T&A Reporter Two Saltaire historians are travelling to America to uncover little-known details of Sir Titus Salt’s US coal and iron venture.

Dave Shaw and David King, both members of Saltaire History Club, have been invited to Dayton, Tennessee, where the famous Victorian philanthropist had aspired to build a model village, similar to Saltaire.

The pair will attend a ceremony on Friday, May 4, to mark the inauguaration of land once owned by the Salt family into the Cumberland Trial, a footpath running almost 300 miles from Cumberland Gap to Chattanooga.

While in America they will also meet with local historians to discover more about the Dayton Coal and Iron Company, a mining, furnacing and railroad venture started in the 1870s.

The business, which was registered at Salts Mill, went into production in the 1880s under the direction of Titus Salt’s son Titus Junior and company partner Charles Stead.

Mr Shaw, 70, who lives in Saltaire, said: “The Salt family is famous for Salts Mill and Saltaire, but it’s frequently not appreciated that one of the other things the family did was to embark on a venture in Dayton, Tennessee, that had nothing to do with textiles. It was about coal and iron extraction.”

Blast furnaces were constructed and a railway with a train named Saltaire were also built. But the family’s interest in the venture came to an end the week before the collapse of Salts Mill in the 1890s, when all financial interest in Dayton was surrendered to a Glasgow-based company, which by then had become partners in the scheme.

Mr Shaw said: “A huge amount of money was put into the Dayton venture. It took them a long time to get into production and then Titus Salt Junior died as things were getting into production.

“In the 1890s the family lost control of the mill and surrendered their interests in Dayton. We have had contact with people in Dayton for about five years and we are looking forward to meeting them. We are confident we are going to learn a lot more about the Dayton venture.”

Mr Shaw and Mr King, who will depart tomorrow, will be writing a blog about their trip on the Saltaire Village website, saltairevillage.info.