River Ock, Surrey

Ock
Millpond on the Ock near Great Enton
Location of mouth
Location
Country	England
County	Surrey
District	Waverley
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	various in Waverley (borough), Surrey
Mouth	River Wey
• location	Godalming
• coordinates	51°11′18″N 0°37′02″W
Length	7.5 km (4.7 mi)
Basin size	26.4 km^2 (10.2 sq mi)
Basin features
River system	Wey catchment
Tributaries
• left	indistinct (long headwaters in local terms being unnamed)
• right	Busbridge stream and indistinct number (long headwaters in local terms being unnamed)

The River Ock is a tributary of the River Wey in Surrey, England.^[1]

A Spring view of Sweetwater Pond Witley

Course

The river has two great sources in the west of Hambledon and two similar sources in the east of the parish of Witley.^[2][3] The coalescence is north of a zone of gently north-sloping land forming Wheelerstreet, Enton Green and the little manor of Tuesley. For centuries the latter comprised a very modest house and farmstead, dwarfed by the adjacent Busbridge Park, the stream of which drains Busbridge Lakes, the former mid and lower fish ponds, the upper one having been drained on becoming part of that stream.

The resulting Ock passes through Ockford, sometimes considered the east of Ockford Ridge,^[4] then parts of Godalming, before joining the Wey in the town centre.

The Portsmouth Main Line railway follows much of the course.

Watermills

The Old Mill in Godalming, originally known as Hatch Mill, made use of the force and speed of the multi-hill-draining river. Rake Mill at Witley, a former fulling mill, was used by the artist Neville Lytton as a studio. The building, along with most of Lytton's sketches and paintings, was destroyed by a fire in 1902.^[5] Other mills on the Ock were a tannery in Godalming, a corn mill at Enton and a flour mill at Ockford.

Water quality

The Environment Agency measure water quality of the rivers in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail.^[6]

The water quality of the Ock was as follows in 2019:

Section	Ecological Status	Chemical Status	Overall Status	Length	Catchment	Channel
River Ock[7]	Bad	Fail	Bad	7.51 km (4.67 mi)	26.394 km^2 (10.191 sq mi)

See also

• River Ock mills

References

1. "Ock". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
2. Traditional (Ecclesiastical Parish) maps Church of England, A Church Near You
3. 6-inch to mile and 25-inch to mile Ordnance Survey maps of 1890s and 1900s, with modern reference map interactivity, National Library of Scotland, retrieved 2020
4. https://www.achurchnearyou.com/search/?lat=51.19&lon=-0.63 Parish of Godalming map including Ockford Ridge church. The Church of England
5. Apin, John (ed.). The Letters of Philip Webb, Volume 3. ISBN 978-1-315-64256-7.
6. "Glossary (see Biological quality element; Chemical status; and Ecological status)". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. 17 February 2016. Text was copied from this source, which is available under an Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.
7. "River Ock". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.