Page contents
About
Gallery
Parking
Poo bins?
Self-guided walk
About
Ockley is a small village in the south of Surrey and home to Vann Lake. This eight-acre man-made lake is thought to date from the mid-18th century, when a forest gill was dammed to form a ‘hammer pond’ to power a mill that was never built. It is surrounded by Ockley Woods, a 57.8-hectare (143-acre) ancient woodland and a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Around ten species of fish live in the lake, including bream, roach, tench and pike; and more than 100 bird species have been recorded here, including kingfishers, marsh tits, lesser spotted woodpeckers and hawfinches.
Over 900 species of fungi have been recorded, including six species new to Britain. With so many oak trees, the wood supports hundreds of invertebrate species, including the purple hairstreak butterfly. Other typical woodland butterflies include the purple emperor, white admiral and silver-washed fritillary.
17 dragonfly and damselfly species are known to frequent the area, including the uncommon downy emerald and shiny emerald. A nationally rare cranefly, Molophilus lackschewitzianus, occurs along the gill, while the locally rare cranefly, Limonia didyma, breeds among mosses at the water outflow below the lake.
Gallery: What’s it like here?
Parking
There are a few parking options in Ockley village, the most obvious being the large triangular-shaped car park of the Inn on the Green pub. The pub is dog-friendly in the bar and has a garden out back.
GOOGLEMAPS LINK: https://goo.gl/maps/wgpfTssqhv65kbVJ8
WHAT3WORDS: https://w3w.co/agenda.placidly.lands
NEAREST POSTCODE: RH5 5TD
There is also a small car park on the village green immediately opposite the pub, and another down at the cricket club on the south side of the green. Finally, slightly north of the pub, there is a small car park at the village hall.
Poo bins?
A couple of bins at the village green, please use them.
Self-guided walk
Here is a Footpath app route for the village of Ockley that visits Vann Lake and goes through woods and fields. Also on AllTrails. It starts from the large triangular car park of the dog-friendly Inn on the Green, although you can park opposite the pub or down by the cricket clubhouse.
Length: approximately 2.3 miles/3.9km
Terrain: Undulating, but nothing very steep. Some narrow paths have tree roots growing across them that make this walk uneven underfoot in places. The woodland paths can be muddy, especially where the path nears the lake. A stretch of the walk near the beginning is along a quiet lane (it’s also a dead end). There are a few bridges but all sturdy.
Stiles/kissing gates? No stiles, no kissing gates
Park in the large car park for the Inn on the Green. Exit the car park and turn left, cross the road opposite the pub and walk straight down the drive, passing the pump on the green on your left. This is called Scott’s Well and was installed as stipulated in the will of a woman called Jane Scott, who died of tuberculosis in 1838 at the age of just 39. Jane’s legacy was ensuring a supply of water to the Parish of Ockley, and the construction of the village school. The pump was still used until the 1950s.
At the houses, turn left onto the grassy path then continue on the drive it joins and walk to the pond. Pass along left hand side of pond, with the football pitch on your left and pond on your right. Continue onto another drive and follow it around to the left with the cricket pitch on your left.
Turn left at the infant school (which is ahead) and pass the cricket clubhouse (on the right), then dogleg across the main road and head up Friday Street, which is next to The Old Nursery. You’ll pass Orchard Cottage and some more houses on the right as the road rises up slope and goes round to the right. Continue through a gate (next to a three pronged finger post), which is marked ‘private road’ – this is a public bridleway. You’ll pass Vann Cottage on the left.
Turn right when you get to the T junction at Vann House, which used to be the marital home of Katie Price and Peter Andre and featured in their TV show Katie and Peter. Ignore the footpath that comes off to the left and goes down the right-hand side of Vann House. Instead, continue straight along the lane with green fences on either side. Go around the the vehicle gate at the end and onto the footpath.
Cross the bridge over the stream and head up the slope. Take the left hand fork at the finger post and follow it round to the left and onto the lane. Just after Rill Barn (on your left), there’s a wooden fence on the left with a wooden vehicle access barrier upon which there’s a black circle with a yellow arrow. Take the little path to which the arrow points on the right hand side of the post and follow it down steps to Vann Lake. Cross the bridge and walk along the bottom of the lake.
Take the little path that comes off to the right not long after you’ve cleared the lake, then turn right at the end of this and pass a sign for Vann Lake (on your left). Cross the sleeper bridge and go up the steps. Ignore the small path that comes off to the right (unless you particularly want to walk down to the lake edge, where there is a big tree growing over the water with a precarious looking rope swing that I’m not brave enough to try! If you do take a look down here – and it isn’t far at all – just retrace your steps back to the path when you’re done).
Take care going around the fallen tree. Pass another sign for Vann Lake (on your right) and then a bizarre little stretch of low wall which runs a very short way along the right hand side of the path. Take care going over another fallen tree. The path goes very close to the lake edge for a bit – mind your footing on the tree roots of a few trees that it goes over. The path will rise up at a fallen tree (on the right) and there is a fork. It doesn’t matter which fork you take here – the one down to the right is muddier and has tree roots to navigate and the one to the left stays high but then has a short but steep dip down. They converge at a little wooden bridge. Cross the bridge and go up the steps – it can be extremely muddy here.
Turn right at the junction, passing round a big tree with creepers around its trunk. This small path bends left and rises up slope and can be muddy for a short distance. At the fork with the big Fir trees, keep right. This is Draysey Wood. At the end of this path, turn left. Ignore the path that comes off to the left and continue down towards a gate. The path bears right at the gate and down the side of a field (on your left).
Go through the gate at the end of the trees and walk straight through the middle of the field. At the fork partway across the field, keep straight on the right path, ignoring the one that curves off to the left towards the farm and its fence/hedge. Continue straight and go through the rusty double gate (usually open) at the field boundary ahead. Here, continue straight ahead along the left-hand edge of the field with trees on the left, ignoring the path that goes off diagonally to the right.
At the end of the field walk through the gap on the left-hand side of the redundant stile and down the side of a barn.
Put your dog on lead here if it’s off as this brings you down to the main road. The path will be very narrow for a short stretch, flanked by tall hedges and fences but it comes out at the roadside opposite the village green and just before the pub. Turn right and walk back up the narrow pavement to the car park.
Walks with Rena 
Leave a comment