Osbaldwick

Osbaldwick Osso[1]
Osbaldwick village
Osbaldwick Location within North Yorkshire
Population	2,902 (2011)
OS grid reference	SE634518
Civil parish	Osbaldwick
Unitary authority	City of York
Ceremonial county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	YORK
Postcode district	YO10
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
UK Parliament	York Outer

Osbaldwick (/ˈɒzbəldwɪk/ OZ-bəld-wick) is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England. Situated 2 miles (3.2 km) east of York, Osbaldwick is nowadays generally considered one of York's suburbs, though parts of it retain its historic character.

In prehistory, the area around Osbaldwick comprised sandy heaths, forests and peaty carrs. It is hypothesised that Hull Road, south of the village, may already have been a routeway at this point, in which case settlement of the environs may go back millenia. A 3rd century Roman coin has been found a few hundred metres east of the village.^[2] Osbaldwick (and its name) were certainly in existence by 11th century: it is mentioned three times in the Domesday Book as Osboldewic.^[3] The name derives from Osbald (an Old English forename) and wic (an Old English word meaning "dwelling-place").^[2] Some sources claim that the Osbald in question is Osbald of Northumbria.^[4]

When the Domesday Book was written, the manor of Osbaldwick was assessed with the city of York, and its lands were held by the Church of St Peter, York. The office Prebend of Osbaldwick was created, likely by Thomas of Bayeux, the first Norman archbishop of York.^[2] The prebend was de facto lord of the manor. The earliest-known mention of an incumbent of this office is an M. Brand in 1205.^[5] Osbaldwick was probably within the royal Forest of Galtres at this time.^[2]

By medieval times, Osbaldwick Lane and Osbaldwick Village existed as routeways. These form the rectangle-like arrangment of streets about which Osbaldwick is still set.^[6] The western half of this rectangle was a moated site known as Hall Garth up to the 19th century, and Moat Field thereafter. It is theorised that there once stood a moated demesne manor house there. In the 1960s, the moat was filled in and houses were built atop the site.^[2]

Throughout the medieval period, land in Osbaldwick was appropriated to the prebend of Strensall. The first reference to enclosure in Osbaldwick dates from 1648, when petition was made for the village's common arable land to be divided. Two years later, this was realised in fields named Garend Field and Townend Field. Further enclosures happened in 1769. The fields north of the village still maintain their long, thin medieval shapes. They are primarily pastoral, and probably have been for hundreds of years.^[2]

In 1852, the Church was allowed to sell off land, and Osbaldwick Manor was sold to Thomas Samuel Watkinson, later the Lord Mayor of York.^[7]

The centre of the village was declared a conservation area in 1978.

The village was historically within the Bulmer wapentake of the North Riding of Yorkshire. When the latter county was distestablished in 1974, it was then a part of the district of Ryedale in North Yorkshire. Since 1996 it has been part of the City of York unitary authority.^[8]

Since 2010, the village has been within the York Outer UK Parliament constituency. Prior to that it had lain within Yorkshire (-1832), North Riding of Yorkshire (1832-1885) Thirsk and Malton (1885-1983), Selby (1983-1997) and Ryedale (1997-2010)^[9].

It is also part of the Osbaldwick and Derwent Ward within York Unitary Authority.^[10]

The village proper lies around the rectangle of streets formed by Osbaldwick Village and Osbaldwick Lane. Newer housing surrounds this, and Osbaldwick is now effectively bounded on three sides by Hull Road to the south, the A64 (that forms part of York's ring road) to the east and by green-belt land to the north. To the west, newer housing merges into the Tang Hall district.

Small industrial and trading estates exist to the east of the village (heading towards Murton), and along Osbaldwick Link Road which links it to the A1079. A 2006 housing development known as Beckett Drive was built by Wimpey Homes on the link road on the site of a farm building and surrounding fields. A larger development, originally named New Osbaldwick and later named Derwenthorpe, was granted planning permission on 10 May 2007 for green-belt land north of the village. Some farmland also exists between Osbaldwick and Murton.

Osbaldwick Beck runs through the village green and is part of the tributary system of the River Foss.^[11]

The 1881 UK census recorded the population as 340.^[12] This number barely varied over the 19th century. However, as a result of new estates being built and York's slum clearances of the 1920s and 30s, the population rose to almost 2,000 by 1931.^[2] As of the 2001 UK census, the parish had a population of 2,726, of whom 2,299 were over the age of sixteen years and 1,115 were in employment. There were 1,200 dwellings of which 364 were detached.^[13] The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 2,902.^[14]

Osbaldwick is served by two bus routes. First York's service 6 operates between Clifton Moor retail park and the University of York's east campus. Transdev York's less-frequent service 20 runs to Rawcliffe. Further buses operate along the A1079. The bus stops in the village centre are built to a heritage style.

