Post Office Directory of 1865.
OUSDEN (or OWSDEN) is a parish, in Risbridge hundred, Newmarket
union, Clare rural deanery, Sudbury archdeaconry, and diocese of Ely, West
Suffolk, 7 miles east-by-south from Newmarket, and 10 west-south-west from Bury.
The church of St. Peter is a small building, with a tower and 5bells; it has
nave, transept, chancel, porch and font. The register dates from 1675. The
living is a rectory, valued in 1835 at £285, in the gift of T. J. Ireland, Esq.;
the Rev. William Sutherland McDouall, M.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, is the
incumbent, and chaplain to the Marchioness of Bute. Here is a small Parochial
school, and a small charity, value about £6 yearly. In 1743, Richard Moseley
charged a farm here with the yearly payment of £10 for schooling 20 poor
children of this parish. Ousden Hall, a noble mansion in the Grecian style of
architecture, with extensive grounds, is the seat of Bulkley Mackworth Praed,
Esq., who is lord of the manor and also the principal owner. The soil is clay
and loamy; subsoil, clay and chalk. Crops are wheat, oats, barley, turnips, &c.
The population in 186l was 346, and the area is 1,400 acres.
Parish Clerk, William Tweed.
POST OFFICE.—William Eley, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Newmarket at 8.30
a.m.; dispatched at 5 p.m.
Wickhambrook is the nearest money order office
INSURANCE AGENT. — Travellers' & Marine, J. W. Rannow
Parochial School, Mrs. Ann Kemp, mistress
McDouall Rev.William S. M.A.[rector]
Praed Bulkley Mackworth, esq. Ousden hall
Bailey Isaac, blacksmith
Cruthe William, shopkeeper
Drake Henry, cattle dealer
Drake John, butcher
Eley William, shoe maker
Everett Thomas, boot maker
Jillings William,farmer
Jolley Thomas, Fox inn
Pearson Isaac, farmer
Rannow James William, shopkeeper
Rowling Richard, miller
Sturgeon Charles, farmer
Swann Henry, pig dealer
Turner John, farmer
Turner William, miller
Tweed William, wheelwright
Wiseman William H. cooper
Woollard Martha (Mrs.), shopkeeper