THE FARNHAM SOCIETY|
THE FARNHAM SOCIETY |
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ABOUT FARNHAM- few notes for the visitorFarnham is a small crossroads town situated in Surrey close to the Surrey-Hampshire border, approximately half way between Winchester and London. Once famous for its hop and grain market, it now consists mainly of a few traditional shopping frontage streets, closely surrounded by a number of residential streets, containing scattered retail, trading and office developments. It has a large suburban fringe spreading in ever lower density into the woodlands and fields up and over the surrounding hills on each side. Its heritage consists of a large area of ancient parkland, some fragmented mediaeval structures, and a large number of eighteenth century town houses. Over the years, the highway authorities have failed to come to terms with twentieth century traffic growth apart from building a by-pass which removed through traffic in one direction only and re-created the crossroads on it, thus restricting traffic flow in all directions. Traffic access was retained to all its central streets, which have to function as both pedestrian and service traffic arteries, to the disadvantage of both. North-South traffic is further restricted by the railway level crossing just south of the bypass, and by the narrow streets of the villages of Wrecclesham and the Bourne. Despite having a Town Council, which since 1974 has only had a minor maintenance role, the town has to compete with three other towns for its share in the administration by the middle tier Borough Council. Many of the main local government functions which affect its daily life are the responsibility of the more remote County Council to which it sends a small group of councillors. Major highway improvements await a change in government spending priorities. Farnham lies on the route of a prehistoric trackway along the North Downs. Farnham is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as Fearnhamme - the place of ferns and water meadows. King Caedwalla of Wessex granted the manor to the Bishops of Winchester in 688. The earliest known inhabitants of Farnham were Mesolithic pit dwellers c 6000 BC. Close to the site of the pits a Roman villa and bath were built. Farnham owes its importance as a halfway point between London and Winchester. The bishops of Winchester either stayed overnight or lived in Farnham as a convenient halfway house between London and Winchester. Prosperity grew first with wheat, then wool and cloth and finally hops. Hops were introduced in 1597. The hops grown around Farnham were regarded as the best in the country and thus could command a high price. The railway came to Farnham in 1849. In the absence of a railway at Aldershot (the railway reached Aldershot in 1870) the troops marched from Farnham to their camps at nearby Aldershot. The northern entry to the town centre is dominated by the castle and the Bishops Palace. The castle was built by Henry de Blois (grandson of William I, brother of King Stephen) in 1138. The steps leading down from the castle, the Blind Bishop's Steps, were constructed for Bishop Fox. The Bishops of Winchester lived in the palace until the 1920s. Whilst staying as a guest at Farnham Castle in1569, Elizabeth I warned the Duke of Norfolk 'to be careful on what pillow he laid his head'. She was giving him dark hints as to his relationship with Mary Queen of Scots. He chose to ignore the warning and paid the price when he lost his head. Adjacent to the Bishops Palace is Farnham Park. A little alley-way leads up to the park from Bear Lane, off Castle Street. From the park there are fine views across the town and to the surrounding countryside. It is possible to walk through the park to nearby Upper Hale. A pleasant little stream cuts through the park. Castle Street, leading down from the castle, is very wide. This was part of the Medieval planning, to allow a market to take place. Markets had two advantages - they brought trade into the town, thus increasing the town's importance, and the Bishops could levy tolls on the stall-holders. Daniel Defoe recounts in A tour through the whole island of Great Britain that Farnham had the greatest corn-market after London, and describes 1,100 fully laden wagons delivering wheat to the town on market day. There use to be at the bottom of Castle Street a building known as Old Market House. Built in 1568, it was demolished in1863. Photographs taken in the mid-1800s show it still in existence. In Castle Street is a row of eight old almshouses, established in 1619 by Andrew Windsor for 'eight poor, honest, old, impotent persons'. The almshouses are still in