Ockham, Surrey

2025-05-31T13:39:14Z

2A00:23C7:C8BC:C501:7564:3D0B:D983:6171: /* History */Improved link

{{Short description|Village and parish in Surrey, England}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox UK place
|type= [[Village]]
|country= England
|official_name= Ockham
|map_type= Surrey
|coordinates= {{coord|51.298|-0.461|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
|static_image_name= File:Chatley Heath Semaphore Tower - geograph.org.uk - 18673.jpg
|static_image_caption= The Semaphore Tower rises from high [[Ockham and Wisley Commons]] at [[Chatley Heath]]
|static_image_2_name= Ockham, All Saints Church, view.jpg
|static_image_2_caption= [[All Saints' Church, Ockham|All Saints']] Much of the church dates to the middle of the [[Middle Ages]].
|population= 410
|population_ref= (civil parish, 2011)<ref name=ons>{{cite web |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11127192&c=Ockham&d=16&e=62&g=6468520&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1492957857288&enc=1 |title=Ockham (Parish): Key Figures for 2011 Census |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |publisher=[[Office for National Statistics]] |access-date=21 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424012513/http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11127192&c=Ockham&d=16&e=62&g=6468520&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1492957857288&enc=1 |archive-date=24 April 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|area_total_km2= 12.13
|shire_district= [[Borough of Guildford|Guildford]]
|shire_county= [[Surrey]]
|region= South East England
|constituency_westminster= [[Guildford (UK Parliament constituency)|Guildford]]
|post_town= WOKING
|postcode_district= GU23
|postcode_area= GU
|dial_code= 01483
|os_grid_reference= TQ0756
}}

'''Ockham''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɒ|k|əm}} {{respell|OK|əm}}) is a [[Rural area|rural]] and semi-rural [[village]] in the [[borough of Guildford]] in [[Surrey]], England. The village starts immediately east of the [[A3 road|A3]] but the lands extend to the [[River Wey]] in the west where it has a large mill-house. Ockham is between [[Cobham, Surrey|Cobham]] (near [[Leatherhead]]) and [[East Horsley]] (near [[Guildford]]).

==History==
Ockham has been occupied since at least the middle [[Bronze Age]] (c.1500-1100 BC), evidenced by the so-called 'Ockham Hoard', a collection of bronze-age objects discovered in 2013 during building works at the former ''Hautboy Inn'',<ref>[https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/sites/default/files/SAS441_0.pdf Williams, D. (2013) 'A Middle Bronze Age Hoard from Ockham', Surrey Archaeological Society Bulletin 441]</ref><ref>[https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/560976 Ockham Hoard record, Portable Antiquities Scheme]</ref> as well as the existence of a relatively uncommon [[bell barrow]] on Cockcrow Hill.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1012204 |desc=Bell barrow on Cockcrow Hill|accessdate=6 December 2017}}</ref>

Ockham appears in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 as ''Bocheham''. Held by [[Richard Fitz Gilbert]], its Domesday assets were: 1½ [[hide (unit)|hide]]s, 1 church, 2 [[fishery|fisheries]] worth 10[[penny|d]], 3 [[plough]]s, {{convert|2|acre|ha}} of [[meadow]], [[woodland]] worth 60 [[hog (swine)|hog]]s. It rendered £10 per year to its [[feudal system|overlords]].<ref>[http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm Surrey Domesday Book] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030192829/http://www.gwp.enta.net/surrnames.htm |date=30 October 2007 }}</ref><ref name=m>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42985 |title=Parishes: Ockham |editor=H.E. Malden |publisher=Institute of Historical Research |year=1911 |work=A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 |access-date=23 November 2013 }}</ref>

Through the [[Middle Ages]] in the many records nationally (such as [[Assize Rolls]] and [[feet of fines]]), Ockham features no high nobles among its owners. However it is the birthplace of [[William of Ockham]],<ref>Old claims that he was born in a [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]] of Ockham in [[Yorkshire]] have since before 1997 been countered by a mass of more local records indicating that his birthplace was in Surrey. See {{Cite book | publisher = Purdue University Press | isbn = 978-1-55753-097-4 | last = Wood | first = Rega | title = Ockham on the Virtues | year = 1997| pages = 3, 6–7n1}}</ref> the famous [[medieval]] [[philosopher]] and the proponent of [[Occam's razor]].

