Reminiscences by J Kemp Foster

Reminiscences by J Kemp Foster

In 1909 a series of newspaper articles under the title 'Reminiscences' appeared in the Hunts Post. Joseph Kemp Foster fondly remembered St Ives from his birth in 1871 to 1887 when, aged 16 years, he started a life in journalism which took him to Ireland, the Isle of Wight and around England.

In the articles published over sixteen weeks, Joseph wrote in great detail of St Ives and the people who lived in the town in the late 1800s. He remembers the old Monday livestock market, and Sunday night lowing of cattle grazing in the surrounding meadows, which sent many St Ivians to sleep. Drovers packed cattle in the Broadway and some way along Ramsey Road, hemmed in by white rails to protect passers-by.

Market Hill, 1880, when J Kemp Foster was 9 years old.

Joseph creates some evocative images. The Sunday dinner parade when families would pay bakers to cook their Sunday roast, bakers' boys setting out around town with the finished articles balanced on headboards. He describes river baptisms at the Quay. Did the river flow through the centre of St Ives in Cromwell's time?

There are many St Ives characters mentioned, including Robert Offley, known as Holy Moses. He preferred to go about the district preaching for beer, to the neglect of his drover occupation and his poor children.

Date links to each of Joseph Kemp Foster's Reminiscences are shown at the foot of this article.

Who was Joseph Kemp Foster?

Born in St Ives in 1871, Joseph's family home was Cromwell House, in the Bullock Market (today the Broadway). His father, Edward William Foster, was a newspaper editor and proprietor. Joseph had three siblings.

Joseph followed his father's occupation, initially selling newspapers in the streets of St Ives. He progressed through type-setting and shorthand into journalism. Leaving home aged 16 years, he first worked for the Bucks Herald, where his father had contacts, having been the editor before moving to St Ives.

Joseph worked for over ten newspapers, including the Cork Constitution and Impartial Reporter in Ireland, and the Island Leader on the Isle of Wight, and was editor of several. In 1900 he married Sarah Wayne. They had two daughters.

When he wrote his Reminiscences in 1909, aged 38 years, Joseph had settled in Cardiff, working as the lead writer for the Evening Express. 

In 1929, when he was aged 58 years, Glamorgan Summer Assizes declared Joseph bankrupt. He had owned the Penarth News, the Glamorgan News and the Dinas Powis News, as well as carrying on a diary business. The newspapers' circulations were insufficient. Joseph borrowed money, claiming things looked rosier than they actually were.

Joseph clearly longed for his home town. He finished his Reminiscences with the following.

And I trust I may always hear well of St Ives, even if it is not permitted me to realise my hope of some day returning to the lovely Ouse-side town.

There is no record that he ever returned to St Ives. Joseph died in 1947 in Cardiff.

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5 Jun 1909 The Bullock Market, Cow and Hare Inn, Ramsey Road market, Irish dealers, fights for market positions, Sunday night lowing of cattle, grazing grounds, Hemingford Meadow, the sheep and pig markets.

12 Jun 1909 Variety of stalls in Maket Hill, sure sign of a wedding, baskets and poultry, the Corn Exchange and railway station, a schoolboy tragedy, the Northrop family.

19 Jun 1909 The Radford and Anderson families, St Ives butchers, a romantic story of trade.

26 Jun 1909 River baptisms, flooded cellars, old St Ivians.

3 Jul 1909 More of the river, the annual Huntingdon rowing fight, lighters and lighter-men, yachts and yachtsmen, St Ives as a pleasure resort, fishing.

10 Jul 1909 Famous fishermen, punters and the floods, the divers.

24 Jul 1909 Reuben Smith, Wesleyan stalwarts, Read Adams as the first Mayor of St Ives, other Mayors.

31 Jul 1909 More about Mayors, a Potto Brown story, Mr Mordecai as a champion pie maker, old bakers of St Ives.

7 Aug 1909 Other bakers, the Sunday dinner parade, masters of fashion.

14 Aug 1909 John Piggott and son, a great fire, other bakers, business men Mr Lightfoot, Read Adams, Ebeneezer Nash, John Johnson, Mr Sargent and Mr Ulph.

21 Aug 1909 Furniture makers, wine merchants, auctioneers, hosts and hotels.

28 Aug 1909 Old faces recalled, a remarkable Sunday School.

4 Sep 1909 Rev Charles Dashwood Goldie, Rev Thomas Lloyd, centres of learning.

11 Sep 1909 Other schoolmasters, the Quakers.

25 Sep 1909 Whitsun and Michaelmas fairs, sports and pastimes, the old post office and old postmaster, Oliver Cromwell's house, more old St Ivians, Holy Moses and Jack Slasher, old customs, nearing the end.

2 Oct 1909 Addendum.