use, though now the residents have to pay rent. The centre of Farnham, and many of the side roads are lined with a variety of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings, many of which are listed. There are also many interesting narrow side streets and alleys, the most well used being the Lion and Lamb Yard, which was a 1980s development of a disused builder's yard. The Lion and Lamb Yard is a pleasant cobbled courtyard and pedestrian shopping centre with a cafe and bistro. It serves as a main entry to the town centre from the Hart car park, passing a major superstore. The courtyard used to house the brewers Thomas Mathews and Co, who won two medals at the 1890 Brewer's Exhibition in London. Also on this site was one of Farnham's many coaching inns. Many inns were built to serve the coach traffic that passed through Farnham. Several of these inns still survive, the oldest being the Bush Hotel. The Bush Hotel was mentioned in novels by both W M Thackeray and I J Hussey. Away to the western end of the town and to the north side of the main thoroughfare are modern office developments, at first glance they look like houses clustered around courtyards. Another interesting modern development is the building used jointly by Waverley and the Town Council, just before the river, on the road leading to the station. In all these developments a reproduction of the supposed eighteenth century style has been adopted in the belief that it echoes the character of the town, a large part of which is in a great variety of nineteenth and twentieth century styles. A favourite street is the cobbled Lower Church Lane that leads from Downing Street to the church, and affords one of the best views of the church. Through the car park, a modern wooden bridge crosses the River Wey to the Farnham Maltings. Farnham Maltings, once a large brewery and now rescued from destruction is thriving as a cultural and arts centre, displays its recent re-furbishment with a glazed entrance. Close to the Maltings is The William Cobbett, formerly The Jolly Farmer, renamed in the 1970s in honour of William Cobbett, who was born there in 1762, when it was a farmhouse. It contains a framed copy of the Political Register, the political journal founded by Cobbett. William Cobbett (1762-1835), farmer, pamphleteer, radical, social commentator, started out in life as a crow-scarer and ploughboy. As an assiduous student he mastered French, rhetoric, geometry, logic and fortifications. He served six years in America where he was placed in charge of the regimental accounts and registers. On his return to England he married the daughter of a soldier, spent some time in France, then returned to America. After a couple of years the fiery contents of his leaflets forced him to return to England. On his return to England, Cobbett started his radical career. In 1802 he founded the Political Register, which started life as Tory weekly but soon turned Radical. He also published Parliamentary debates (later taken over by Hansard). In 1810, Cobbett was sentenced to two years in prison for opposing the use of flogging by the army. Whilst in prison he continued to publish the Register. On leaving prison, his political views forced him to escape to America. In total Cobbett spent nearly 20 years in America. He returned to England in 1819, and finally managed to win a seat in Parliament. Cobbett's Rural Rides, his social observations and commentary, extracted from the Register, are the best insight we have to social conditions during his lifetime. Cobbett's Cottage Economy, originally published as a series of pamphlets (1821-2), was first published as a book in 1822, followed by a series of revisions and enlargements, the 17th edition was published by Cobbett's wife Anne (1850), to which G K Chesterton added a preface (1916). There is a small bronze bust of Cobbett by Willi Soukop by the riverside in Gostrey Meadow. Cobbett's tomb can be seen in the parish churchyard, immediately outside the church porch. Charles I stayed at Vernon House in West Street, now the library, on his way to his execution in London. Nearby is the red brick Willmer House, a Grade I listed house built in 1718 for John Thorne, a wealthy hop merchant and described by Ian Nairn as "one of the finest cut brick facades in the Country". It has housed the Museum of Farnham since 1961. The Redgrave Theatre, named after the famous theatrical family, used to be one of the best theatres in the area, putting on adventurous performances and productions. It is an interesting modern building, financed by public subscription in 1970. Unfortunately its ownership was transferred to Waverley Borough Council who closed