A NEW pub has just opened in Burley-in-Wharfedale. Villagers are divided over whether it's a good or a bad thing, but one thing it has achieved is to remind people of the man the pub is named after - William Forster.

Here, Dennis Warwick of the village's local history group considers the pub and its name - The Generous Pioneer.

WE now have five in Burley-in-Wharfedale. Some say it's one too many, others that it will give us a lift.

The opening of the Generous Pioneer has not been without controversy, but there it is, astride a former meadow, next to the new housing and the new bypass.

And what will happen to the other four pubs? The Malt Shovel, The Red Lion, The Queens Head and The White Horse have their regulars and probably will weather the storm - at least the rotten summer and the World Cup have given plenty of reasons for punters to drown their sorrows.

And whether people are drawn to one of the locals or not, the Generous Pioneer will not be the only one that has pictures of the old village. The name, however, is different. Already folk are asking, who is this 'generous pioneer'?

They do not need to go far, for there is another kind of lure in the village - it's local history.

Quietly, with real dedication, a small group of local historians has been gathering old photographs, poring over newspapers, visiting archives, reading old diaries and log books and transcribing documents and census enumerators' books.

Our aim has been to share this knowledge of the past with our neighbours and villagers far and wide. So far, the group has published four books, given several lectures and made a video. The group's theme might be: "If we don't remember our past, what chance have we got for the future?"

It started in 1983 when Margaret Warwick retired early from her job as a senior lecturer in history at Bradford College. She had already researched some of the material for her student teachers there.

And now, she decided to continue the work and with a mixed group, mainly retired villagers, got to work on the first book - Burley-in-Wharfedale in Times Past. The book was published in 1985 and quickly sold out - copies are now like gold and anyone who has one is advised to keep it in a strong box.

During the work on that book, some of the group interviewed villagers who had worked at Greenholme Mills, the mainstay of the local economy in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. That resulted in the second book, Greenholme Mills Remembered, in 1988. Only a few copies of that are unsold, though group members still meet villagers who say they want to read it.

In 1990, a minor miracle happened. Margaret had since early days at Bradford College looked for papers, diaries and letters written by WE Forster - the famous MP for Bradford (1861-1886) - after whom the square and station are named.

His home had been at Wharfeside in Burley and he can be thought of a 'generous pioneer' because he started many good things in the village.

The story has always been that apart from a few letters and documents, parliamentary speeches in Hansard and newspaper reports, there were virtually no personal items to be found.

A friend visiting Dublin, knowing of Margaret's interest, happened to see a newly published book, written by his adopted daughter, Florence Arnold-Forster's Irish Journal.

Glancing through the notes at the end of the book, the friend found a reference to a Forster archive in Trinity College, Dublin. There, it turned out, were boxes and boxes of letters, papers and other memorabilia, mainly collected from the family by Florence.

She had married and gone to live in Ireland in 1883 and her grandchildren later deposited the papers in the college archives.

Not many of Forsters old papers remained, however, though many hundreds of letters written by Jane, his wife, survive and give a wonderful idea of their lives, especially in Burley.

That find resulted in the book Eminent Victorians, The Forsters of Burley-in-Wharfedale (written jointly by her husband, Dennis). It was published in 1994 and a few copies are still available.

Knowing that the Forsters had been among the pioneers of education in Burley and that one of the schools, with which Jane particularly was involved, was to celebrate the centenary of its reopening in 1998, was the spark that led to the fourth book.

This time a few members of the original group, along with some new participants, spent hours in the parish church lounge, reading school log books.

These give a first hand record of week by week happenings in two schools from the 1860s to the 1970s. The old Burley Woodhead school, founded in 1832, was resited and renamed Burley and Woodhead CofE First School in 1976. The school still flourishes in Sandholme Drive.

The former Burley National School, opened in 1837, was resited in 1898 on Aireville Terrace. Now known as Burley CofE First School, it has just celebrated its centenary. Ironically, the building is to be closed in the reorganisation of Bradford's schools announced this summer.

The log books as well as papers left by a former vicar of Burley, Charles Ingham Black, gave the group details which have now been written up, along with information drawn from many more sources in the newly published book, Our Schools, A History of Schools in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

The book covers 200 years of schools in the village, not just the two already mentioned but also Greenholme Mills School, the Township School, the Wesleyan school and a number of private establishments.

The story is brought up to date with an account of the 25 successful years of Burley Middle School, also sadly to be ended when the Bradford reorganisation starts.

The new book will be on sale generally at £7, but can be bought in the village at £5 during the summer.

The video that has been made recently, with help generously given by Trinity and All Saints College at Horsforth, is on loan free of charge at Burley Library. It was made to go with the exhibition of the Village, Past, Present and Future, mounted by a local team who are preparing a village design statement.

Members of the group will start work again in September on the next project to revise and update the first book.

It will be ready for the millennium and will be just one of the ways in which the village will commemorate the occasion.

So if you're lured to your local and the drinks that cheers, whether it be the Generous PIoneer or any other, it may be that you're sitting next to someone who will be able to identify the generous pioneer.

Copies of BHLG books can be bought from 15, The Copse, Burley-in-Wharfedale. Telephone (01943) 863019.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.