Ockley is a rural village in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. It lies astride the A29, the modern road using the alignment of

Stane Street (Chichester) Stane Street is the modern name of the Roman road in southern England that linked ''Londinium'' (London) to ''Noviomagus Reginorum'' (Chichester). The exact date of construction is uncertain; however, on the basis of archaeological artefacts ...

. The A29 diverges from the

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

from London about 2.5 miles northeast and takes the alignment of Stane Street a mile north of the village. It has a medieval

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

, see

list of places of worship in Mole Valley The Districts of England, district of Mole Valley has more than 70 current and former places of worship: 56 buildings are in use by various Christian denominations and other religions, and a further 16 are no longer in religious use but surviv ...

History

Finds of small artifacts dating to

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

associated with the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

stretching from

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

have been made since at least the 19th century. Ockley's name initially appears to fit the uncertain site where battle took place described in the entry for the year 851 of the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

''. According to the chronicler,

king Æthelwulf King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and his son Æthelbald, together with the West-Saxon army, fought against an invading Danish army of 350 ships that had plundered London and Canterbury previously, and had also put king Beorhtwulf of Mercia to flight. The chronicler refers to the battlefield as Aclea, Oak Lea, and the Danish army was defeated suffering “the greatest slaughter… we have heard tell of up to this present day”. However, Aclea almost always appears in modern English as Oakley not Ockley and the identification of Ockley with the battlefield is made virtually impossible. Ockley appears in

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as ''Hoclei''. It was held by Radulf (Ralph) from

Richard Fitz Gilbert Richard fitz Gilbert (before 1035–), 1st feudal baron of Clare in Suffolk, was a Norman lord who participated in the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and was styled "de Bienfaite", "de Clare", and of "Tonbridge" from his holdings.G. E. Cok ...

. Its domesday assets were: 1 hide. It had 5

plough A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

worth 20 hogs. It rendered £3 10s 0d to its overlords per year.

Nicholas Culpeper Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 – 10 January 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer.Patrick Curry: "Culpeper, Nicholas (1616–1654)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) His boo ...

, a leading

Stuart period The Stuart period of British history lasted from 1603 to 1714 during the dynasty of the House of Stuart. The period ended with the death of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen Anne and the accession of George I of Great Britain, King George I ...

herbalist, was probably born here on 18 October 1616. In 1911 the parish was "agricultural, except for a little brick and tile making".

Sports

Informal football is generally played on Ockley Green which has football posts in place. Ockley Cricket Club celebrated its 170th anniversary in 2022. League matches are played on Saturdays with friendly games on Sundays. Ockley has Gatton Manor Golf Course on the outskirts of the village, within the parish bounds.Gatton Manor
Retrieved 2013-11-29 The village has featured in longer routes of the London-Surrey Cycle Classic.

Geography

Between

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England, about south of London. It is in Mole Valley District and the council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs roughly east–west, parallel to the Pipp Br ...

and

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, close to the Sussex/Surrey border, Ockley stretches to the

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

Leith Hill Leith Hill in southern England is the highest summit of the Greensand Ridge, approximately southwest of Dorking, Surrey and southwest of Charing Cross, central London. It reaches above mean sea level, above sea level, and is the second highe ...

, the second highest point in South East England, after

Walbury Hill Walbury Hill is a summit of the North Wessex Downs in Berkshire, England. With an elevation of , it is the highest natural point in South East England. On the hill's summit is the Iron Age hill fort of Walbury Camp, whilst the flanks of the hill ...

in the far south-west of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. The northern border is marked by the

Greensand Ridge The Greensand Ridge, also known as the Wealden Greensand is an extensive, prominent, often wooded, mixed greensand/sandstone escarpment in south-east England. Forming part of the Weald, a former dense forest in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, it runs ...

. Close to the Greensand Ridge are small beds of

Sussex marble Sussex Marble is a fossiliferous freshwater limestone material which is prevalent in the Weald Clay of parts of Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex in southeast England. It is also called Petworth Marble, Bethersden Marble or Laughton Stone in rela ...

, and remnants of a former limestone area of

the Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

Transport

Roads

The A29 is the main road through the village with Horsham to the south and Dorking to the north. Local minor roads provide relatively straight access from just north of the village's developed area to Ewhurst and Cranleigh to the west and Capel to the east.

Rail

The village is served by

Ockley railway station Ockley railway station serves the villages of Ockley and Capel in Surrey, England and is from Ockley village and west of the village of Capel. The station is from London Waterloo station. Ockley is managed by Southern which also provide the ...

which is to the east, due to a Victorian aristocrat having imposed his manor's name on a station closer to

Capel, Surrey Capel () is a village and civil parish in southern Surrey, England. It is equidistant between Dorking and Horsham – about away. Around Capel, to the west, skirts the A24 road. Capel is approximately north of the West Sussex border, sout ...

Demography and housing

The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%. 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).

Gallery

File:Ockley Green with pump and old house.jpg, Village Green File:Ockley, Old cottage at Sheep Green.jpg, Old Cottage File:Ockley, Weaver's pond with old houses.jpg, Weaver's Pond File:St Margaret's Church, Coles Lane, Ockley (NHLE Code 1028694).JPG, St Margaret's Church File:Former St John's Church, Stane Street, Ockley.JPG, St John's Church File:Surrey - Mole Valley - Okley from the Air (geograph 2581455).jpg, Aerial view

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Surrey Mole Valley Civil parishes in Surrey