Situated between the borough of Kingston-Upon-Thames and Woking, north of Guildford, lies the rural villages of Ockham and Wisley. Ockham is larger, and has a semi-rural status, whilst Wisley is home to the RHS Garden Wisley, with over 240 acres of land to explore! The semi rural and pastoral landscape of this region has a vast varied history, named in part due to William of Ockham, the medieval philosopher famous for the Occam’s Razor theorem! The housing market of these areas are predominantly large country manors and are often sold in excess of £800,000.

There is archaeological evidence that suggests Ockham has been inhabited since the Middle Bronze Age, and in 2013 an archaeological dig underneath a Victorian pub found a collection of Bronze Age tools underneath its foundation! It was first recorded in the Domesday Book survey of 1086 as Bocheham, and was owned by Richard Fitz Gilbert. Several country manor houses were built in the 17th century, most notably Ockham Park, built for the Weston Family. In the 1830s it was rennovated in an Italianate style, and was home to William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace, who lived there with his wife, daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace. Ada Lovelace’s legacy on the history of contemporary culture is unquestionable, given her invaluable contributions to Charles Babbage’s ‘The Difference Engine’, argued to be the first mechanical computer in existence!

Ockham’s history is tied not only to nobility, mathematics and science, but also to American abolitionists. Ellen and William Craft were born into slavery in Macon, Georgia in the early 1820s. Devising a plan to escape indenturement, Ellen Craft disguised herself as a man, and through the Underground Railroad system managed to escape to the North. The fear of capture loomed on the pair, and they travelled from Nova Scotia to Liverpool via steamship and eventually ended up settling in Ockham in 1851, living there for nineteen years. The pair’s descendents in 2018 had a sign erected to commemorate the life of Ellen and William Craft, who were invaluable in the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Although semi-rural, there is plenty of opportunity for development in this area! Taylor Wimpey are currently in the process of redeveloping Wisley Airfield into a sustainable and self-contained community, which aims to produce new dwellings and affordable housing in the area!