Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/208

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��The district of St. Mary, Holmwood, was taken out of Dorking and Capel parishes and erected into a separate parish in 1838. The living is in the gift of the Bishop of Winchester.

The parish of St. John, North Holmwood, was formed in 1874 from the northern part of the parish of St. Mary. The Bishop of Winchester is patron of this living also.

The parish of Holy Trinity, Westcote, was formed with Milton, in 1852. The living is in the gift of Mr. Robert Barclay of Bury Hill.

Smith's charity exists, but unlike the CHARITIES usual practice in the other Surrey parishes is administered by the parish, not by the trustees. The Rev. Samuel Cozens, Presbyterian minister in Dorking 1656-9, who prob- ably resigned before 1662, left land at Chislet in Kent which was added to Smith's land.

Cotmandene Almshouses for eighteen poor persons were erected on land given to the vicar and church- wardens by the Hon. Charles Howard of Deepdene and Sir Adam Browne of Betchworth Castle in 1677, and were endowed by Mrs. Susannah Smith. A decree in Chancery established the legacy in 1718. Mr. William Ansell left 200 consols in 1 830. Mr. Richard Lowndes of Rose Hill left 320 consols in 1831.

��Messrs. Joseph and John Sanders gave 700 consols in 1839 to the same object.

In 1 706 Mr. William Hutton left 61, a year accru- ing out of a copyhold in Brockham for bread to the poor on Good Friday.

In 1725 Mrs. Margaret Fenwick left by will 800 which was laid out in the purchase of a farm called Fordland in Albury, for the apprenticing of poor children, providing a marriage portion for maid-ser- vants who had lived blamelessly in the same family for seven years, and the residue to the poor in alms.

Summers' Charity was founded in 1807 by Mr. Thomas Summers, a hatter of Horsham, who used to travel between Horsham and Dorking. He left 100 each to Horsham, Dorking, and Capel. The money was laid out in buying 134 3 per cent, consols, and the income is devoted to buying bread for the poor.

An annuity of zot. for forty poor widows is charged upon a piece of land called Poor Folks' Close in Dorking, but the benefactor is unknown.

Dorking Cottage Hospital, containing seventeen beds and three cots for children, was built in 1871 on land given at a nominal rent by Mrs. Hope of Deep- dene. It is supported by voluntary contributions and payment of patients. The Right Hon. G. Cubitt, M.P. (Lord Ashcombe), gave 1,000 towards the building.

��OCKLEY

��Aclea (x cent.), Hoclei (xi cent.), Okeley (xiii cent.), Occle, Ockel (xiv cent.), Okkeleghe, Hock- legh (xv cent.), Okeleigh, Okeley (xii cent.), and many other variations.

Ockley is 7 miles south-west of Dorking. It has been bounded since 1879, when the outlying portions were consolidated with neighbouring parishes, by Abinger and Wotton on the west, by Capel on the north and east, and by the county of Sussex on the south. In 1901 ' a further rectification of the boundary with Wotton and Abinger was made. The parish contains 2,992 acres, and measures about 4. miles from north-east to south-west, and about l^ miles from west to east. Since the outlying portions on Holmbury and Leith Hills have been separated the parish is entirely on the Wealden Clay, but in the northern part considerable beds of paludinae, forming the conglomerate called Sussex marble, occur.

The parish is agricultural, except for a little brick and tile making.

The Portsmouth line of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway passes through its eastern side. Ockley and Capel Station, in Ockley, was opened in 1867. Through the whole length of the parish the Roman road from London to Chichester, called the Stone Street, runs. For a considerable distance it is still used, but at both extremities of the parish the modern roads turn off abruptly from it, though the old line has been traced through the fields and copses. Ockley Church, Ockley Court, the remains of a fortified place to be noted presently, and probably the original Ockley village, lay a little

��distance off the road to the east. Along the line of what is called in the manorial rolls Stone Street Causeway, and all round Ockley Green, a large stretch of open common lying along the west side of the road, cottages and houses sprang up. These are now known as Ockley village, but were formerly called Stone Street. 8 There is no doubt that near here was fought the great battle in which Ethelwulf and Ethelbald defeated the Danes, probably in 851. It was at Aclea, among the Suthrige, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the existence of the road explains the movements of the armies. 8 The discovery of human remains on Etherley Farm in 1882 may place the actual scene of conflict on the dry hillside north-west of Ockley Green.* Ockley in Surrey does not seem, however, to be the scene of the Synod of the 8th century ; the circumstances of which point to a place in the north of England.

On the far side of the field north of Ockley Church, among some trees, is an earthwork. It was apparently a pear-shaped inclosure with the broader end to the east. The length is nearly 300 ft. At the eastern end is a broad mound with an extension thrown back at a right angle to face north. Outside this north-eastern angle is a ravelin or platform with traces of a ditch round it. The southern side is bounded by a stream in an artificially-straightened ravine. The eastern front may have been covered with an inundation. On the northern side only the traces of a ditch remain, but in the angle where this joins the stream, to the west, are traces of a small mound. West of this angle again are traces of an

��1 By Local Govt. Bd. Order, no. 42600.

a As e.g. in Burton, Iter Surrienst, 175 1, Rocque's map, 1770, and the map in Gibson's Camden, 1695. N.B. The

��modern spelling Stane Street is an affecta- tion. The natives call it Staan Street, as they call Dorking Barking, but the old spelling is Stone, and the local family name derived from it is Stonestreet.

ISO

��r.C.H.Surr.\, 331,332.

4 Ibid. The remains were in Wotton parish, but Ockley is very much nearer to the eitc than Wotton.

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