Between 1913 and 1915 Osbaldwick was served by a station on the Derwent Valley Light Railway.^[15] This line remained open to freight until 1981. In 1992, Sustrans converted the trackbed between the village and York into part of the National Cycle Route 66.^[16][17]

The village is home to four listed buildings. Three are 18th century Grade II-listed private houses (the oldest in the village): Osbaldwick Hall^[18], Hollytree House^[19], and Stanley House^[20]. The fourth is the Grade I-listed St Thomas' Church.

Education in the village is provided by Osbaldwick Primary Academy,^[21] and most pupils transfer after Year 6 to Archbishop Holgate's School.^[22]

The village post office closed in July 2003.^[23][24]

The oldest, and only remaining pub is The Derwent Arms. Situated on Osbaldwick Village, it was built in 1823. Originally known as The Black Bull, it consisted of the main pub house and a stable for two horses with a granary over it. To the right were two cow houses with a small orchard and pig pen behind. In front of this was another outbuilding. In the early years the pub had a wash house. Later, a long cattle shed for eight to nine cows was added onto the west side of the stable.^[25] It was later renamed The Derwent Arms after the Derwent Valley Light Railway which used to run through the village. It currently consists of a rendered brick building with the public rooms on the ground floor and accommodation for the owners above. The pub has a large field which is used to host community events such as the village fair and a bonfire night.^[26][27]

A brewery-cum-taproom named The Handley Tap was opened in 2022 by Brew York.^[28]

Historically, another pub existed adjacent to St Thomas' Church. It was named The Blacksmith's Arms in the mid-19th century and The Horse Shoe Inn in the early 20th. ^{[29] [30]} The Magnet was built in 1934 by John Smith's Brewery near recently-constructed houses on Osbaldwick Lane.^[31] It closed in 2018 and was demolished in 2023.^[32][33]

The Church of England parish church dedicated to St Thomas originally dates from the 12th century. Windows in the north wall date from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The church has been reordered and extended on a number of occasions, notably in 1877 by John Oldrid Scott^[34] and by later architects in both 1967 and 2005. A window in the church is a memorial to former Sheriff and Lord Mayor of York, James Barber.^[12].

In 1813, a Methodist society was founded. It eventually grew large enough to warrant its own building. This became possible after an 1871 donation of Thomas Allis; a Wesleyan chapel was erected next to Moat Field.^[2] Additions included an organ in 1899, and a schoolroom in 1918. These facilitated a sunday school and choir. Methodist worship ceased there in 1937, and in 1938 the building became a church hall for St Thomas'. Since 1969, the building has been used for secular purposes, initially as a village hall, and latterly as an events venue and nursery.^[35]

Following a 1905 fundraiser, the original "parish hall" was a converted North Eastern Railway carriage situated in the vicarage's garden (now the street Vicarage Gardens). Despite a village concert, a sale, sewing meetings, and "Japanese entertainment", insufficent funds were raised for a permenant building. The way the money had been spent caused much disquiet; the villagers had been expecting a non-denominational actual building. A row broke out at a parish meeting, which the police attended.^[36][37]

Since the mid-1970s, Osbaldwick has a team in the York Football League.^[1] As of 2026, they are in its premier division, (at the eleventh tier of English football).^[38] They have won the premier division eleven times. Ten of these were consecutive, a feat aided by professional players including Jimmy Crangle and John Harrison.^[1][39] They play at Osbaldwick Sports Club on The Leyes and wear black and white striped kits.^[38] There are also junior and reserve teams, the former having been previously coached by Crangle.^[40][39]

St Thomas's churchyard is the burial place of the Roman Catholic nun Mary Ward, who founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (also known as the Sisters of Loreto). Her followers chose the location as they feared persecution were she to be buried somewhere more conspicuous. Dorothy Paston Bedingfield, a superior of the institute, is buried in the same yard.^[7]

Eliza Raine (1793–1860) is buried in St. Thomas's as well. Raine was the first partner to the celebrated English landowner and diarist Anne Lister.^[41]

Famous prebends of Osbaldwick include Thomas of Corbridge (1277-1280), John Favour (1614-1616/7), William Crashaw (1617-1618), George Pellew (1824-1828) and Alfred Pearson (1903-1905). ^{[5] [42] [43] [44] [45]} The Rev. William Ball Wright, noted genealogist and one of the first SPG Anglican missionaries to Japan, served as vicar of the parish from 1903 to 1912.^[46][47]

Other notable residents include the suffrage campaigner Marion Coates Hansen, who was born in Osbladwick in c.1870^[48], and The Seahorses frontman Chris Helme, who grew up in the village.^[49]

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