Ockham, Surrey

Ockham is a small village near East Horsley, in Surrey, England. The village lies to the east of the A3 between Cobham and Guildford. Other neighbouring villages include Ripley, Wisley and Effingham.

Ockham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Bocheham. It was held by Richard Fitz Gilbert. Its domesday assets were: 1½ hides, 1 church, 2 fisheries worth 10d, 3 ploughs, 2 acre of meadow, woodland worth 60 hogs. It rendered £10.

Most notably, Ockham is believed to be the birthplace of William of Ockham —famous Mediaeval philosopher and the proponent of Occam's razor—and, more recently, Ada Lovelace lived at Ockham Park.

Ockham Common, to the north east of the village, is the site of the disused Wisley Airfield, which has a paved 2 km 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, 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, a VOR navigational beacon which anchors the South West (SW) Arrival Stack for London Heathrow Airport (ICAO: EGLL / IATA: LHR), which along with Biggin Hill, Kent (BIG - SE Arrivals), Bovingdon, Hertfordshire (BNN - NW Arrivals) and Lambourne, Essex (LAM - NE Arrivals) are London's main holds.

Ockham has a small church, All Saints; a memorial to those who gave their lives in the Great War and World War II; a cricket club; and the pub The Black Swan (near Ockham Common).

The village gave its name to HMS Ockham, a Ham class minesweeper.

After reaching Liverpool in 1850, following an arduous journey starting with their flight to freedom from Macon, Georgia, African-American slaves William and Ellen Craft were given a home in Ockham, Surrey in 1851. They attended the Ockham School, receiving instruction in the three Rs. They 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, they started the Woodville Co-Operative Farm School, modelled after the Ockham School. [And Not Afraid To Dare. Ellen Craft - pgs. 1-29. Bolden, Tonya; 1988]

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 only side. The football club are in the Guildford & Woking Alliance.