Great Ouseburn
| Great Ouseburn | |
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 Great Ouseburn, The Crown public house on the right |
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 Great Ouseburn
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| Great Ouseburn shown within North Yorkshire | |
| OS grid reference | SE447617 |
| • London | 180 mi (290 km) SSE |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Postcode district | YO |
| Police | North Yorkshire |
| Fire | North Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
Great Ouseburn is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated 4 miles (6 km) south-east of Boroughbridge. The village of Aldwark is to the north-east. It had a population of 598 according to the 2011 census.
Great Ouseburn and Little Ouseburn both take their name from the River Ouse which begins in the garden of the Great Ouseburn Workhouse. The original source of the Ouse (which is 35 metres away from where it flows now) is marked by a stone column reading "OUSE RIVER HEAD... OUSEGILL SPRING Ft. YORK 13miles BOROUGHBRIDGE 4miles". The meadows by Ouse Gill Beck have since become a Site of Interest to Nature Conservation (SINC).
Great Ouseburn was originally part of the district of Knaresborough, which was a royal forest in William the Conqueror’s time, giving Great Ouseburn the status of a "Forest Liberty Town"; it had the liberty to punish those people who misbehaved within its boundaries; in the Domesday survey the village is referred to as "Useburne".
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.
Great Ouseburn was an administrative centre; during 1828 it was the headquarters of the Great Ouseburn Gilbert Union comprising 40 parishes. In 1854 it was replaced by the Great Ouseburn Poor Law Union. The Great Ouseburn Union workhouse building was built in 1856-7 and the infirmary was built in 1891.
In 1867 Great Ouseburn Community Primary School was established with the laying of the foundation stone by Sir Henry Mesey-Thompson of Kirby Hall and the then Bishop of Ripon.
In the 1870s, Great Ouseburn was described "as a village, a township, a parish, and a district, in W. R. Yorkshire...The township comprises 840 acres. Real property, £2, 781. Pop., 599. Houses, 123."
An important aeroplane crash during the Second World War occurred in Great Ouseburn on the 30th of April, 1942. "De Havilland Flamingo R2764 of 24 Squadron crashed at Great Ouseburn in Yorkshire on 30 April 1942." The plane was carrying two Air Ministry Staff and four high ranking Russians. That morning the plane had travelled from RAF Hendon in London to RAF Tealing near Dundee. It was returning after a short stop at RAF East Fortune near Edinburgh when it developed engine trouble. The plane then caught fire and crashed to the ground in the field just behind Vine House. The Great Ouseburn Fire and Rescue where quickly on the scene, the fire was contained but there were no survivors.
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Wikipedia