Ossett
| Ossett | |
|---|---|
 Ossett Town Hall |
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 Ossett
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| Ossett shown within West Yorkshire | |
| Population | 21,076 {2001} |
| OS grid reference | SE279205 |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | OSSETT |
| Postcode district | WF5 |
| Dialling code | 01924 |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | |
Ossett /ˈɒsᵻt/ is a market town within the metropolitan district of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is located near junction 40 of the M1 motorway, halfway between Dewsbury, to the west, and Wakefield, to the east. In the 2001 census, it was classified as part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area. At the 2011 Census the population of the Ossett ward of the City of Wakefield Council was 16,116. The town is roughly halfway between the west and east coasts of England.
Ossett derives from the Anglo Saxon and is either "the fold of a man named Osla" or " a fold frequented by blackbirds". Ossett is sometimes misspelled as "Osset". In Ellis' On Early English Pronunciation, one of the founding works of British linguistics, the incorrect spelling is used. The British Library has an online dialect study that uses the spelling. One new alternative theory is that it is the place where King Osbehrt died after receiving fatal wounds when fighting the Great Heathen Army of the Vikings at York on March 21st 867. An exceedingly rare clustering of high status Anglian graves, one bearing the Anglian royal symbol of the dragon and the name Osbehrt, was found in the churchyard at Thornhill Parish Church directly across the valley from - and within sight of - Ossett.
Ossett appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Osleset", which was in the Manor of Wakefield. The Domesday Book was compiled for William the Conqueror in 1086. "Osleset" was recorded as three and a half carucates which is the land needed to be ploughed by three teams of eight oxen. Woodland pasture measured "half a league long as much broad" (roughly six furlongs by six furlongs). Four villans and three bordars lived in Osleset, a villan was an upper status villager, a bordar was a lower status villager.
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