The River Ock is a small English river which is a
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
. It has as its
catchment area
In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...
the
Vale of White Horse
The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It was historically a north-west projection of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Horse'. It is crossed by the Ridgeway Nat ...
, a low-lying and wide valley in south
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, and flows into the River Thames, at
Abingdon on the reach above
Culham Lock
Culham Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England close to Culham, Oxfordshire. It is on a lock cut to the north of the main stream, which approaches the large village of Sutton Courtenay. The lock was built of stone by the Thames Navigatio ...
.
Course
The River Ock rises near the village of
Little Coxwell
Little Coxwell is a village and civil parish in South East England, about south of Faringdon and east of Great Coxwell. Little Coxwell was part of Berkshire until the 1974 local government boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Hors ...
. It collects tributaries from each village along the base of the
White Horse Hills, where springs emanating from the
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
hills allowed settlements to flourish in former times. Among these tributaries is the
Osse Stream
The Osse Stream or Osse Ditch, otherwise known as the Appleton Brook, is a small stream in the Vale of White Horse in historic Berkshire, since 1974 in Oxfordshire.
The stream is a tributary of the River Ock, with its confluence near Marcham Mill ...
, rising in
Cumnor.
From Little Coxwell, the Ock runs around
Longcot and flows past
Stanford in the Vale
Stanford in the Vale is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse about southeast of Faringdon and northwest of Wantage. It is part of the historic county of Berkshire, however since 1974, it has been administered as a part of Oxfo ...
, where it is about wide. The name of Stanford comes from ''stony ford'', possibly alluding to the Ock crossing at Stanford Mill. Thence it runs past
Charney Bassett
Charney Bassett is a village and civil parish about north of Wantage and east of Faringdon in the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the paris ...
,
Lyford,
Garford
Garford is a village and civil parish about west of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The parish is bounded by the River Ock to the north, by two tributaries of the Ock to the ...
and
Marcham Mill, before losing its identity and its waters to the Thames at Abingdon by the old Hygienic Laundry building. An iron bridge crosses at the junction which was built by the
Wilts & Berks Canal Company. This gives the erroneous impression that the Ock is that canal, but in fact the original canal entrance a few yards downstream is now blocked up. This has been replaced under a restoration project by a newer entrance closer to
Culham Lock
Culham Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England close to Culham, Oxfordshire. It is on a lock cut to the north of the main stream, which approaches the large village of Sutton Courtenay. The lock was built of stone by the Thames Navigatio ...
.
The soils through which the River Ock flows are the
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
sedimentary series (
Greensands,
Gault
The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fol ...
,
Kimmeridge Clay and
corallian limestone
The Corallian Group or Corallian Limestone is a geologic group in England. It is predominantly a coralliferous sedimentary rock, laid down in the Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic. It is a hard variety of "coral rag". Building stones from this geol ...
), while some of its tributaries arise in
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
springs. Until recent times,
native crayfish and many
freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
fish species inhabited the river. Increased housing in the Vale, with the resultant surface drainage, may have threatened these species but surveys have not yet been performed in the 21st century.
Although normally placid, the Ock can flood low-lying areas of south Abingdon after persistent heavy rainfall; this recently occurred in April 2023 and January 2024
Name
The
hydronym ''Ock'' appears to be derived from a
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
word for 'salmon'.
See also
*
Tributaries of the River Thames
This article lists the tributaries of the River Thames from the sea to the source, in England. There are also secondary lists of backwaters of the river itself and the waterways branching off.
Note: the River Medway shares the saline lower Tha ...
*
List of rivers of England
This is a list of rivers of England, organised geographically and taken anti-clockwise around the English coast where the various rivers discharge into the surrounding seas, from the Solway Firth on the Scottish border to the Welsh Dee on the Wel ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ock
Ock, River
Ock, River
1Ock
Vale of White Horse