Place:Owston, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Owston is a small village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in rural South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village is situated amongst mixed farmland and woodland north northwest of Doncaster, just west of the A19. It had a population of 170 in 2001, which fell to 145 according to the 2011 Census.^[1]

The name 'Owston' is of Old Scandinavian and Old English origin. It means 'East farmstead', being composed of the Old Scandinavian word austr ('east') and the Old English word tun ('farmstead'). In the Domesday Book, the village was recorded as Austhun.

John de St Paul, Archbishop of Dublin, was born in Owston in about 1295. He was sometimes referred to as John de Owston.

Close to the village is a site of special scientific interest called Owston Hay Meadows which is the second best example of neutral grassland hay meadow in South Yorkshire. The site consists of three small fields which together cover 13½ acres (5½ hectares) and were notified in 1979.

The parish church of All Saints is Grade I listed, dating back to 1180.

Nearby Owston Hall was declared a Grade II listed building in 1967, its grounds are used by the Robin Hood Golf Club of Doncaster.

Historically, Owston was an ecclesiastical parish in the wapentake of Osgoldcross. From 1894 until 1974, Owston was located in Doncaster Rural District.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Owston. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Owston provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Owston.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to three maps for what is now South Yorkshire, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. 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 West Riding South 1900. The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (the southern part of Bradford, the southern part of Leeds, the southern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the southern part of Selby, Goole Rural District, and all the divisions of Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield)
• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935.