Willie Riley Archive

Contains manuscripts, lecture notes, press cuttings, correspondence, programmes, reports and photographs. Arranged as: RIL1 Writing for publication, RIL2 Lectures, RIL3 Notes, RIL4 Related to publication, RIL5 Press cuttings, RIL6 Responses to his work, RIL7 Correspondence, RIL8 Personal documents, RIL9 W. Riley as a Local Preacher, RIL10 W. Riley's Bradford connection, RIL11 W. Riley's life in Silverdale, RIL12 Photographs, RIL13 Realia.

The archive has been artificially arranged on archival principles.

Available to researchers, by appointment. Access to archive material is subject to preservation requirements and must also conform to the restrictions of the Data Protection Act and any other appropriate legislation.

Willie Riley was born in Bradford in 1866 and worked in his family's stuff business. The family branched out into magic lantern slides and apparatus, and Willie became Managing Director of the Riley Brothers Optical Lantern Company, a mail order supply company with a branch in the U.S.A. He turned to writing later in life, producing ?Windyridge? in 1911 to amuse bereaved friends. At their urging, he submitted the book to Herbert Jenkins, who published it; this heartwarming tale, full of the detail of Yorkshire life, became a best-seller. Riley became a full-time writer after the optical business collapsed, producing over 30 novels mostly set in the Yorkshire Dales. He also wrote short stories, newspaper articles, travel works, and many lectures. Riley's Methodism and love of the Dales underlie all his writings. Riley moved to Silverdale in Lancashire in 1919, where he lived first with wife Clara, whose delicate health had precipitated the move, then his second wife Edith. He died in 1961.