Turnbull, Wesley
Wesley Turnbull is a Kielder man and might well have become a forester, had not Ted Turnbull, his father, who was Head Forester, felt uneasy about his son becoming part of his team. As well as Head Forester, Ted was a fire warden, a special constable and finally a special inspector. After leaving school, Wesley completed an engineering apprenticeship in Newcastle and then moved to Newcastle airport to be a ground engineer on propeller planes. He subsequently moved to London and became a flight engineer on the jumbo jets with huge responsibilities for keeping these long-haul aircraft flying safely. The seniority of Wesley meant that Jean (nee Jobling), his wife, whom he had married in 1968, was allowed to accompany him as a passenger, travelling first class to the most far-flung and exotic places, including Sydney, where Wesley did a four-month tour of duty, with the children being allowed to follow on such trips.
After a highly successful career and raising a family of three children, Wesley and Jean returned to Bellingham in 1990 and it was not long before he became involved in the Heritage Centre. In fact, Jean had already been recruited by Dorothy Bell, founder of the Heritage Centre, and, after a similar chat with Dorothy, Wesley soon became involved as well.
Wesley is a real gentleman who has the deepest and most intimate knowledge of the North Tyne and, with a little prompting, stories about families, faces and places come tumbling out. If he is not related to one of the North Tyne families, you can be confident that he knows a lot about them. Much of this comes from the fact that Amy Jobling, his mother, was the youngest of twelve children, and so Wesley can look to many relations. Amy always had an open house when she married Ted Turnbull and they lived at Bewshaugh. She was a marvellous cook and, whenever you called, you were always offered fresh bread and scones, with true Northumbrian hospitality, all baked in an oven beside an open fire. She was a keen pianist from childhood and her father bought her a new piano from London. It came up on the train to Plashetts Station and finished the final leg of its journey being hauled up the incline to Wood Row where the Jobling family lived.
So Wesley is the fount of local knowledge and a brilliant ambassador for the Heritage Centre, especially on that special spring Sunday when he organises the Vintage Vehicle Rally. The car park is filled to overflowing with beautifully kept vintage cars and vans, not forgetting, of course, Wesley’s own classic car and three cherished tractors.
Most recently, Wesley has used his inexhaustible engineering and construction skills to create a dedicated area within the Heritage Centre for local history & ancestry research and much of what you see in the Station Yard is created in the shed that he built discreetly behind the Heritage Centre or in his own workshop at home.
The Heritage Centre is extremely privileged in having Wesley as its vice-chairman and, under his guidance, the building, features and fittings are in the safe hands of a former senior flight engineer! At least two major new projects are being planned as we write and Wesley is our key man in the delivery of these.
Wesley and Jean have now been married for 53 years. They have three children and nine grandchildren, a family of which Wesley is immensely proud. But, for many years, Wesley has had a second family, the family of the Heritage Centre. He has seen the Centre, its volunteers, trustees and committee members grow and develop over the years, some moving on, others, like Wesley, staying on to provide unfailing support and continuity. He is the Father of the House. Long may he continue!
(Written January 2024, extracted from an earlier Heritage Centre newsletter)
