Whiteley Turner

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 form 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]

Bibliogprahy

• —— (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