Thomas Turner was a Pickwickian figure hailing from Forest Gate. I knew little about him until quite a short time ago, when my father suddenly offered me a notebook recording the walks made by his grandfather in 1926, the year of his retirement from the Post Office.
Most of the walks centre on the area around Epping Forest, which has always loomed large in my life. I started visiting it as a boy scout from suburban Ilford, and for the last 25 years have explored it from homes in Chingford and Epping. The notebook was a revelation – walking in the forest and a visit to the pub en route were implanted in my genes by my paternal great-grandfather.
Apart from the notebook, the only other story to survive him is one of gallantry. He was stabbed in the stomach outside a Forest Gate pub after springing to the defence of a young lady. But that was not the cause of his death in 1927. He was a large man, reputedly 18 stone, and on the last walk he took, he tripped over a tree root. He fell heavily, and died a few days later.
The notebook reveals how rural the area was in those pre-war days, as well as the reliability of public transport. A typical entry gives a little sketch map of the route and a timetable, with notes on the weather and the state of the footpaths. On July 6 he left home in Halley Road and took the 11.09 am train from Wood Street to Chingford. He walked through High Beech to the Wake Arms for lunch, returning to Chingford station via Loughton Camp and Grimston’s Oak to catch the 5.40 pm home.
The first walk is dated January 5 1926, and the last January 4 1927. After tramping through the countryside twice a week for 12 months his conclusion was simple; “If you think there is a better all-the-year climate than the British – look at this book.”