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from The Barwicker No.

The Foster Family of Barnbow INTRODUCTION The Foster family has been associated with Barnbow for over a hundred years, spanning five generations of the family. Their original residence was Honesty Farm at the beginning of Barnbow Lane. This is a smallholding of eight acres and was named after the plant honesty, that readily grew there. It was occupied for over twenty years by Benjamin Foster starting in the 1880s, then his grandson Percy Foster, for nearly forty years, followed by Percy Foster's son, Frank Foster for eight years. Percy Foster had a large family of eleven children. Having only a modest income from farming, he turned to other ways of making money to support his family. He sold a diverse range of goods including paraffin stored in an old bus, cigarettes and other produce bought from the market, carbonated drinks from a local manufacture, milk from his own cows and home grown fruit and vegetables. As well as being a hawker, he was also a chimney sweep, a refuse collector and a nightsoil man. In this first of two articles we trace the life of Benjamin Foster at Barnbow followed by his grandson Percy Foster up to the middle of the twentieth century. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The first generation of the family to live at Barnbow was Benjamin and Mary Ann Foster. In the churchyard in Barwick next to the Methodist chapel is the gravestone of Benjamin Foster along with his wife. Benjamin Foster, who lived in Skinner Lane in Leeds, first came to Barnbow in the early 1880s. At that time his wife was suffering from TB, so the reason for coming to the countryside was the clean air and peaceful surroundings. Benjamin rented Honesty Farm from George Thompson, a member of a well-known Methodist family who had lived at Barnbow for generations. It appears that Benjamin also kept on his property at Skinner Lane after his wife died in 1885. The 1891 census shows him living there at that time. There are two entries for Benjamin Foster in the 1886 Barwick Parish Rate Book. One for the land including the farmhouse and the other for an engine house and sheds. (See 'The Barwicker' No 65). The engine house was a corrugated iron building in the stackyard containing a steam engine. It was used to chop straw for horses, the chopper being mounted on an overhead gantry. The water for the steam engine was piped from a well in the coalhouse and along the back of another building. In later years the engine house had a boiler that was used for boiling potatoes for pigs. 10 Benjamin Foster, who was born in Denholme near Haworth, owned a tannery in Leeds. The description given in Kelly's Trade Directory for 1881 is as follows:- "Benjamin Foster and Son. Curriers, oil, grease, tallow, dubbing, lamp black, inks and curriers dealers in all kinds of curriers and shoe makers waste and strap leather". (The term "currier" means tanner of leather). Benjamin passed on the tannery to his eldest son William, who lived at Chapel Allerton, and William's daughter Lily was the bookkeeper. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Percy Foster, one of Benjamin's grandsons, became interested in farming at an early age. His parents were Tom and Sarah Foster. Tom worked in a chemical factory in Leeds as a prussic acid maker. Percy decided to go live with his grandfather at Barnbow when he was thirteen. The 1901 census for the parish of Barwick-in-Elmet shows the following people living at Honesty Farm. Benjamin Foster, head of household, aged 73, (farmer), Benjamin Percy Foster, his grandson, aged 19, (farm labourer) and Louisa Craven, housekeeper, aged 65. Louisa Craven, who came to Barnbow from Bradford, was Benjamin's wife's sister. When his grandfather died in 1908 Percy took charge of the farm. He married Hephzibah Taylor, a stonemason's daughter from Bottom Boat near Wakefield. She had originally come to Barnbow as a maid on the farm. Between 1910 and 1930 Percy and Hephzibah had eleven children, six boys (Craven, George, Frank, Tommy, Percy & Arnold) and five girls (Laura, Mabel, Dorothy, Joan & Betty). The eldest son was named Craven after the housekeeper, his great aunt. When he was five years old he started school in Barwick. One day his mother saw him standing all alone in the school playground and on realising he was unhappy there, she decided to move him to Scholes school. At that time Scholes school was a corrugated iron building on the opposite side of the road to the school we know today and was nicknamed by the children "The Tin Tabernacle". The new school opened in the early 1930s and the younger Foster children went there. Craven's first job after leaving school was as a farm worker at Scholes. He worked long hours starting early in the morning. When he got married he lived at Cross Gates for a few years before moving to Scholes. The second eldest son George worked at Hall's dairy. About 1940 he started growing vegetables and taking them to the market to sell to the wholesalers. After a few years he started selling vegetables around the neighbourhood from the back of his car on Saturdays. He rented a field on 11 Leeds Road in order to grow more vegetables. This field was at the back of a row of houses next to the garage between Scholes and Barwick. Around 1944 he bought a truck so he could carry and display more goods. This was the start of the greengrocery round that was to continue for over 25 years. The Fosters eldest daughter Laura worked for Miss Dimbleby, a dressmaker in Scholes. In 1939 she married Bill Burlingham, the chauffeur to Colonel Gascoigne at Lotherton