| Administrative History | Herbert Walter Turner was born in 1856, the son of Charles and Sarah Turner (née Lee). By the time of the 1881 census, when Walter was 24 and described as "Blacksmith's Son", Charles employed "two men and one boy", this presumably refers Walter and his brothers, Benjamin (25) and Frederick (21) who are also described as "Blacksmith's Son", although this does not explain the reference to only two men or to one boy - perhaps it is of note that Frederick later became a stone mason. Charles' father, George, was also a blacksmith.
Walter married Emma Hoskin, daughter of William and Sarah Hoskin, in 1890 and they had two children, Dorothy (b. 1891) and Wilfred (b. 1894). By the time of the 1901 census, Walter was a widower (Emma may have died in 1899 at one of the two asylums in Derby). In 1911, Walter is recorded as an "employer" and his son Wilfred was a "Blacksmith's apprentice". Walter died in 1919, and a short obituary in The Derbyshire Courier, records his strong connection to Soresby Street Congregational Church, where he variously served as Sunday School teacher, librarian, deacon and secretary. Walter also served as bank clerk at the Yorkshire Penny Bank in Chesterfield. |
| Custodial History | These records were donated to Derbyshire Record Office by an ancestor of Walter Turner in July 2015. |