Joseph Foster was born in Belper in 1867, but grew up in Chapel Street, Long Eaton. He married Eliza Morley in 1889. They lived in Gibb Street and then Conway Street before moving to 24 Lake Street (now Lakeside Avenue), New Sawley in the early 1900s.
In 1911 Joseph lost his sight in one eye, which led to him losing his job as a lace twist-hand. He got into the fish and chip business instead. One day in February 1912 he disappeared after taking his youngest son to school. His body was found the next day, beside the road between Diseworth and Kegworth. A bottle of carbolic acid was found next to him and an inquest decided he’d taken his own life. He was known to have business problems and was worried about his daughter Eunice. His wife Eliza was still living in Lake Street when she died age 85 in 1953. Their children were:
- Arnold (1890)
- Blanche Emily (1892)
- Eunice Lydia (1894)
- Leonard (1895)
- Wilfred (1899)
- Arthur (1907)
Arnold became a lace twist hand. He married Sarah Rebecca Osborne in 1927. In 1939 they were living in Blandford Avenue, New Sawley. When Arnold died in 1976, they were living in Osmaston Close.
Blanche started work as a lace winder, but by 1921 she was a servant in Beeston. By 1939 she was a housekeeper in Nottingham. She died in Derby in 1979.
On the 1901 census Eunice was marked as ‘feeble minded since birth’. By 1911 was in an asylum. She died in 1918.
When he was 16, Leonard was working as a threader in a lace factory. During WW1 he joined 2/5th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters. We know nothing about his war service, but he ended up with the Labour Corps and died at Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot in October 1919. He was buried in Long Eaton cemetery.
In 1921 Wilfred was working as a butcher, but in 1939 he was living with his widowed mother and working in an artificial silk spinning mill. He died in 1985.
Arthur was also still at home in 1939, working in a sawmill (the wood yard on Mikado Road?). By 1940 he was working for J. E. Jervis at the Paragon Lace Factory. Arthur was the leader of the Long Eaton Boys’ Club. Joseph Edward Jervis (son of the founder) was the president of the Club. Later in 1940 Arthur joined the Royal Artillery and went off to join an anti-aircraft battery. After the war he was a Sunday school teacher at the New Sawley Wesleyan Chapel. In 1947 he married another Sunday school teacher, Phyllis Beers.