Whiteley Turner

Whiteley Turner (1866 – 20 February 1921) was an English mill worker, shopkeeper and author.

Turner was born in Sowerby, Yorkshire, the third son of Robert, a wool sorter, and Elizabeth Turner.^[1] At the age of eight, he was sent to work at Peel House Mills.^[2] Four years later, he moved to Solomon Priestley's woolen 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.^[2] As a result, he lost his job.^[3]

He was subsequently able to attend Luddenden National School as a free scholar,^[2] and then began selling newspapers and tea, which he delivered to his customers on foot.^[2][3] He kept a shop at Mount Tabor.^[4]

In 1895, he began to write articles describing his local walks for the Halifax Courier.^[2] 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,^[2] taking in such features as Fly Flat Reservoir, Castle Carr and Brontë Waterfalls.^[3] By popular demand,^[2] this was published in revised form as a book, A Spring-Time Saunter: Round and About Bronte Land, illustrated by Arthur Comfort, in 1913.^[2] The book includes first-hand recollections from people who knew the Brontë family.^[2][3]

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

The book was described by The Courier in 2007 as "a local publishing legend".^[2]

Turner is buried in Wesleyan chapel yard at Mount Tabor.^[2]