Ossett - Notable People

Notable People

• The astronomer Cyril Jackson who now lives in South Africa, was born in Ossett, honoured the town when he named asteroid 1244 Deira; the citation he submitted to the IAU boils down to « Ancient name of Ossett, Yorkshire ». That is something of an exaggeration: the ancient Kingdom of Deira actually encompassed (at its height) most of Yorkshire.

• Black Lace, legendary British pop-music group, notable for their 1984 single "Agadoo".
• Novelist Stan Barstow, the author of A Kind of Loving, was born in Horbury, yet has lived almost all of his life in Ossett and attended Ossett Grammar School.
• Benjamin Ingham (1712–72) founder of the Inghamite Methodists was born in Ossett. He was educated at Batley Grammar School and Queen's College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1735 and accompanied John and Charles Wesley as a missionary to the colony of Georgia in the USA. In 1737, after his return to Ossett, Ingham started to establish the Inghamite Methodists after being banned in 1739 from preaching in churches. By 1755 there were over eighty Inghamite congregations, mainly in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A vestige of Ingham's Church still survives in the Lancashire/Yorkshire border area.
• Andy Madley (Football Referee) Premier League Match Official
• Bobby Madley (Football Referee) Youngest ever Premier League Match Official. Current Head of Development for the West Riding FA for referees.
• Eli Marsden Wilson, A.R.E., A.R.C.E. (1877–1965) was a successful Ossett-born artist who had seventeen pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy. After studying at Wakefield College of Art, he moved to the Royal College of Art in London where he became a pupil of Sir Frank Short. The first picture Wilson exhibited at the R.A. in 1905 was an etching of "Ossett Market" as it was in Victorian times. There is a copy of "Ossett Market" by E.M. Wilson on display in Wakefield Art Gallery.
• Software house Team17 are based there and their most famous game - "Worms" - contained a Hell level with a sign saying, "Welcome to Ossett". In the sequel Worms 2, there is the cheat code 'OSSETT', which enables the levels from the first game.

George Bradley, Big Band Leader (son of Alice & Walter Boocock) was born and grew up in Ossett. George Bradley performed with his band at many prestigious occasions including the QE 2 and BBC broadcasts and on the film 'Little Voice'

• The crime novelist David Peace originates from Ossett and set the first six of his books in the West Riding. In Nineteen Seventy Four, Ed Dunford, the main character, lived at 10, Wesley Street in the town. There is also an insider joke where Ed tries to make up a fake name of a solicitors' firm to a policemen, and says "Edward Clay & Son Ltd." see above, which the policeman immediately deduce as false.
• Actress Helen Worth (Gail Platt on Coronation Street) was born and brought up in Ossett.
• Richard Wood - defender with Sheffield Wednesday F.C..
• Thomas Cussons (Chemist) first established the 'Cussons' personal care brand in Ossett. The initials of Thomas' eldest son John W. Cussons (1867–1922) can still be found on the wall of the original building, now the Yorkshire Bank on Station Road. Thomas' youngest son Alex T. Cussons (1875–1951) who was apprenticed in Ossett, went on to manufacture the famous Cussons Imperial Leather soap.
• Barry Wood, former Yorkshire, Lancashire and England cricketer was born and brought up in Ossett.
• George Dews, played football for Middlesbrough, Plymouth Argyle and Walsall from 1946 to 1956; he also played cricket for Worcestershire for twenty years.
• Andrew Coe, the head of the British Motor Sport Association, the de facto head of rallying in the UK, lived in Ossett for many years and attended Ossett School.
• Edward Clay, the borough's first mayor was Edward Clay a rag and mungo manufacturer. (The business still remains in Wesley Street).
• Broadcaster, writer and academic Elaine Storkey (née Lively) was brought up in Ossett and was Head Girl of Ossett Grammar School in 1962.
• Michael Taylor.
• Matt Abbott, who is the frontman and lyricist in alternative pop act Skint & Demoralised.
• Dave Jackson, current oldest living person from Yorkshire at 106.
• Portia Da Costa, erotic novelist grew up and currently lives in Ossett.