Farnham is a small town (pop. 38,000) in
Surrey, England. The town railway station is on the Alton Line, which
provides commuter links to London. The A31 Farnham bypass links the town
by road to Winchester, Alton and Guildford, and the A325 links the town
to the A3 (London-Portsmouth) at Greatham.
It is of historic interest, with many old buildings, including a number
of Georgian houses. Farnham Castle overlooks the town. Although now a
conference centre, the medieval keep is in the care of English Heritage
and is open to the public.
Evidence exists of human presence of the
site in the Paleolithic period, 400,000 years ago. Farnham first seems
to have become inhabited during the Mesolithic period, around 6000BC,
and continued to grow through the Bronze and Iron Ages.
In Roman times the district became a pottery centre due to the plentiful
clay of the area. The remains of a pottery, as well as a Roman villa and
bath have been found in the vicinity.
It was the Saxons who gave the town its name - Farnham is listed as
Fearnhamme in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Fearn refers to the fern and
bracken of the land and Hamme to the water meadows. In 688 the West
Saxon King Caedwalla donated the district around Farnham to the Church,
and to the diocese of Winchester. A Saxon community grew up in the
valley by the river. At the time of the Danish invasion in the 9th
century there was a battle on the edge of the settlement when Edward the
Elder, son of Alfred the Great, routed the invaders.
In 1895 Farnham Urban District Council was
formed. In 1930 the council purchased Farnham Park, a large park which
occupies much of the former castle grounds.
In 1901, the population of Farnham was about 14,000. Since the end of
the Second World War, Farnham has expanded from a population of about
20,000 to the present 38,000. Of that figure, approximately 15,000 live
in the town centre, whilst the remaining 23,000 live in the surrounding
suburbs and villages within the town's administrative boundaries.