Ockham is a tiny English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 near East Horsley, in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The village lies to the east of the A3

A3 road

The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road for much of its length, is a dual carriageway, or expressway, which follows the historic route between London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified as a trunk road...

 which runs between Cobham

Cobham, Surrey

Cobham is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, about south-west of central London and north of Leatherhead. Elmbridge has been acclaimed by the Daily Mail as the best place to live in the UK, and Cobham is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt...

 and Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

. Other neighbouring villages include Ripley

Ripley, Surrey

Ripley is a village and parish in Surrey, which grew on the main A3 road from London to Portsmouth. The road was renumbered as B2215 when a bypass was built. The village is situated close to the M25 motorway and southeast of Woking, northeast of Guildford and some southwest of central London...

, Wisley

Wisley

Wisley is a small village in Surrey, England. It lies between Cobham and Woking. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village....

 and Effingham

Effingham

Effingham is an English village in the Borough of Guildford in Surrey, bordering Mole Valley. There is a railway station at Effingham Junction , at the point where a branch of the Sutton & Mole Valley Line joins the New Guildford Line - these are both routes between London Waterloo and Guildford.-...

.

Ockham appears in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 as Bocheham. It was held by Richard Fitz Gilbert

Richard Fitz Gilbert

Richard fitz Gilbert , was a Norman lord who participated in the Norman conquest of England in 1066. He was also known as "de Bienfaite", "de Clare", and "de Tonbridge".-Biography:...

. Its domesday assets were: 1½ hide

Hide (unit)

The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...

s; 1 church, 2 fisheries

Fishery

Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...

 worth 10d, 3 plough

Plough

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

s, 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) of meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

, woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 worth 60 hogs. It rendered £10.

Most notably, Ockham is believed to be the birthplace of William of Ockham

William of Ockham

William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of...

—famous Mediaeval philosopher and the proponent of Occam's razor

Occam's razor

Occam's razor, also known as Ockham's razor, and sometimes expressed in Latin as lex parsimoniae , is a principle that generally recommends from among competing hypotheses selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.-Overview:The principle is often summarized as "simpler explanations...

—and, more recently, Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...

 lived at Ockham Park

Ockham Park

Ockham Park is a Grade II listed English country house in Ockham, Surrey. Built ca 1638 for the Weston family, it was altered in 1727-9 to designs by Nicholas Hawksmoor for Peter, Lord King. In the 1830s it was extended in Italianate style style for the seventh Lord King...

.

Ockham Common, to the north east of the village, is the site of the disused Wisley

Wisley

Wisley is a small village in Surrey, England. It lies between Cobham and Woking. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village....

 Airfield, which has a paved 2 km (1.2 mi) runway (RWY 10/28). As late as 1972, this airfield was in service as a satellite fit-out and flight test centre for Vickers

Vickers

Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...

 and latterly the British Aircraft Corporation

British Aircraft Corporation

The British Aircraft Corporation was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs , the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with...

, linked to their main factory and airfield at nearby Brooklands

Brooklands

Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...

, Weybridge, capable of taking aircraft as large as the VC10.

Although the airfield is disused, the aviation connection remains, being the location of OCK, a VOR

VHF omnidirectional range

VOR, short for VHF omnidirectional radio range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier, voice , and navigation signal. The identifier is typically a two- or three-letter string in Morse code...

 navigational beacon which anchors the South West (SW) Arrival Stack for London Heathrow Airport (ICAO: EGLL / IATA: LHR

London Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...

), which along with Biggin Hill

Biggin Hill

Biggin Hill is an area and electoral ward in the outskirts of the London Borough of Bromley in southeast London, United Kingdom.-History:Historically the settlement was known as Aperfield and formed part of the parish of Cudham...

, Kent (BIG - SE Arrivals), Bovingdon

Bovingdon

Bovingdon is a large village in the Chiltern Hills, in Hertfordshire, England, four miles south-west of Hemel Hempstead and it is a civil parish within the local authority area of Dacorum...

, Hertfordshire (BNN - NW Arrivals) and Lambourne

Lambourne

Lambourne is a civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. It is located approximately 4.5 miles South of Epping and 5 miles North-West of Romford, it is situated entirely within the M25 motorway...

, 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

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

; a cricket club; and the pub The Black Swan (near Ockham Common).

The village gave its name to HMS Ockham

HMS Ockham

HMS Ockham was one of 93 ships of the of inshore minesweepers.Their names were all chosen from villages ending in -ham. The minesweeper was named after Ockham in Surrey.-References:*Blackman, R.V.B. ed. Jane's Fighting Ships...

, a Ham class minesweeper

Ham class minesweeper

The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers , known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. It took its name from the fact that all the ship names were British place names ending in -"ham"...

.
Ockham has both a cricket and football team that plays at weekends at Hautboy Meadows on Ockham Lane. The cricket club have two teams in the Surrey Downs League& a Sunday friendly only side. The Football Club are in the Guildford & Woking Alliance.

The club house, that has recently been refurbished, is open for members (new members welcome) on Friday evenings all year around and opens all day Saturdays and Sundays during the cricket season

External links

• Surrey Downs League