[[Lord Byron|Byron's]] daughter, [[Ada Lovelace]], lived briefly at [[Ockham Park]] before settling at [[Horsley Towers]], which her husband the 1st [[Earl of Lovelace]] built in the village of [[East Horsley]]. His forefather Sir Peter King bought the manor using an [[Act of Parliament]] to cement the deal from the long-standing lords of the manor the Weston family of Albury, Send in Surrey, and of Sussex, who had acquired the manor from distant cousins who since their late [[Tudor period]] forebear, [[Sir Richard Weston of Sutton Place|Francis Weston]], owned it along with [[Sutton Place, Surrey]] in the extreme south of the [[parish]] of [[Woking]].<ref name=m/>

An act of charity in the village assisted one family in the '[[Underground Railroad]]' in the [[United States|US]] that resulted from the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]]. After reaching [[Liverpool]] in 1850, following an arduous journey starting with a flight to freedom from [[Macon, Georgia]], African-American slaves [[Ellen and William Craft]] were given a home by a parishioner in Ockham in 1851. They attended the Ockham School, and paid for their education by working as teachers: William giving instruction in carpentry, and Ellen in sewing. In 1852 their first child, Charles Estlin Phillips Craft, was born in Ockham. One year later, they left Ockham and returned to London. In 1871, after returning to Georgia, they started the Woodville Co-Operative Farm School, modelled after the Ockham School.<ref>''And Not Afraid To Dare'' Chapter 1: "Ellen Craft"; Bolden, Tonya; 1988; pgs. 1–29</ref>

==Geology==
[[Image:Ockham Common heath maintenance - geograph.org.uk - 151086.jpg|thumb|[[Ockham and Wisley Commons]] support rare species in their nationally rare soil type, acid, naturally wet sandy [[heath]] and bog soil.]]
The soil of Ockham Common varies between fertile light clay and humus topsoil to highly acidic, sandy [[heath]]. In the north is the high, uneroded [[Bagshot Formation|Bagshot Sand]]. The southern part of the parish is on the [[London Clay]]. Part of the Wey Valley in the west of the parish and the banks of a stream which joins it from the east are particularly formed from [[alluvium]].<ref name=m/>

==Landmarks==
===Chatley Heath and its semaphore tower===
{{main|Chatley Heath}}
The tall, narrow, octagonal tower dates to the early 19th century when the [[Napoleonic Wars]] were raging. It was used for signalling by [[semaphore]].

===Ockham mill===
[[File:Ockham Mill - geograph.org.uk - 518331.jpg|thumb|upright|Ockham Mill, one of a cluster of three buildings close to [[Wisley]]]]
One of the largest formerly industrial millhouses on the [[River Wey|Wey]], comparable to the converted mills in [[Old Woking]] and that of [[Stoke Mill, Guildford]], Ockham mill is dated 1862 and is a Grade II listed building. It is of four storeys red stock brick with decorative brick and tile bands over each floor. Providing unusual quirkiness, it has brick-dentilled [[eaves]] over its third 3 first floor and one of its windows is considered "Lovelace style", i.e. with deeply inlaid recess as in the [[East Horsley]] walls of the memorials to the [[Earl of Lovelace]].<ref>{{NHLE|desc=Millstream House, Ockham Mill|num=1188416|access-date=31 December 2018}}</ref>

===Wisley Airfield on Ockham Common===
Ockham Common, to the north-east of the village, is the site of the disused [[Wisley Airfield]],<ref>[http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=ockham+surrey&sll=54.162434,-3.647461&sspn=12.031851,40.78125&ie=UTF8&ll=51.306284,-0.455139&spn=0.025058,0.079651&t=h&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=1 Google Hybrid Map of Wisley Airfield]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://groups.msn.com/WisleyAirfield |title=Wisley Airfield Interest Group |access-date=2 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517063355/http://groups.msn.com/WisleyAirfield |archive-date=17 May 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> which has a paved {{convert|2|km|mi|abbr=on}} runway (RWY 10/28). As late as 1972, this airfield was in service as a satellite fit-out and flight test centre for [[Vickers]] and latterly the [[British Aircraft Corporation]], linked to their main factory and airfield at nearby [[Brooklands]],<ref>[http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=ockham+surrey&sll=54.162434,-3.647461&sspn=12.031851,40.78125&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=51.348896,-0.46782&spn=0.012517,0.039825&z=15&iwloc=addr Google Hybrid Map of Brooklands Airfield]</ref> Weybridge, capable of taking aircraft as large as the [[VC10]].

