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. At the original source of the Ouse stands a stone column bearing the inscription 'OUSE RIVER HEAD' 'OUSEGILL SPRING Ft. YORK 13miles BOROUGHBRIDGE 4miles'. Ouse Gill Beck flows for 4 miles before joining the river Ure, a broad river of 60 miles length. Here the river Ouse 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.

The population in 1820 was 293.