Farnham, Dorset

Farnham is a village and civil parish in Dorset, in the south of England, on Cranborne Chase, Template:Convert northeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 183.<ref name=ons/>

Toponymy

The name Farnham derives from the Old English fearn (fern) and ham (homestead) and means an enclosure or homestead where ferns grow.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=opc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the Domesday Book of 1086 Farnham was recorded as Ferneham or Fernham.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

The early settlement history of Farnham isn't clear.<ref name=inventory>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Iron Age and Romano-British field systems were created in the surrounding area generally, though traces haven't survived at Farnham.<ref name=life>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The present-day Farnham village has emerged from five separate settlements associated with clearings in hazel coppice;<ref name=life/> in the Domesday Book Ferneham or Fernham is recorded five times, though not all the entries refer to the present-day settlement.<ref name=inventory/> 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.<ref name=opc/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

For much of its history Farnham has been closely connected with Tollard Royal, the adjacent village and parish in the neighbouring county of Wiltshire. Tollard Farnham (or Farnham Tollard<ref name=life/>), a tithing to the north of Farnham village, was previously owned by the de Tollard family of Tollard Royal,<ref name=opc/> 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.<ref name=life/>

The old museum building at Crossways, where Pitt Rivers housed his personal collection. The building is now private residences.

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,<ref>Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers biography at the Pitt Rivers Museum History, 1884–1945</ref> which was held in the former Orphan Gypsy School at Crossways, about Template:Convert from Farnham village centre. The village's inn became the Museum Hotel to cater for visitors,<ref name=life/> which numbered 12,000 per year at the peak of the museum's popularity.<ref name=opc/> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Title missing</ref>

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 Template:Convert at an approximate altitude of 75 to 150 metres (250 to 500 feet) and geologically comprises chalk, overlain by clay-with-flints in places.<ref name=inventory/> Measured directly, Farnham village is Template:Convert northeast of Blandford Forum, Template:Convert southeast of Shaftesbury, Template:Convert north-northwest of Wimborne Minster and Template:Convert southwest of Salisbury.<ref>Bartholomew 1:100,000 National Map Series, Sheet 4 (Dorset), 1980, Template:ISBN</ref><ref>Ordnance Survey 1;50,000 Landranger Series, Sheet 184 (Salisbury and The Plain), 1979</ref>

Demography

In the 2011 census Farnham civil parish had 105 dwellings,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 92 households and a population of 183.<ref name=ons/>

The population of the parish in the censuses between 1921 and 2001 is shown in the table below:

Census Population of Farnham Parish 1921—2001 (except 1941)
Census	1921	1931	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001
Population	202	183	165	149	150	180	200	220
Source:Dorset County Council<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation															CitationClass=web }}</ref>

References

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