Arthur Neville Cooper – “The Walking Parson”

Canon Arthur Neville Cooper – known as “The Walking Parson” – first came to my attention when looking at “Quaint Talks about Long Walks” [Ref: L.001 COO]. I didn’t appreciate what an intriguing and engaging character he must have been until I spotted a potted biography of “The Walking Parson” in a book entitled “From East Riding Yesterday” [Ref: L9.5] by Mave and Ben Chapman and this lead me to delve deeper into his life.

Arthur Neville Cooper was born in 1850 in Windsor and attended a London boarding school where there were strict regimes and poor diet which he later said ‘served to strengthen his spirit’. He began life in the Inland Revenue in London which was poorly paid and being unable to afford the bus, he took to walking the four miles to and from his lodgings to place of work. He later attributes his love of walking to this time.

He then studied at Oxford University, obtaining his Batchelor of Arts in 1876 and his Master of Arts a year later. He entered the Ministry, with his first posting being curate for Chester le Street, County Durham.  In 1880, he was sent to St. Oswald’s, Filey and became an instant celebrity with his trademark frock coat, breeches, black hat and knapsack.  Filey was a far-flung parish so it was not unusual for him to walk 30 miles a day, recording his adventures in a notebook. 

Photograph of Arthur Neville Cooper

In 1891, he married a local girl, Maude Nicholson.  She seems like a very remarkable woman in her own right and very supportive of her husband in his walking adventure which became even further far-flung than jaunts around the Yorkshire countryside!  He would wait until after the Easter services before setting off – journeys included going to Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Lourdes, Budapest, Hamburg, Dublin and Iceland.  His obituary noted that he had walked every county of Europe except Russia.  He recorded his adventures in a series of books – “Quaint Talks about Long Walks”, “The Tramps of the Walking Parson” and “A Tramp’s Schooling”. On his adventures, his only luggage was a small knapsack containing a change of underwear and his bible.

A N Cooper was described as a generous man but, apparently, was an eager convert to the Yorkshire Creed of “eating all, supping all and paying nowt”, warming to the idea of enjoying the hospitality of what he termed ‘Open houses’; he was a raconteur with a love of good company and was equally at home in the company of fisherman and farmers as well as country landowners such as the Sykes family of Sledmere.  I am sure he was a very popular guest with many interesting and amusing stories to tell of his walking trips. 

He served as Station Master at Hunmanby during the First World War and acted as Secretary of the East Riding Antiquarian Society for over twenty years. He also was devoted to his church work and raised large sums of money for the widows of the forty Filey men lost in the gales in 1880.  He also solicited funds for the restoration of his church, St Oswald’s and the building of the Church of England Infant School.  In his time at Filey, he secured over £24,000 for charitable, educational and church purposes which, for the time, is an extraordinary amount of money.  His walking adventures only took place during his holidays.

Front cover of The Walking Parson [Ref: L.001 COO]

Canon Cooper seems to have embraced life to the full and appeared not to take himself too seriously.  His book “Filey and its Church” [Ref: L9.54F] contains the following preface in the second edition – “An author pays himself but a poor compliment who confesses the first edition of his work was so full of mistakes that he has been obliged to re-write a large part of the second. But in a very wise book of old time, we read that Truth is not only stronger than kings and wine, but than woman even. So the truth must be told, cost the author what will”.

He served at Filey’s St. Oswald’s Church from 1880 until 1935, when he decided reluctantly to retire due to failing eyesight and saddened by the fact he could no longer read the Bible. On his retirement he decided to move from Filey to Scarborough “as it wouldn’t be fair to the next man. I want to give him a clear field”.  This demonstrates what a thoughtful and caring man he seems to have been. He put down his great health to “taking a cold bath every morning” and all his walking – “the man who walks is the man who is well”.  His sage advice on walking is “I have learnt that there is one way to walk without trouble: that is to pour whisky in your boots”! 

“The Walking Parson” died in 1943 and there is a memorial plaque to this remarkable man by the altar of St Oswald’s Church, Filey to commemorate this special incumbent who served them for over 55 years.

Caoimhe West, Reader Assistant, Unlocking the Treasures Project