author
Thomas Turner Wilkinson
d. 1874
A self-taught Lancashire scholar, schoolmaster, and writer, he helped preserve local traditions, customs, and folklore in the nineteenth century. His work blends curiosity about everyday life with a serious love of history and science.
1 Audiobook
Lancashire Folk-lore Illustrative of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Local Customs and Usages of the People of the County Palatine
by John Harland, Thomas Turner Wilkinson
About the author
Born in 1815, he became known in Burnley and across Lancashire as a teacher, local historian, and independent scholar. Sources describe him as a well-educated but self-taught figure who worked at Burnley Grammar School, later ran a private school, and built a reputation through writing on mathematics, antiquities, and regional folklore.
He is best remembered as a co-compiler of Lancashire Folk-lore and for other books that gathered legends, customs, and beliefs from Lancashire. Contemporary memorial accounts also note that he was active in learned societies and was valued for his historical research, showing how his interests reached beyond literature into science and antiquarian work.
The date in some catalog records appears to be mistaken: library and local-history sources identify him as born on March 17, 1815, and dying on February 6, 1875, in Burnley, after the death of his wife in April 1874. That makes him an engaging figure for readers interested in Victorian regional writing and the early preservation of English folk tradition.