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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

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 dist ...

district of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in eastern England. It is located around six miles west of

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

and 72 miles 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 were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

era. The name is derived from

Old English Old English (, ), 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 was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

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, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted 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 op ...

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 and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

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 Barnabas (; arc, ܒܪܢܒܐ; grc, Βαρνάβας), born Joseph () or Joses (), was according to tradition an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Name ...

. 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. There is one suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon. The diocese now co ...

, a large diocese covering

, Cambridgeshire and

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

. 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 or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. 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 Notus is a small rural city in Canyon County, Idaho, Canyon County, Idaho. The population was 531 at the time of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and is the smallest town out of the eight in Canyon County, Idaho, Canyon County. It is par ...

References

External links

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