Hall. Bill and Laura continued to live on the Lotherton Hall Estate after his retirement and Bill has now lived there for seventy years. Laura, who died three and a half years ago, was well known for her hospitality and her baking of bread and fruit pies. One of Bill's memories of Honesty Farm is the Fosters buying an old single-decker bus for a few shillings at a sale in Scholes. The bus was kept just inside the entrance to the farmyard and was used as a bicycle shed and for storing paraffin, which was used in the lamps that lit the farmhouse. At the beginning of the Second World War Bill joined the Army, as did Tommy Foster. They were both involved in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in 1940. The younger Percy Foster also joined the forces. He had previously worked at Blackburn's Aircraft and became an engineer in the Air Force repairing aeroplanes. Other members of the Foster family also had war duties. George was in the National Fire Service, on duty one night a week at Morwick Hall on the A64. The Fosters third eldest son Frank worked for Mr Appleyard who owned some land near Lower Barnbow Farm. Frank married in 1942 and went to live with his wife Peggy at the former Springfield Cottage. The cottage, which was accessed by going over a ditch and up a flagged path, was on the lane leading to Lower Barnbow Farm. As well as renting the cottage, Frank also rented rhubarb sheds and land adjacent to the cottage for growing vegetables. Although Honesty Farm only had two acres of land on the opposite side of Barnbow Lane and six acres off Bog Lane, Percy Foster rented another eighteen acres from Croslands of Scholes Lodge. These fields were adjoining the farm and used to grow corn, potatoes and turnips. The farmyard also had an orchard with substantial apple, pear and plum trees. Hephzibah would bottle some of the fruit and also make plum jam. There were two horses on the farm, one for ploughing and one for pulling the trap. There were also three or four cows kept for milk. Any surplus milk was delivered to neighbouring houses in the hamlet. Other animals that were kept on the farm included pigs, geese, ducks and hens. The farmhouse had a large pantry with stone slabs and hooks in the ceiling. When a pig was killed it was hung up for some time and cured for ham and bacon. 12 Drinking water for the farm was obtained from a well. Rainwater was collected in two large iron tanks and used for all washing purposes. Hence getting washed in the morning often involved removing spiders and insects from the surface of the water. Washing clothes for eleven children was a major job for Hephzibah each week. In the corner of the kitchen there was a set pot that was used for washing. A large mangle with wooden rollers was used for wringing out the clothes. In later years some of the older Foster children would help with the washing. Percy and Hephzibah's youngest daughter Betty remembers washday along with her school days. "I always hated Mondays - washday with all the washing strung across the yard and my mother still washing the uneven flagstone kitchen floor when we got home from school. I often wonder how my mother coped without a shop nearby and all those mouths to feed. I imagined she baked most days and we all enjoyed her lovely bread and pies, all baked in the oven heated by the fire. I remember well that long walk or bike ride to Scholes school in all weathers. We had some bad winters in those days with snow piled very high at the roadside. My brother Arnold used to take the milk out before he went to school, measuring it out at people's doors. I'm sure it often made him late for school." Having such a large family to support Percy had to do other jobs to supplement his income. He sold paraffin, tobacco, cigarettes, carbonated water, ginger beer, green groceries bread and sweets. He went to Leeds market early every Friday morning to buy produce to sell in the nearby villages. In those days a packet of cigarettes would cost around four old pence. Mr Green, who lived on Leeds Road, was a fizzy drinks manufacturer. Percy sold his drinks to the farm workers at Barnbow. They would call at Honesty Farm during their lunch break to buy them. At harvest time Percy went around the farms with Josh Armitage from Scholes helping to get the engine stoked up for threshing. He also became the local chimney sweep and nightsoil man. He also had a contract with the local council to collect refuse. He employed two men, Johnny Lawrence and Harry West - who was known as Bunny, to do the job. They would recycle jam jars and bottles etc. The rubbish was taken to a tip at Scholes. In later years Frank Foster helped with the collection using the farm's horse and cart. The council paid around ś30 a year for the service. 13 In 1947 Percy Foster retired from farming at the age of 65. The family went to live in the middle section of the former Scholes Hall, between the village hall and The Barleycorn. (See 'The Barwicker' No. 65). For the first time they experienced mod cons in their home, such as electricity and a water closet and Hephzibah was able to go out in the evening to whist drives in the village hall. In 1950 Hephzibah and Percy, affectionately known by the family as Ma and Pa, went to live with their second eldest daughter Mabel and her husband at Whitby. In 1955 they decided to return to the West Riding. After a short stay at Lotherton Hall they moved into a prefab, now demolished, at 13 Belle Vue Estate, Scholes. Hephzibah died in 1960 Percy and Hephzibah Foster and Percy in 1971. at Whitby ANTHONY KITCHEN

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