Ousden is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

West Suffolk West Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * West Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * West Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral di ...

district of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

in eastern England. It is located around west of

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

and north of London, and as of 2011, its population is 266. The village has an Anglican church of St Peter's and a chapel in the cemetery dedicated to St Barnabas. In the 1870s, Ousden was described as: :"A village and a parish in the district of Newmarket and county of Suffolk. The village stands 1½ mile E of the boundary with Cambridgeshire, 4¾ S by W of Higham r. station, and 6½ E S E of Newmarket."

History

Ousden dates back to the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

era. The name is derived from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

and literally translates to 'owl valley'. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

Ousden is referred to as 'Uuesdana' and shows that in 1066 it consisted of 27 households, considered to be a 'quite large' village, and part of the Hundred of Risbridge. There was a population of fifteen villagers, nine smallholders and two slaves. There were six acres of land and four cobs, 15 cattle, 22 pigs and 158 sheep. The Lord of Ousden in 1066 was Leofric, but by 1086 the Lord and

tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

was Eustace, Count of Boulogne. The parish church, St Peter's, also dates from around this time. It is a place of interest because it is a Norman tripartite, with the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, central tower and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

remaining intact. Throughout the 20th century, the building was added to according to architectural trends of the time and the needs of the parish. For example, in the 18th century a new chancel was erected along with a new brick chapel. In 1912, a burial ground was created for the Ousden residents extending for a mile next to the church. Within this a red brick chapel was built as a daughter church and is dedicated to St Barnabas. The village also had a manor, lived in by the Moseley family from 1567 until it was sold in 1800. The manor was bought in 1835 by the Ireland family and lived in until 1885, when it was acquired by the Mackworth-Praed family. The family remained in the Manor until 1955 when it was demolished. In 1851, Ousden was part of the

Diocese of Ely The Diocese of Ely is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely. There is one suffragan bishop, suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bisho ...

, a large diocese covering

, Cambridgeshire and

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

. Today, Ousden is part of the

Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is a Church of England diocese based in Ipswich, covering Suffolk (excluding Lowestoft). The cathedral is St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and the bishop is the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It is part ...

, a smaller diocese covering much of West Suffolk. Occupational Structure of Ousden in 1831

Ousden's first census was in 1801 where the population was recorded as 274. A population time-series graph shows that Ousden's population peaked in 1851 and has since been declining. The parish itself has not changed in area, but it has changed districts in which the census would have taken place. In 1888, it was a part of the Newmarket Union, but by 1922 it was part of the Moulton District, and then changed again in 1831 to the Clare District. These changes in district may account for slight dips in the population due to more rural houses affecting the population count as districts change. The occupational history of Ousden lies in the

agricultural industry Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food ...

. In 1831, 58% of the male population were agricultural labourers, and the percentage of males working in agriculture was 66%. By the end of the 19th century the percentage of men working in agriculture was still 64%. Most of the female population in the village had no occupation; the majority of those that did were in domestic services or offices. Since the 1970s Ousden has been informally twinned with Notus, Idaho.

References

External links

Parish Council websiteSt Peter's church
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury