The first named Tenant of the lands that went on to form the Ockley Estate was Nicholas de Nogun, who held the half fee in 1242. Later that century, by 1279 and 1283 the land had passed to Walter de Okeleue, or Ocle. His son William de Ocle inherited the lands, which then remained in the family’s possession until well in to the 15thCentury.
By 1559 the land and the probable property on the site of the modern day Manor house was owned by John A Wood, before being purchased by the Barnham family in 1602, along with the Pigeon House (Dovecote). By 1615 the land and properties were owned by George Luxford, and then passed down through two generations until being sold in 1718 to James Wood.
Through the period from 1559 to 1718 it is likely the initial farmstead, comprising the main house (now Ockley Manor) the Barn, the Dovecote and the Granary and perhaps the Malthouse were developed, as a group of farm buildings.
The original four building farmstead
An estate plan was produced for John Wood in 1808. Between this date and 1845 the semi-detached cottages were built to house farm workers, and it is likely these will have housed quite large family groups, ironically while the much larger main house will have housed a much smaller family group. A further cottage to the south of the main house had also been built, and this is believed to have house the estate bailiff.
By 1851 the farm house (manor house) was inhabited by James Wood, who is listed as owning 700 acres of land, employing 46 men and 13 boys, though by 1871 this has reduced to 278 acres with 15 men and 4 boys.
The 1861 census tells us of the existence of the cottages 1-4, the semi-detached pairs, with families all working on the land.
By the time of the 1881 census, the farm house has been called Ockley Manor, and the cottages list four familes, mainly farm labourers, with one person being employed as a railway plate layer, though he is the son of the farm bailiff in one of the other cottages.
Although in 1882 the farm lands were mainly conveyed to the Stanford family, the inhabitants of the cottages – now the full 1-8 cottages that transferred with the farm, had mixed employment, across both the farm as labourers and working as servants at the Manor house.
By 1901, the Manor house was owned by Harriet Wood, with a chauffeur in the garden cottage and a coachman in another of the two cottages on the East side of Ockley Lane by the sharp bend, which were retained by the Manor (Sundown and Elm Cottage), and various servants living in the cottages now owned by the Stanford family.
In 1911 the Manor house passed to Randall Davidson, a relative and by now the Stanford family had commissioned a new farm house.
This brought the Ockley Hamlet to two main houses and eleven cottages, plus the farm buildings, that had grown out of the farm of the Ockley Estate.
The last farm-worker living in the cottages was Phyllis Jeal, a milk-maid at the farm, who died in 2015. She had been born in 7-8 Ockley Manor Farm Cottages, after her father had started working as a farm labourer in 1922, initially living in Hawthorn Cottage (No. 5) before moving to No. 7 and then taking over both 7 and 8. Phyllis Jeal’s brother Victor lives nearby to this day.
Victor recalls stories of his parents marrying and initially living in Hawthorn Cottage until their growing family was too large, whereupon they moved to 7 and 8 Ockley Manor Cottages, initially living in the two cottages without any form of inner-connecting door! To go from the kitchen to the bedroom, they’d have to walk out of one front door and in the next-door one. Two parents and seven children in three bedrooms. Victor’s stories include many reminiscences of playing in the fields opposite Ockley Manor with around 30 other children who lived in the other cottages in Ockley. When starting school, the children would ask each other where each was from. Victor and the other local children would respond they were from ‘Ockley’.
After the farm was bought by the Matthews family in 1941, cottages 5 and 6 were sold initially to private households. Ockley Manor sold off its cottages mainly in the 1980s, and more recently cottages 3,4,7 and 8 have been sold. Cottages 1 and 2 and the smaller, newer farmhouse have been retained by the farm.