RIVER OCK

:''See also the River Ock, Surrey.''

The 'River Ock' is a small English river or brook. It has as its catchment area the Vale of White Horse, a low-lying and wide hanging valley in South Oxfordshire. It arises near the village of Little Coxwell and flows into the River Thames, at Abingdon (by the old ''Hygienic Laundry'' building), where an old iron bridge marks its passage. It collects tributaries from each village along the base of the White Horse Hills, where springs emanating from the chalk hills allowed settlements to flourish in former times.
From Little Coxwell, it runs around Longcot and flows past Stanford in the Vale, where it is about ten feet (three metres) wide. The name of Stanford comes from ''Stony Ford'', possibly alluding to the Ock crossing at Stanford Mill. Thence it runs past Charney Bassett, Lyford, Garford and Marcham Mill, before losing its identity and its waters to the Thames at Abingdon.
The soils through which it flows are the Jurassic sedimentary series (Greensands, Gault, Kimmeridge Clay and corallian limestone), while some of its tributaries arise in chalk springs. Until recent times, native crayfish and many freshwater fish species inhabited the river. Increased housing in the Vale, with the resultant surface drainage, may have threatened these species but surveys have not yet been performed in the 21st Century.
The Ock though normally placid can however after persistent heavy rainfall flood low-lying areas of south Abingdon, this last occurred in July 2007.