Farnham, Dorset
| Farnham | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 The Museum Inn in Farnham village centre | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST958151 |
| Location: | 50°56’7"N, 2°3’35"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 183 (2011) |
| Post town: | Blandford Forum |
| Postcode: | DT11 |
| Dialling code: | 01725 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dorset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North Dorset |
Farnham is a village in Dorset, on Cranborne Chase seven miles north-east of Blandford Forum, in the east of the county. The 2011 census recorded a civil parish population of 183.
Name
The name 'Farnham' derives from the Old English fearn ham meaning 'fern homestead'.[1][2] In the Domesday Book of 1086 Farnham is recorded as Ferneham or Fernham.[3]
History
The early settlement history of Farnham is unclear.[4] Iron Age and Romano-British field systems were created in the surrounding area generally, though traces have not survived at Farnham.[5]
The present-day Farnham village has emerged from five separate settlements associated with clearings in hazel coppice;[5] in the Domesday Book Ferneham or Fernham is recorded five times, though not all the entries refer to the present-day settlement.[4] The book records 12 households with a total taxable value of 6 geld units. The county's sheriff at the time, Aiulf the chamberlain, owned some of the land.[2][6]
For much of its history Farnham has been closely connected with Tollard Royal, the adjacent village in Wiltshire. Tollard Farnham (or Farnham Tollard[5]), a tithing to the north of Farnham village, was previously owned by the de Tollard family of Tollard Royal,[2] and until 1885, when it was joined with Farnham, its dead were taken along a track named Burials Drove to be buried at Tollard Royal.[5]
Augustus Pitt Rivers lived nearby on the Rushmore Estate. Following his donation of some 20,000 antiquities to the University of Oxford in 1884, forming the nucleus of the Pitt Rivers Museum, he continued to collect archaeological and ethnological specimens for his personal collection,[7] which was held in the former Orphan Gypsy School at Crossways, about a half-mile from Farnham village centre. The village's inn became the Museum Hotel to cater for visitors,[5] which numbered 12,000 per year at the peak of the museum's popularity.[2] The Farnham collection was dispersed in the 1970s, with the British items going to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, and the ethnographic collections sold.
Geography
Farnham parish is situated at the head of the valley of the small Gussage Brook, on the dip slope of the hills of Cranborne Chase. It covers 1,420 acres at an approximate altitude of 250 to 500 feet and geologically comprises chalk, overlain by clay-with-flints in places.[4] Measured directly, Farnham village is seven miles north-east of Blandford Forum, seven and a half miles south-east of Shaftesbury, ten miles north-north-west of Wimborne Minster and fourteen and a half miles south-west of Salisbury.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Farnham, Dorset) |
References
- ↑ Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Farnham". Dorset OPC Project. http://www.opcdorset.org/FarnhamFiles/Farnham.htm. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- ↑ "Dorset A–G". The Domesday Book Online. domesdaybook.co.uk. http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset1.html#farnham. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Farnham, Dorset: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 4, pages 17-19
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Farnham: Rodney Leg and Clive Hannay in Dorset Life Magazine March 2008
- ↑ "Place: Farnham". Open Domesday. domesdaymap.co.uk. http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST9515/farnham/. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- ↑ Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers biography at the Pitt Rivers Museum History, 1884 - 1945