Whiteley Turner

Whiteley Turner
Born 1866
Higgin Chamber, Yorkshire, England
Died 20 February 1921 (age 55)
Resting place Wesleyan chapel yard, Mount Tabor, Yorkshire
Education Luddenden National School
Occupation
  • Mill worker
  • Shopkeeper
  • Newsagent
Notable work A Spring-Time Saunter

Whiteley Turner (born 1866 at Higgin Chamber, Yorkshire, England; died 20 February 1921) was a mill worker, shopkeeper and author.

At the age of eight he was sent to work at Peel House Mills.[1] Four years later he moved to Solomon Priestley's woollen mill. There, he lost his right arm in an industrial accident, when his sleeve was caught in a carding machine and the limb was wrenched off at the shoulder.[1] As a result he lost his job.[2]

He was subsequently able to attend Luddenden National School as a free scholar.[1] and then began selling newspapers and tea, which he delivered to his customers on foot.[1][2] He kept a shop at Mount Tabor.[3]

In 1895, he began to write articles describing his local walks for the Halifax Courier.[1] From 1904 to 1907, the newspaper serialised his A Spring-Time Saunter, about a four-day ramble from his home at Mount Tabor, over the Pennine Moors, to Haworth,[1] taking in such features as Fly Flat Reservoir, Castle Carr and Brontë Waterfalls.[2] By popular demand,[1] this was published in revised form as a book, A Spring-Time Saunter: Round and About Bronte Land, illustrated by Arthur Comfort, in 1913.[1] The book includes first-hand recollections from people who knew the Brontë family.[1][2]

There were several editions. The first, a subscribers' edition, had 2,000 copies.[1] The second had 1,000, and the third, in 1915, 3,000.[1] However, the latter initially failed to sell, due to the outbreak of World War I.[1] Eventually, copies were circulated to wounded soldiers from Yorkshire, paid for by the Courier Comforts Fund, and the edition sold out.[1] A further, paperback, edition was published in 1986.

The book was described by the Courier in 2007 as "a local publishing legend".[1]

Turner is buried in Wesleyan chapel yard at Mount Tabor.[1]

Bibliography

  • —— (1913). A Spring-Time Saunter: Round and About Bronte Land.
    • —— (1986). A Spring-Time Saunter: Round and About Bronte Land. M.T.D. Rigg Publications. ISBN 978-0950919188.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "A moorland Saunter with Whiteley". Halifax Courier. 2007-10-18. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Luddenden". Countryfile. 2013-04-21. BBC. Retrieved 2013-04-21.
  3. ↑ "BBC1's 'Countryfile' features Whiteley Turner's 'A Springtime Saunter'". The Bronte Society. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
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