the theatre in 1998 in order to save money, believing it was a facility the public no longer wanted. That it was once a thriving repertory theatre and despite a number of years of well attended performances in marquees and the parish church, by the displaced company of actors, the Council now wishes to see its demolition and sale as a profitable site for re-development. (www.redgravefarnham.co.uk/waverley_council.htm) The prestigious University College of the Creative Arts, formerly Surrey Institute of Art and Design, University College, is located in Falkner Road. It is one of the few independent colleges that have been granted the power to award their own degrees. It contains some of Farnham's most exciting and innovative architecture, as well as a new Museum of Crafts, and the Hockey art gallery with its award-winning foyer, which hosts a series of fine exhibitions. The River Wey flows through Farnham, with a pleasant riverside walk and park. Unfortunately the walk does not extend along the river beyond the town centre. Below the railway station, A few hundred yards along the bypass, a wooden finger-post points along Darvills Lane - the beginning of the North Downs Way. The route skirts along the flood plain at the edge of which the land slowly rises. Along the same route runs the Greensand Way. The two part company where the route crosses the Wey at Moor Park and the North Downs Way climbs up the hill. The Greensand Way continues down the Wey towards the ruins of Waverley Abbey. The North Downs Way starts at Farnham, and runs along the North Downs to Dover in Kent, with a loop to Canterbury. It roughly follows the route of the Pilgrim's Way, often running parallel, but rarely along it. This was once the pilgrimage route to the Shrine of Thomas à Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral. It was whilst at Moor Park as secretary to Sir William Temple that Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), satirist, author of Gulliver's Travels (1726), wrote The Tale of a Tub (1704) and The Battle of the Books (1704). Swift took a fancy to Esther Johnson, whom he taught to write. Swift called her Stella and dedicated his Journal (written 1710-11) to her. She later joined Swift in Ireland as his mistress. The two lie buried side by side in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey to be founded in England (1128). Loseley House, an Elizabethan house south of the North Downs Way near Guildford, was built using stones taken from the ruined abbey. Waverley Abbey was the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels. Near Moor Park and the ruins of Waverly Abbey are two caves, the larger of which is named after Mother Ludlam. Known as a local witch who lived in or near the cave, she was free with her possessions and would lend them out on request. Once, a large cauldron was lent and not returned. The borrower took refuge from her wrath in Frensham Church, where today the large cauldron can still be found. Nearby Crooksbury Hill, the highest point of Crooksbury Common, a fine sandy heathland, offers excellent walking. It was here, on a solitary road crossing the desolate heath, that Sherlock Holmes was called upon to solve a singularly interesting case involving Miss Violet Smith - The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist (published in the collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes). A little way downstream of Waverley, two Medieval bridges cross the Wey at Tilford. An ancient oak can be found by the village green. William Cobbett pointed out the oak to his son on one of his rides. At nearby Black Lake, J M Barrie wrote Peter Pan in 1904 and Dear Brutus. Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the scout movement, lived at Bentley, a small village south-west of Farnham, set in attractive water-meadows of the River Wey. His house, Pax Hill, once a centre for the Girl Guides is now a home for the elderly. Bentley became famous in theTV series The Village. North of Farnham is the incorrectly named Caesar's Camp. An Iron Age Hill Fort that pre-dates Caesar's arrival on these shores by about 600 years. The fort is best approached from the north by the minor road across Tweseldown that links Aldershot and Fleet. From this direction there is a steep climb, giving the opportunity to appreciate the view as it unfolds beneath one's feet. South of Farnham lies Frensham Common and the two Frensham Ponds. The three small hillocks, south of Frensham Little Pond towards Churt, are known as The Devil's Jumps. Farnham Station has train services northwards to Aldershot, then on towards London Waterloo or Guildford, southwards to Alton with connecting services