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Parker versus Tankard
A Storm in a Barwick Teacup


Barwicker No 11
September 1988


What is now the Welfare Institute in Chapel Lane, Barwick, was built as a Methodist Chapel in 1803/4 on land which formed part of an orchard or garth. The document for the transfer of the land for the Chapel stated that no road was to be built across the rest of the garth, but that necessary repairs could be carried out on the building. When the present Chapel at the top of The Boyle was built in 1900, the land and buildings were sold for £100 to Samuel Tankard of Ivy Dene, Barwick, a woollen traveller. The rest of the garth, to the east, north and west of the buildings, was then owned by David Parker of Barwick.

In 1903, Samuel Tankard decided to reopen the building as a village institute or reading room. The building was in bad repair and renovation would be needed. This would include the fitting of a new floor to create a two-storey building. It was this work which sparked off the subsequent furore. There was little dispute about what the builders actually did. In November 1903, George Henry Bramley, joiner, William Jowitt, stone mason, and John Thomas Pullan, mason's labourer, were employed to carry out the necessary work, supervised by Samuel Herbert Tankard, the son of the owner of the building.

On 16 November, they commenced the work. There was no access to the back of the Chapel through the building, so the workmen had to cross Parker's land. The gate to the west of Chapel was locked and, thinking they had a right to enter the property, they lifted the gate from its hinges, without first consulting Mr Parker. They then crossed his land and began dismantling an old chimney on the east wall of the building. They put the old bricks and rubbish on the ground nearby. They also took two buckets of water from a water butt placed under the eaves of the building. The butt belonged to David Parker, but the water collected had drained from Samuel Tankard's roof!

Mr Parker soon arrived on the scene and told Herbert Tankard, that the workmen were trespassing and he asked them who had given them leave to enter his property. He W.J.S told that they had a right to enter. He disagreed and asked them to end the trespass.

The work however continued and so Parker consulted his solicitors, Simpson and Co. of Leeds. They wrote to Tankard on the 24th November, saying that he had no right of access to the land and they asked him to give an undertaking within 48 hours not to commit any further trespass. Samuel Tankard made no such promise and, on the 27th November, his workmen erected scaffolding and continued their repair work on the building. The gate had been replaced and the materials were lifted over the wall. The workmen also used a gap in the hedge to the east of the Chapel. Parker said that they had made the gap in the hedge, which he said he kept in good repair. The workmen disagreed, saying that the gap had been made by trespassing children.

It was a petty affair which surely could have been sorted out in half an hour over a pint at the Gascoigne, with the landlord, Richard Helm, acting as umpire. Instead, Parker decided to use the Law - not the local magistrates or even the West Riding Quarter Sessions, but the Chancery Division of the High Court in London. His solicitors, issued a writ:

(l) For an injunction to restrain the Defendant, his servants, agents, workmen or other people employed by him from entering upon the land and property of the plaintiff, and from placing any old bricks, building materials or anything else thereon.
(2) Damages for unlawfully entering upon the Plaintiff's land.
(3) Costs.




The court moved with impressive speed and the hearing was set for the 11th December. Sworn statements were made by Parker, Samuel Tankard and his son, and the workmen involved.

Bolling Margerison, surveyor, of Albion Street, Leeds, stated that he had surveyed the site and drawn a plan (see above), on the instructions of the Plaintiff. William Nettleton of Tarn House, Thorner, wrote to say that he had carried out repairs on the Chapel from 1879 to 1896 without permission from the land-owner.

The court duly met and found in favour of Mr Parker, the Plaintiff. Mr Tankard and his workmen were "perpetually restrained" from entering the site and depositing any materials there. An enquiry was to be instituted to see if any damages had been made by Tankard's building operations and, if £50, he would be ordered to pay the cost of these and of the enquiry. Tankard was also ordered to pay the costs of the court action. We do not know the result of the enquiry, but he had clearly suffered a serious financial loss. David Parker must have been well satisfied with the outcome. What the good people of Barwick thought about this momentous affair has gone unrecorded. Fortunately the "perpetual restraint" placed on Samuel Tankard's activities did not prevent the creation, in later years, of that most useful of Barwick buildings, the Welfare Institute.

Researched by MARGARET BERRY and JANET CREAK


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