Place:Great Ouseburn, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

Watchers
NameGreat Ouseburn
Alt namesGreat Ouseburnsource: from redirect
Usebrunasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 316
Useburnesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 316
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates54.035°N 1.321°W
Located inWest Riding of Yorkshire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inYorkshire, England    
North Yorkshire, England     (1974 - )
See alsoClaro Wapentake, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandearly county division in which it was located
Great Ouseburn Rural, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandrural district 1894-1938
Nidderdale Rural, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandrural district 1938-1974
Harrogate District, North Yorkshire, Englanddistrict municipality of which it has been a part since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Great Ouseburn is now a civil parish and a village in the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Boroughbridge. Great Ouseburn had a population of 598 according to the 2011 UK census. The parish of Aldwark (formerly in the North Riding) is to the northeast.

Great Ouseburn and Little Ouseburn both take their name from the River Ouse which has its source just outside the garden of the Great Ouseburn Workhouse. The Great Ouseburn Union workhouse building was built in 1856-7 and the infirmary was built in 1891.

Great Ouseburn was originally part of the district of Knaresborough, which was a royal forest in the time of William the Conqueror, giving Great Ouseburn the status of a "Forest Liberty Town"; it had the liberty to punish those people who misbehaved within its boundaries.

The estate, now known as Kirby Hall, was a major influence on the village and was owned by William de Kirkeby in 1200. The estate owned most of the village and the economy of Ouseburn was principally centred on the estate's agricultural business. In 1912 most of the smallholdings were sold to the tenants.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portmouth Department of Geography).

"OUSEBURN (Great), a village, a township, a parish, and a [registration] district, in [the West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands 1¼ mile W of the river Ouse, 4 N by W of Cattal [railway] station, and 5 S E of Boroughbridge; and has a post-office under York. The township comprises 840 acres. Real property: £2,781. Population: 599. Houses: 123. The work-house of the district is here; is a plain brick building, with accommodation for about 100 persons; and, at the census of 1861, had 60 inmates. The parish contains also part of the township of Upper Dunsforth-cum-Branton-Green, with a population of 56. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to H. S. Thompson, Esq The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value: £300. Patron: W. F. Scholefield, Esq. The church is in mixed architecture and in good condition; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with pinnacled tower; and contains several mural monuments. A school for boys and girlswas erected by H. S. Thompson, Esq., in memory of his father; and is a handsome stone edifice, in the pointed style. Charities: £16. The district is a poor-law union, originally included in Knaresborough district; and it comprehends the [registration] sub-district of Boroughbridge. {Data of the sub-district omitted.]

Historically, Great Ouseburn was an ancient and ecclesiastical parish in the Lower division of the Claro Wapentake. From 1894 until 1938, Great Ouseburn was located in Great Ouseburn Rural District and from 1938 until 1974 in Nidderdale Rural District. In 1974 the area became part of the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire.

The page, Great Ouseburn Rural District, has an outline map of all the civil parishes in the district.

Research Tips

  • GENUKI on Great Ouseburn. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
  • The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Great Ouseburn provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time on Great Ouseburn.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to maps of the West Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. Those listed here provide data for the part of the West Riding that transferred to North Yorkshire in 1974 plus the northern parts of Leeds and Bradford. These maps all blow up to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.
  • Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
  • Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1900 The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (rural districts of Sedbergh, Settle, Skipton, Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Knaresborough, Great Ouseburn, Clitheroe, Wharfedale, Wetherby, York, Bishopthorpe, Keighley, the northern part of Bradford, the northern part of Leeds, the northern part of Hunslet Urban District, the northern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the northern part of Selby Rural District). [Note: this map appears to be no longer available on the Vision of Britain website. This is unfortunate because the equivalent map from 1931-44 was redrawn after the 1938 reorganization of the rural districts in the northern part of the West Riding.]
  • Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the northern part of the West Riding (mostly Settle, Skipton, Ripon and Pateley Bridge, and Nidderdale, with sections of Wharfedale and Wetherby) after the revisions of 1938.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Great Ouseburn. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.