to the Watercress Line. What they wrote about Farnham: FARNHAM is a charming, old-world market town ... remarkable for its wealth of 18th-century houses ... among the very finest in Surrey ... -- Penguin Guide to Surrey, 1956 A fine town, generally ranked as one of the best Georgian towns in England -- Nikolaus Pevsner, Surrey I view the tea drinking as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, an engenderer of effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and a maker of misery for old age. -- William Cobbett, Cottage Economy From a rise of the road on the corner of Crooksbury Hill we could see the grim hall bristling out from amidst the ancient oaks ... -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist London was clean, fresh, and dry, as I made my way to Waterloo after rising at the unnatural hour of seven on Sunday morning. Opening a book, I took care not to look out of the window between stations until, after traversing a huge cemetery and a huge camp, we reached Farnham. As usual in the country, it was raining heavily. I asked my way to Tilford, and was told to go straight on for four miles or so. As I had brought nothing that could hurt Salt's feelings by betraying my mistrust of his rustic paradise, I was without an umbrella; and the paradise, of course, took the fullest advantage of the omission. I do not know what the downs of the South Coast may be; but I can vouch for the ups and downs as far as the Surrey roads are concerned. Between Farnham and Tilford there are nearly half a dozen hills and not one viaduct. Over these I trudged uphill on my toes and pounded downhill on my heels, making at each step an oozy quagmire full of liquid gamboge. As the land-space grew less human, the rain came down faster, reducing my book to pulp and transferring the red of the cover to my saturated grey jacket. Some waterproof variety of bird, screaming with laughter at me from a plantation, made me understand better than before why birds are habitually shot. My sleeves by this time stuck cold to my wrists. Hanging my arms disconsolately so as to minimise the unpleasant repercussion, I looked down at my clinging knees, and instantly discharged a pint of black dye and rainwater over them from my hat brim. At this I laughed, much as criminals broken on the wheel laughed at the second stroke. A mile or two more of treadmill and gamboge churning, and I came to the outposts of a village, with a river hurrying over a bed of weeds of wonderful colours, spanned by a bridge constructed on the principle of the Gothic arch, so as to extort from horses the maximum of effort both when drawing carts up one side, and preventing the carts from over-running them when slipping precipitously down the other.......I need not describe my walk back to Farnham after dinner. It rained all the way; but at least I was getting nearer to London. I have had change of air and a holiday; and I have no doubt I shall be able to throw off their efforts in a fortnight or so. Should my experience serve to warn any tempted Londoner against too high an estimate of the vernal delights of the Surrey hills, it will perhaps not have been wasted. -- A Sunday on the Surrey Hills - George Bernard Shaw on his visit to the Salt's Tilford home. First published in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1888
Some useful books: Farnham Buildings and People by Nigel Temple (E.W.Langham, 1963 and Phillimore, 1973) A Portrait of Farnham by Jonathan Wood (Farnham Herald, 2003) Farnham A History & Celebration by Nick Channer (Ottakar's, 2004) West Surrey Architecture by Christopoher Budgen (Heritage of Waverley, 2002) Edwardian Farnham by B.Ewbank-Smith (Charles Hammick, 1979) Farnham in War and Peace by B.Ewbank-Smith (Phillimore, 1983) Victorian Farnham by B.Ewbank-Smith (Phillimore, 1971) Around Farnham in Old Photographs by Jean Parratt (Alan Sutton, 1990) Farnham A Photographic History of Your Town by Jean Parratt (W.H.Smith, 2001) Bygone Farnham by Jean Parratt (Phillimore, 1985) Farnham Past by Jean Parratt (Phillimore, 1991) Farnham by the Wey by Jean Parratt (Chalford, 1995) Yesterday and Today - More of Around Farnham in Old Photographs by Jean Parratt (Alan Sutton, 1992) The Buildings of England, Surrey by Ian Nairn and Nikolas Pevsner (Penguin Books, 1962, 1995) Harold Falkner, More Than an Arts and Crafts Architect by Sam Osmond (Phillimore 2003) Townscape with Figures by Richard Hoggart (Chatto & Windus, 1994) Change in the Village by George Sturt (First Published in 1912, Caliban Books, 1984) A Small Boy in the Sixties by George Sturt (Written about1908, Caliban Books 1982)
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