With the departure of the Veevers family from Skipton, and in the absence of heirs to the property, the house was sold to a cloth manufacturer, John Charles Foster (1856-1914).

Foster, from Halifax, was the son of a master plumber, glazier and brass founder who employed 49 people in 1861. Although he was only 6 years old when his father died, John had several older brothers who continued their father’s trade, or went into cloth manufacture to support the family. Their mother also had a good income from rents on property. At the age of 20 John married a cattle-dealer’s daughter, Ann Wright. By now he was a cloth merchant, in a business based in Bradford. Widowed in 1884, he had two young daughters. Within 4 years he married again – this time to a draper’s daughter, Alice Maud Render, from Durham county. Three more daughters were born between 1889 and 1894 – all baptised at St Mary’s Church, Embsay. Foster was by now a cloth manufacturer, running Millholme Weaving Shed. He encouraged his workers to form their own brass band, and allowed them to practice inside the mill. At this time he was living in Radcliffe House on Pasture Road, employing 3 servants, until he moved into Brackenley House in 1896. But the family did not stay here long – by 1898 Foster gave up his interest in the mill, and moved to Hipperholme to become a sales agent for woollen goods.

By 1899 a croquet lawn had been laid in the garden on the opposite side of the road.

In that same year new tenants came to the House – Thomas Hardy Jackson (1867-1921), a ‘gentleman of independent means’, and his wife Margaret (1868-1942). Thomas’s father was a manufacturing chemist from Liversedge, near Leeds, who also invested in coal mines, and his mother was a cloth manufacturer’s daughter, originally from Calverley.

The only boy in a family of 7 children, Thomas was sent to a boarding school near Huddersfield. He was about 19 years old when his father died, so he went to live with his brother-in-law. He was soon running his own corn milling business, and was described as a gentleman when he married in 1898 to manufacturer’s daughter, Margaret Jane Gray, of Rawdon.

Their 2 sons were born at Brackenley House – Thomas Richard in 1902, and Robert Gray  in 1904. The family were wealthy enough to employ two servants as well as a governess.

There was a fire at the house in 1912, after which Jackson successfully pressed the local authorities for a more efficient local supply of water, and for assistance from the Skipton fire brigade for any future fires occurring in Embsay and other surrounding villages.

They lived at the house until 1921, by which time Thomas junior (usually known by his middle name of Richard) was working as an auctioneer and estate agent, and Robert as a farm apprentice. Their mother was missing from the census returns, but a lady companion called Margaret Gertrude Hay, was still living in the house. A former governess, she had been a companion for Thomas’s wife, but sadly, by 1921 Margaret Jackson was in a mental asylum, where she remained until she died in 1942.

A few months after the census Thomas senior died in December 1921 at the age of 54, leaving a large estate valued at over £32,000. He bequeathed £1,000 and a house at Sleights, near Whitby, to his wife’s former companion in gratitude for her devotion to his wife.

Brackenley House was immediately put up for sale, described as a “charming, medium-sized country residence… occupying a delightful situation on the outskirts of the pretty village of Embsay”. It had 3 reception rooms, 4 family bedrooms, and 2 servants’ bedrooms, a stable, coach-house, kennels, “picturesquely wooded grounds, and a paddock, extending in all to about 1¾ acres.”

 It was bought by Thomas Hartley (1891-1961). His paternal grandparents were from humble beginnings – Alice Hartley was a bobbin winder, and Smith Hartley was a handloom weaver. Smith set up his own small business in Cowling in 1858, later moving to Grassington. A prominent member of the Primitive Methodists, by 1881 Smith Hartley was employing 26 workers in the Union Mill, Skipton.  His son (Thomas’s father) John became a textile salesman, before inheriting his father’s mill which he ran jointly with his brother Jonas. In 1890 the marriage of John Hartley to a cotton manufacturer’s daughter of Addingham, was described as ‘fashionable wedding’, where the presents “were numerous and costly.”

Thomas, born in Skipton, began his working life as a mill hand alongside his older brother, John, which they soon took over as joint managers, when their father, John Hartley (senior), changed his trade, becoming an oil and tallow manufacturer. Suffering from a chronic illness, John (senior) spent six months in southern France, before the family returned and moved to Rylstone House in 1913. John Hartley (senior) died three months later, leaving a large estate worth over £26,000.  His sons continued to live with their mother at Rylstone House, jointly managing the Union Mills in Skipton.

In 1920 Thomas married merchant’s daughter, Hannah Ackroyd of Baildon. The newly-wed couple lived briefly in Grassington before moving into Brackenley House, Embsay, in 1921. They had 4 children – John, William, Audrey and Edna (usually known by her middle name, Hazel). From 1931 Hannah’s uncle, Stephen Ackroyd, also lived here, until he returned to his home town of Queensbury in 1934 where he died in October.

