About Great Ouseburn Parish Council
Information about Great Ouseburn Parish Council
The Villages of Great and Little Ouseburn take their name from the river Ouse which starts as Ouse Gill Beck in the garden of the old Great Ouseburn Workhouse (opens in new tab). At the original source of the Ouse (the spring now emerges approx 35 metres away) stands a stone column bearing the inscription ‘OUSE RIVER HEAD’ ‘OUSEGILL SPRING Ft. YORK 13 miles BOROUGHBRIDGE 4. miles’. – Ouse Gill Beck flows for 4 miles before joining the river Ure (a broad river of 60 miles length). Here, the tiny Ouse Gill Beck usurps the power of the Ure and gives its name to the river which flows through York to the Humber estuary and into the North sea.
Below Great Ouseburn the stream is fed by a perenial spring known as the Stock Well, this spring varies in neither temperature or volume throughout the year, and in severe frost steam rises from the spring. The ditch was widened and banked to form a lake either side of where Little Ouseburn Bridge stands (the lake as now unfortunately silted up through the lowering of a dam). Where the beck entered the lake is an island were in the late 1800’s the writer Edmund Bogg saw a spreading Ash cut down containing 432 Rooks nests, he also states that the waters swarmed with pike and trout, the butter bump or bittern (opens in new tab) frequented the area and Will o’ the Wisps (opens in new tab)were seen almost nightly in the marsh meadows
From William the Conqueror’s time until around 1770, the area around Knaresborough was a royal forest within which Great Ouseburn held the status of Forest Liberty Town. In the Domesday Survey it is recorded that the King had 12 carucates of land in ‘Useburne’ in the ‘Borgescire’ region of ‘Eurviscire’ (Yorkshire). Before 1066, the land was held by Alfred, Ramkel, Orm, Thorbrandr and Rawn, there was land for 6 ploughs and it was 1 league long or broad. Travel in the forests was difficult and dangerous and Great Ouseburn’s position on the edge of the forest (its land spanning from the Great North Road to the ancient river crossing of the river Ure and on to the edge of the forest of Galtres) made it an important focus for travellers. The Toll bridge across the Ure was built under a 1772 act of parliament by John Thompson of Kirby Hall on the site of a ferry and river crossing known as Rudforth Wath (Ford). The opening of the Ripon Canal which was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1767 and opened in 1773 which increased the depth of water and eliminated the ford.
The role of the Parish Council is to represent the interests of the whole community. It is a part of Local Government supporting the democratic process. The Parish Council provides a focus for the community to identify concerns and projects, and endeavour to solve them locally themselves.
The Parish Council is a corporate body, and a legal entity, separate from that of its Members, and is accountable to the local community. Its decisions are the responsibility of the whole body and are made collectively and by majority. The Parish Council has been granted powers by Parliament including the authority to raise money through taxation – the precept, and a range of powers to spend public money.
The Parish Council is an elected body in the first tier of Local Government. Elections take place every four years. Other tiers, known as principal councils or authorities, have many legal duties to deliver services such as education, housing, town and country planning, transport, environmental health and social services. Parish Councils have the legal power to take action, but they have very few duties and greater freedom to choose what action to take. They can play a vital part in representing the interests of the communities they serve and improving the quality of life and the local environment.
Great Ouseburn Parish Council meetings are held in the Jeff Gill Room of the Village Hall. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
Great Ouseburn Parish Council is responsible for:
- The Playing Field and play area
- The Free Landing and moorings
- The Fishpond Area
- The Well Lane Allotments
- The Pipers Lane Pond and Green
- The Village Green
- The defibrillator at the village hall car park
The Parish Council is a statutory consultee on planning matters and can make representations to Harrogate Borough Council which is the Planning Authority. Great Ouseburn Parish Council always comments on planning applications in the Parish and on those which may affect the Parish. Harrogate Borough Council decides whether or not to approve an application.
The Parish Council is an employer. The Parish Clerk works for and with the Council to action its decisions.