WOTTON HUNDRED 



OCKLEY 



artificial bank, perhaps to make another inundation. 

 Aubrey in the lyth century recognized the ' mole 

 and mote ' of a castle, and a small castle of the De 

 Clares, built in Stephen's time and dismantled by 

 Henry II, is not impossible. It is a likely spot, near 

 a main road, which was then no doubt in use for its 

 whole length. 



Aubrey has preserved a tradition, repeated and 

 ridiculed by later writers, that there was a castle here 

 destroyed by the Danes, who placed battering engines 

 on Bury Hill. All who notice the story take Bury 

 Hill to be Anstiebury Camp, 2 miles or more away. 

 But where the road ascends from Ockley towards 

 Dorking, just before the branch to Coldharbour goes 

 off on the left, the hill was called Bury Hill. 4a It is very 

 much nearer, under half a mile away instead of over 

 two, and although too far for a catapult to act, it is 

 not an impossible camp for some force attacking a 

 strong place near Ockley Church. Danes may be, of 

 course, any enemy, described by that name from con- 

 fusion of traditions. 



In the southern part of the parish, near Oakdale 

 Farm, is a considerable moated inclosure with a 

 double moat on two sides. The lane near it is called 

 Smugglers' Lane. It is a way out of Sussex which 

 avoids the high road. 



Dotted about on the village green are several houses 

 and cottages embowered in trees ; and some of the 

 trees along the main road are also of great size and 

 beauty. Opposite to the turning that leads to the 

 church is a picturesque old cottage with rough-cast 

 walls and stone-slab roof, and several others in the 

 village street are evidently of some antiquity. But it 

 is the group of exceptionally fine old farm-houses 

 within the borders of the parish which specially 

 demand attention. 



The finest of these is King's Farm, in the south- 

 west of the parish, a large rambling structure, chiefly 

 of half-timber, but largely covered with weather 

 tiling, with overhanging stories, projecting oriel bay 

 windows, having moulded bressummers and shaped 

 brackets and tall chimney stacks the shafts of the 

 chimneys set diamond-wise upon square bases. Almost 

 equally interesting are Boswell's or Bosell Farm, 

 close to King's Farm, and Buckinghill Farm, in 

 the north of the parish, both having overhanging 

 timber-framed gables and stone-slab roofs. Hoi- 

 brooks is another ancient farm-house. All have 

 great open fireplaces and other characteristics of 

 a past age, and their remoteness from railways and 

 main roads has aided to preserve their primitive 

 character. One called Trouts, though close to the rail- 

 way line, is not easily accessible. It used to be known 

 as Farley lands. 4 On a beam in the kitchen was 

 lately a carved inscription : 



' LOOK WELL TO THY HOUSE IN EVERY DEGREE 

 AND AS THY MEANS ARE SO LET THY SPENDINGS BE 



I 5 . .' 



Eversheds is an old farm-house and reputed manor, in 

 the eastern part of the parish. It was the property 

 of an old yeoman family named Evershed. Mr. John 

 Evershed bought the manor of Ockley, as noted below, 

 in 1694, and Eversheds was sold with the manor in 



1717. Its claim to be a manor rests only upon a 

 mistaken identification with the Arseste of Domesday. 

 Evershed is a place-name which gives its name to a 

 family. Eversheds is the house of an Evershed. Arseste 

 is possibly Hartshurst, a farm in Wotton under Leith 

 Hill. 



Vann is the seat of Mrs. Campbell. It was held 

 of Ockley Manor by a family named Margesson in 

 the 1 7th century. Vann Pond is an extensive sheet 

 of water, made by damming a stream in a narrow 

 valley, with a view to providing water-power for a 

 linen mill in the 1 8th century; but the mill was 

 never built. 



Elderslie, on Ockley Green, is the seat of Mr. J. 

 W. Arbuthnot. Mr. George Arbuthnot, grand- 

 father of the present owner, resided there and died 

 in 1843. The fountain on the green was built by 

 Miss Jane Scott, governess in the Elderslie family, in 

 1841. 



The present Rectory House, by the side of the 

 Stone Street Causeway, was built at his own expense 

 by the Rev. Thomas WoodroofFe shortly after he was 

 instituted as rector in 1784. The older rectory was 

 I mile further south, 2 miles from the church. 

 This was not the original rectory, but was a farm- 

 house on the glebe. 



The Domesday Survey Sa records that 

 MANOR OCKLET (Ockley, Okeleigh, Ocklie, 

 Hokeleye, Okkle, Ockele, &c.) was held 

 by Ralph of Richard of Tonbridge, and that Almar 

 held it of King Edward ; also that Richard himself 

 held half a hide in this manor. The manor is here 

 put under the heading of Woking Hundred. This 

 may probably be merely a mistake ; but it is worth 

 notice that Manning and Bray record that there was 

 land in Ockley held of East Horsley Manor, in 

 Woking Hundred, 6 and there was an isolated bit of 

 Ockham parish inclosed in Ockley, Ockham being also 

 in Woking and a manor of Richard of Tonbridge. 

 This may be Richard's half-hide, valueless because 

 it was on the barren slope of Holmbury Hill. 



In the early 1 3th century Alice daughter of Odo 

 de Dammartin held inter alia one knight's fee in Ockley 

 of the honour of Clare. 7 She held Tandridge also, 

 and her lands passed to the Warblington family. 8 

 It seems probable that one of Alice's predecessors 

 enfeoffed the Malemayns family with Ockley, to be 

 held by one knight's fee of their manor of Tand- 

 ridge, 9 for they seem to have been already established 

 in Ockley, as well as else- 

 where in Surrey. In 1213 

 Walter, Prior of Merton, 

 made an exchange with Ni- 

 cholas Malemayns of land in 

 Ockley. 10 In 1241 John de 

 Plessets paid 100 marks for 

 the custody of the land and 

 heirs of Nicholas Male- 

 mayns. 11 Nicholas Malemayns 

 in 1278 claimed to have a MALIMAYNS. Gules 



park in Ockley in his ma- thret right hands or. 

 nor. 1 * In 1293 the king 



presented to the living of Ockley on the grounds 

 of his custody of the lands and heirs of Nicholas 



43 Local information. 



6 Westcote Ct. R. 5 Nov. 1736. 



' y.C.H. Surr. i, 320*. 



Hat. of Surr. ii, 162. 



7 Ttita de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219. 



8 John de Warbleton had a wife Alice ; 

 Vriothesley, Pedigree* from Plea R. 285. 



9 Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. Ill, no. 41. 



10 Feet of F. Surr. 14 John, no. 42. 



11 Fine R. 25 Hen. Ill, m. 16 ; but 

 this was not only in Ockley. 



" Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 744. 



