Westcott, Ockley & Capel

Westcott, Ockley and Capel sit in the north-west of Mole Valley inside the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The three villages are linked by lanes, footpaths and bridleways that run through farmland, wood pasture and mixed woodland. Local life is organised around village halls, parish churches and a handful of pubs and shops; Capel’s parish church of St John the Baptist stands close to the village green, which is used for community sport and seasonal events. Fields and rides carry flint boundary banks and mature oak lines that mark older parcel boundaries across the landscape.

Ockley has a small railway stop on the North Downs Line, which provides one of the fixed transport links through the chalk ridge. Westcott and Capel have no large commercial centres, so routine services are spread across local businesses and community groups. Walkers and riders often use the network of public paths to reach viewpoints on the scarp and to cross woodlands that shelter farmland, while local farms and smallholdings continue traditional mixed cropping and grazing.