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

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, the third son of Robert, a wool sorter, and Elizabeth Turner. At the age of eight, he was sent to work at Peel House Mills. 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 Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered wit ...

and the limb was wrenched off at the shoulder. As a result, he lost his job. He was subsequently able to attend Luddenden National School as a free scholar, and then began selling newspapers and tea, which he delivered to his customers on foot. He kept a shop at Mount Tabor. In 1895, he began to write articles describing his local walks for the Halifax Courier. 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, taking in such features as Fly Flat Reservoir, Castle Carr and

Brontë Waterfall The Brontë Waterfall is a small waterfall located about a mile south-west of Stanbury, near Haworth, West Yorkshire, England. The area surrounding the waterfall is mainly moorland and farmland but is part of Brontë Country. It is an area o ...

s. By popular demand, this was published in revised form as a book, ''A Spring-Time Saunter: Round and About Bronte Land'', illustrated by

Arthur Comfort Arthur Comfort (11 November 1864 – 1935) was a British wood-engraver at ''The Graphic'' in London and art teacher in Halifax. Life Comfort was born in London on 11 November 1864, where he attended the Graphic School of Wood Engraving, an ...

, in 1913. The book includes first-hand recollections from people who knew the Brontë family. There were several editions. The first, a subscribers' edition, had 2,000 copies. The second had 1,000, and the third, in 1915, 3,000. However, the latter initially failed to sell, due to the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Eventually, copies were circulated to wounded soldiers from Yorkshire, paid for by the Courier Comforts Fund, and the edition sold out. A further, paperback, edition was published in 1986. The book was described by ''The Courier'' in 2007 as "a local publishing legend". Turner is buried in Wesleyan chapel yard at Mount Tabor.

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Whiteley 1866 births 1921 deaths People from Sowerby Bridge English non-fiction writers Date of birth missing English male non-fiction writers Writers from Yorkshire English people with disabilities