Above: Photo by Simon Butler.
Above: The reverse of the stone (click to enlarge). Just who was the lady who left a frozen footprint in the snow beside the dead body? (Photo Dr. Tony Shaw.)
Above: A wonderful woodcut illustration of Saltersford Hall Farm by Howard Phipps. (Click to enlarge.)
Above: Alan Garner’s novel, Thursbitch, tells the story of John Turner’s mysterious fate. Click here to view on Wordery.
Finding the stone
It’s easy to miss the stone. I went along the road a few times before spotting it.
Click the map to see it’s exact location. It’s just past a metal gate on the right, above a fairly high verge.
The road is too narrow to park, so drivers need to find space around the spot marked ‘Nab End’ on the map.
A mile or two southwest of Jenkin Chapel, beside the ancient road known as Ewrin Lane, stands an intriguing memorial stone. The inscription on one side reads “HERE JOHN TURNER WAS CAST AWAY IN A HEAVY SNOW STORM IN THE NIGHT IN OR ABOUT THE YEAR 1755”. And on the other side “THE PRINT OF A WOMANS SHOE WAS FOUND BY HIS SIDE WERE HE LAY DEAD”.
What can it mean? Who was John Turner? Who cast him away in a heavy snow storm? And who was the mysterious lady who left a single footprint beside the frozen body? It sounds like an intriguing case for Sherlock Holmes! But even he would have struggled to piece together the clues from an 18th century stone standing beside a narrow country road.
The stone even seems to have inspired a novel; ‘Thursbitch’ by Alan Garner. (It’s received some good reviews and I’ve ordered a copy.) Click here to read Alan’s account of what led him to write the novel. Here’s what Alan has to say about John Turner;
John Turner lived at Saltersford Hall, where his father was a tenant farmer. He was born in 1706 and became a packman, or jagger, with a train of four horses.
His main occupation was carrying salt from Chester and Northwich to Derby, from where he would return with malt. His home in Saltersford* was ideally placed on this prehistoric trade route.
On Christmas Eve, 1735, (that is, when John was twenty-nine), he was on his way back from Northwich. It was snowing. But packmen were used to being on the road in all weathers and at all hours. They knew the hills better than anyone. They took no risks.
Jaggers were essential to their communities and yet at the same time mistrusted. Travel in eighteenth century England was not for ordinary folk. Most people didn’t move more than four miles from their birthplace in their entire lives.
Jaggers were looked on as boundary-striders, as Grendel is described in Beowulf, wild men, wodwose, as in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. They belonged more to the hills than to the valleys.
Yet on that Christmas Eve, John Turner did not reach home. The next morning he was found dead, though his team of horses survived, covered by drifts. And by him, on the white, wind-smoothed land, was the single print of a woman’s shoe in the snow.
Which all leaves just as many questions as answers! I’ll update this page if I discover any more clues about John’s frozen death and the mysterious lady who left a single footprint in the snow.
*Saltersford isn’t marked on modern maps. Bit it was the same location as Jenkin Chapel.
Above: Here’s a short video clip of the stone I found on YouTube.
The stone says John died “in or about” 1755. But in fact the year was 1735. Perhaps the mason simply misread a 3 for a 5. But it shows that the stone must have been carved some years after the event. It will also have been moved when the road was widened and resurfaced.
Very interesting and as you say, more questions than answers. My story goes as follows: in the late afternoon of Friday, 24 Feb 2012 I was on my way back from Leicester to Bollington where I lived. Having recently moved there from South Africa I was intrigued by the snow and took a detour at Bosley to see more of it. The sun was shining but the hills in the Peak District were white. The scene along the river on the otherside of the Macc Forest was a splendud sight.
I crossed over the Cat and Fiddle road and started heading down into the Goyt Valley on Ankers Knowl Lane. I was probably 100 yards past the C&F road when I remembered that road got very steep a bit further on and decided to go back to the A road. But when I tried reversing my wheels just spun in the ice. I then decided to go down the first part of the hill, turn around and get out.
Unfortunately my car would only get halfway up the hill before getting stuck again. Time to abandon it and walk. I put every piece of clothing in my car on and started to walk. By now it was dark, the wind was howling and it was snowing. Like a drunk man, my eyes frozen and weaving around the road in the dark I headed up the hill.
I got a lift from a gent in what must have been one of the last cars driving on the A537 before it was closed by the police. By now the snow was about a foot deep but we got into Macc and then home in Clarence Mill, Bollington. The following day we were stopped by police from using the A537 and there were bulldozers clearing about 8 foot drifts off the road. I could see my car down in the valley but there was noways of getting to it. It was 2 days before I could get it out.
About 18 months later, I was driving on Ankers Knowl Lane and onto Erwin Lane to get to Bollington, the “scenic route” rather than the A523 but it was summer, and noticed John Turners memorial stone and realised what a dangerous situation I had been in but that 250 years ago he did not stand a chance in those conditions. I never noticed the “other side” of the stone and will go and have a look one day.
By the way, I have learnt how dangerous snowy conditions can be and how quickly the weather can turn. Africa may be wild and not for sissies, but that night I learnt a lesson. I would be interested to hear any more you find out about John Turner.
Regards
Glenn
Brilliant website for the historic interest – I am reading Alan Garner’s Thursbitch, and lacking even an old OS map from the days I rambled in your area, I turned to the online search for Jenkins Chapel. Your factual history is a superbly related asset for my purpose, sitting in a chair many miles from the scene – in Knoydart. Thank you for your writing and your photographs also. I shall return to this site as I keep putting down the book to find my feet!
Thanks for information – will pass on as I’m leading a walk from Pym Chair soon & have made the memorial stone one of the features of walk. It’s beautiful countryside in that area; well-marked paths & scenery to die for. Be careful on that lane – it’s steep & bendy.
I went past it even though I was looking! The grass is high. Finally spotted it coming back down from the top. I’ll give my brief talk about it at Thursbitch ruins as the lane is, as you say, steep & narrow. It’s just a nice item to put in walk.