[5] In 1872 White's Directory reported that Foston had a population of 329 within a parish of 2,180 acres (9 km2), the land of which largely belonged to the Earl of Dysart.

The impropriator was the Earl of Dysart, but the tithes (tax income from parishioners derived from their profit on sales, or extraction of produce and animals, typically to the tenth part) were commuted after an enclosure of 1793, under the Inclosure Act 1773.

Trades listed in 1872 included three tailors, four shopkeepers, two shoemakers, a cattle salesman, a corn miller, a butcher, a carpenter, a blacksmith, a machine owner, a harness maker who was also an assistant overseer, two carriers—horse-drawn wagon operators carrying goods and sometimes people between places of trade—operating between the village and both Newark and Grantham, and seven farmers, four of whom were also graziers.

There were the licensed victuallers of The White Horse, The Duke William and The Black Boy public houses.

On Newark Hill is The Old Post Office, a Grade II brick house dating to the early 19th century.