We have had a small, but valuable response to "Question Time" in Barwicker No.2.
Jack Reed writes, "Barwick Feast was held on Algie Robshaw's
farm paddock between the wars. It was the last stand of the
travelling fairs of the year and one or two families would winter
there and some children attended the village school. My family
supplied them with milk, and water for their few horses. "
"I remember the flood of May 1932. The fields near Ass Bridge
and Aberford bridge were flooded and water came over the road.
I rode pillion on Jim Laker's Ariel 4 square motor bike. "Water got
into the exhausts and we had to up-end the machine to start it again."
The following definitions have been gleaned from the Thoresby Society's
"Testamenta Leodiensia":
Word
Definition
fatt
A vat or vessel
gylefatt
A small brewer's vat or tub in
which wort was fermented.
mast fatt
Maskefat. A mask or mash vat for brewing
huslements
Odds and ends
tearses
Teare. Hemp
Hands up those who got all of them right!
With regard to the Victorian novel, we have located two copies
in the village and one in the Local History Department of Leeds
City Reference Library. Its correct title is "Amy Thornton; or,
the Curate's Daughter" and it was published in 1863. The author,
Edward Burlend, was born in Barwick in 1814 and became a schoolteacher
in the village and later in Swillington. The novel is set
in a village which he calls Elmwood, but it is clear from his
reference to the Gilbert Union workhouse , Cock Beck and other
features, that Barwick is the setting for the book. Is there, one
wonders, a connection between Elmwood Lane and the novel? Although
a work of fiction, the novel should prove a source of information
about life in Barwick and the district in the early nineteenth
century.
Burlend wrote severa1 other books including a collection of
verse called "Village Rhymes". This includes a long poem entitled
"Barwick-in-Elmet," describing several local features including the
maypole, the church and the town well, at the time of his boyhood
in the 1820's. We plan to include a full account of Burlend and
his works in a future edition.
We have been unable to establish any connection between
Douglas Bader, the legless pilot, and Barwick rectory. He spent
some of his boyhood at Sprotborough, near Doncaster, where his
step-father was rector, but that is the closest that we can manage.
Finally, some requests. In the mid-nineteenth century there
were twelve farms in Barwick and early in this century, there were
still seven or eight. Now, few working farms remain in the village.
We need information about the farmers, farmhouses, outbuildings,
fields, livestock, crops; anything which will help us to build up
a complete picture of what was once the principal industry in
Barwick.