Thomas’s passion was his motor-boat – a 30-foot vessel, named after his daughter Hazel, it was described in the ‘Craven Herald’ newspaper in August 1936:

“It is a beautifully appointed craft and is totally enclosed. In addition to a cosy saloon, four sleeping berth are accommodated in the forward part of the boat and, if necessary, two additional berths are available in the season. Petrol driven, the boat has a nominal speed of nine knots.”

He was often to be seen on his boat cruising along the canal.

That month Thomas, his two sons, wife, and friends (John Hey of Skipton, and Mr Jowett of Bradford) took a trip from Skipton to Bridlington:

“Last night, they were due to reach Goole and hope to reach Bridlington to-morrow (Saturday). The boat will be in charge of a pilot for the voyage down to the Humber and round Spurn Head to Bridlington.

The party will remain at Bridlington for about a fortnight and hope to do a great deal of fishing. They will reside on the “Hazel” throughout the holiday and will return to Skipton by the same route.

Night Arrival at Shipley.

Mr. Hartley sent us the following message dated Wednesday.

Arrived Shipley 9-45. I have received great help from Mr. John Hey, of Skipton, and Mr. Maurice Jowett, of Bradford, in fitting out the boat and preparing for the journey, and also from the officials of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company at Skipton in seeing that their lockkeepers had the Bingley 5-rise and the 3-rise ready for the boat to go through the locks without delay.

Mr. John Hey accompanied us as far as Shipley, and his knowledge of the canal was a means of getting down to Shipley notwithstanding the darkness in very good time.

We set off from Shipley at 9-30 a.m. and hope to be at Goole at 10 p.m. We there take a pilot on board and hope for the best. We are all good swimmers. My son John is a bronze medallist in life-saving and swimming. “

There was a bit of excitement on the journey as the trip went into the first week of September:

“SKIPTON MOTOR BOAT TO THE RESCUE. Bridlington Bay Incident

“Hazel”, the 30-foot motor boat of Mr. T. Hartley, of Brackenley House, Embsay, which, for the past fortnight has been in Bridlington Bay, on Sunday figured in an incident which might have had serious consequences, and the craft proved a great friend in need to the occupants of a rowing boat in the Bay.

“Hazel”, in charge of Mr. Hartley, who has as guests on board Mr. John Hey, of Skipton, and Mr. M. Jowett, of Bradford, who each have motor cruisers on the Skipton lengths of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, was returning across the wide expanse of Bridlington Bay after a cruise to Flamborough, when it was noticed that the occupants of a rowing boat well out in the bay appeared to be in difficulties, “Hazel” was promptly turned about and went to their assistance.

In the boat were two young couples who had gone out further than they had anticipated. On deciding to return to the harbour, they found they had to contend with an ebb tide which was flowing very swiftly, and, rowing as hard as they could, they made little headway and the position had become serious. The rowing boat was made secure to “Hazel”, the two ladies being transferred to Mr. Hartley’s boat where, in the saloon, Mrs. Hartley made them hot tea, and the harbour was reached without mishap.

Mr. Hartley, it will be recalled, made the journey from the canal basin at Skipton by inland waterways to the Humber and the North Sea, his destination being Bridlington Bay. He will make the return journey to Skipton next week.”

As secretary of the Skipton Motor Boat Club, and a member of the Ripon Club, Thomas was prominent in the coronation celebrations of 1937, when a procession of decorated 20 boats, dinghies, and barges sailed down the canal to gather at the canal basin in Skipton. 

The Hartleys were an important part of the Embsay community. For example, in 1935 they presented a portable gramophone to the school “as a token of their kindly interest in the work of the school.” They provided a tea for all the children at a coronation party in the village institute, and Mrs Hartley sometimes presented prizes at village events. Thomas Hartley gave his permission in November 1936, for the erection of the bus shelter on his land on the opposite side of the road, and also agreed to the widening of the junction of Brackenley Lane and Skipton Road, which cut a small corner off his property.  

During World War Two, Thomas acted as an ARP controller at his own Union mills in Skipton, and his daughter Audrey worked as a short hand typist. The family hosted a number of fundraising garden parties at the house for wartime charities such as the British Sailors’ Society . In 1948 the 4^th generation of the Hartley family entered the business – by now manufacturing crepe, rayon and art silk fabrics, with an extensive export trade –  when Paul and John both joined their father.  Their sister Audrey was a successful singer, performing as a member of the BBC Chorus. She married in St Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church in 1949 to Denis Whelan. Hazel, who had taught at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London, married in 1962 to Michael Burton, a local Skipton doctor. Thomas died at Brackenley House in 1961, and was interred at Waltonwrays Cemetery. His wife Hannah was also interred there in 1966.

Jane Lunnon, Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group, June 2026.  

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