River Ock, Surrey


The River Ock is a tributary of the River Wey in Surrey, England.

Course

The river rises near Hambledon and then flows north past Witley
, followed by Enton, then past Wheelerstreet and Milford on either bank. It is then joined by the Busbridge tributary which drains Busbridge Lakes, passes through Ockford, part of Godalming named for the river, before flowing into the Wey at Godalming. For much of its length, the Portsmouth Main Line follows the watercourse.

Watermills

In Godalming, the Old Mill, originally known as Hatch Mill, made use of the force and speed of the hill-draining brook. Rake Mill at Witley, a former fulling mill, was used by the artist Neville Lytton as a studio, but it, along with the bulk of Lytton's sketches and paintings, was destroyed by a fire in 1902. Other mills on the Ock were a corn mill at Enton and a flour mill at Ockford.

Water quality

The Environment Agency measure water quality of the river systems 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, and chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations. Chemical status is rated good or fail.
The water quality of the Ock was as follows in 2016:
SectionEcological
Status		Chemical
Status		Overall
Status		LengthCatchmentChannel