Farnham, Dorset
Historical Description
Farnham, a parish in Dorsetshire, near the boundary with Wiltshire, 7 miles WNW of Cranbome, and 8 NE by N of Blandford station on the Somerset and Dorsetshire railway. It has a post office under Salisbury; money order office, Handley; telegraph office, Cranborne. Acreage, 1421; population of the civil parish, 301; of the ecclesiastical, 108. Farnham Tollard, formerly a tithing in this parish, was amalgamated with the parish in 1885. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, c6105 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is a building of stone in mixed styles. The chancel was restored in 1886.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
Diocese | Bristol | 1542 - 1836 |
Diocese | Salisbury | 1836 - |
Poor Law union | Cranborne | 1835 - 1836 |
Poor Law union | Wimborne and Cranborne | 1836 - 1894 |
Poor Law union | Blandford | 1894 - |
Registration district | Blandford | |
Registration sub-district | Blandford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1737. The original register books are now deposited with the Dorset Archives Service, but have been digitised by Ancestry.co.uk and made available on their site (subscription required).
Churches
Church of England
St. Laurence (parish church)
The parish church of St. Laurence, a building of rubble and stone in mixed styles, consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, and an embattled tower, with pinnacles, containing 2 bells: the entrance is through the base of the tower: in 1886 the chancel was rebuilt, in the Gothic style, at a cost of about £450, in memory of Mrs. Grace Keay Lee, to whom a tablet has been erected: there are 150 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Farnham was in Wimborne Registration District from 1837 to 1895, Blandford Registration District from 1895 to 1956, and Poole Registration District from 1956 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Farnham from the following:
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Farnham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the Dorset County Chronicle and the Sherborne Mercury online.
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.