Although the airfield is disused, the aviation connection remains: it is the location of OCK,<ref>[http://www.trevord.com/navaids/ock.htm OCK VOR]</ref> a [[VHF omnidirectional range|VOR]] navigational beacon which is the holding facility for south westerly arrivals into [[London Heathrow Airport]].

===All Saints' Church===
{{main|All Saints' Church, Ockham}}
Ockham has a small church, [[All Saints' Church, Ockham|All Saints']].<ref>[http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tildeImages/People/Ockham/ Picture of All Saints Church]</ref> It is a Grade I [[listed building]]. The foundations were laid in the 12th century, and part of the nave was built then. The chancel and north aisle date from the 13th century, the south nave wall from the 14th century, and the tower and north aisle wall from the 15th century. In 1735, the King Chapel was added to the church as north wing. Intended as a chapel over the [[family vault]] of the [[Earl_of_Lovelace#Barons_King_(1725)_(of_Ockham)|Lords King]] and their descendants, the [[Earl of Lovelace|Earls of Lovelace]], it features several [[church monument]]s. All Saints' Church building was restored and enlarged in 1874-75 by [[Thomas Graham Jackson]]. There is also a memorial to those who gave their lives in the [[World War I|Great War]] and [[World War II]].

===Martyrs Green===
[[File:Pound Farm, Martyr's Green - geograph.org.uk - 480922.jpg|thumb|This farmhouse in Martyrs Green demonstrates the fertile soil of part of the parish]]
This small [[linear settlement]] is a [[Hamlet (place)|hamlet]] to the east of the village, near [[Downside, Surrey|Downside]] and Cobham. It has the village's only pub; ''The Black Swan''.

==Sports==
Ockham has cricket and football clubs that play at weekends at Hautboy Meadows on Ockham Lane. The cricket club has two teams in the Surrey Downs League and a Sunday friendly (matches) only side. The football club are in the Guildford & Woking Alliance.

Ockham was also the headquarters for the [[Tyrrell Racing|Tyrrell]] [[Formula One]] racing team,<ref>{{cite web |title=Goodbye Tyrrell |url=https://www.grandprix.com/news/goodbye-tyrrell.html |website=Grand Prix |access-date=10 January 2022}}</ref> until its sale to [[British American Racing]] in 1997 and subsequent move to [[Brackley]], [[Northamptonshire]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Tyrrell take the chequered flag |url=https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/sport/other-sport/tyrrell-take-the-chequered-flag-4860097 |website=Get Surrey |access-date=10 January 2022}}</ref>

==Demography and housing==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ '''2011 Census Homes'''
|-
!Output area !!Detached !!Semi-detached!!Terraced!!Flats and apartments!!Caravans/temporary/mobile homes||shared between households<ref name=ons/>
|-
|(Civil Parish)||92 || 53 || 12 || 5 || 2 || 0
|}
The average level of accommodation in the region composed of [[single-family detached home|detached houses]] was 28%, the average that was [[apartment]]s was 22.6%.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ '''2011 Census Key Statistics'''
|-
!Output area !!Population !!Households !!% Owned outright !!% Owned with a loan!!hectares<ref name=ons/>
|-
|(Civil Parish)||410||164 ||41.5% ||32.9%||1213<ref name=ons/>
|}
The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free).

==Namesakes==
The village gave its name to [[HMS Ockham (M2714)|HMS ''Ockham'']], a [[Ham class minesweeper]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*''The Oak Hamlet: Being an Account of the History and Associations of the Village of Ockham, Surrey'' by Henry Saint John Hick Bashall (London: Elliot Stock; 1900). OCLC 23371038.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ockham, Surrey}}
*[http://www.ockhamchurch.org.uk/ All Saints' Church]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050911105835/http://www.surreydowns.org/ockham/index.htm Surrey Downs League]

{{Guildford}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Villages in Surrey]]
[[Category:Borough of Guildford]]
[[Category:Civil parishes in Surrey]]

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Ockham, Surrey