Great Ouseburn

Coordinates: 54°03′00″N 1°19′01″W / 54.050°N 1.317°W / 54.050; -1.317

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.

History

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".

Ouseburn

Coordinates: 54°58′26″N 1°35′24″W / 54.974°N 1.590°W / 54.974; -1.590

The Ouseburn, a river in Northern England, flows through Newcastle upon Tyne into the River Tyne. It gives its name to the Ouseburn electoral ward.

The Ouseburn has its source at Callerton in the north of the city near Newcastle Airport. It then flows through the Kingston Park area of the city, Newcastle Great Park, Gosforth Park and Whitebridge Park. The Ouseburn then continues through Paddy Freeman' Park in South Gosforth and into Jesmond Dene, Armstrong Park and Heaton Park, where it marks the boundary between Heaton and Sandyford. The river then flows through a culvert before re-emerging under Ouseburn railway viaduct, whence it flows past Ouseburn Farm, Seven Stories and the Toffee Factory and meets the River Tyne.

The river was previously tidal from the Viaduct, revealing dark mud at low tide. However, since 2009 a tidal barrage at the river mouth retains high water in the Ouseburn at low tide, with the objective of providing a more pleasant environment alongside its banks at low tide, thus promoting development. Despite the expense of its construction the Ouseburn barrage has had operational problems and was left open for a length of time while they were corrected.