Park Lane Chapel, Farnham

Farnham () is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around 36 miles (58 km) southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the Thames, and is at the western end of the North Downs. The civil parish, which includes the villages of Badshot Lea, Hale and Wrecclesham, covers 14.1 sq mi (37 km2) and had a population of 39,488 in 2011.Among the prehistoric objects from the area is a woolly mammoth tusk, excavated in Badshot Lea at the start of the 21st century. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Neolithic and, during the Roman period, tile making took place close to the town centre. The name "Farnham" is of Saxon origin and is generally agreed to mean "meadow where ferns grow". From at least 803, the settlement was under the control of the Bishops of Winchester and the castle was built as a residence for Bishop Henry de Blois in 1138. Henry VIII is thought to have spent part of his childhood under the care of Bishop Richard Foxe and is known to have lived at Farnham Castle when he was 16. In the late medieval period, the primary local industry was the production of kersey, a coarse, woollen cloth. In the early modern period, the town's weekly corn market was said to the second largest in England after London. Between 1600 and the 1970s, the area was a centre for growing hops and for the brewing industry. The town began to expand in the early Victorian period, stimulated in part by the opening of the railway in 1849 and the arrival of the army in nearby Aldershot in 1855. Farnham became an Urban District in 1894, but under the Local Government Act 1972, its status was reduced to a civil parish with a town council. The Farnham area has long been associated with the creative arts and with pottery making in particular. One of four campuses of the University for the Creative Arts is to the west of the centre and there are numerous works of public art on display in the town. Notable buildings in the civil parish include the ruins of Waverley Abbey and the 18th century Willmer House, now the location of the Museum of Farnham. Politician William Cobbett and writer George Sturt were both born in Farnham, as was Maud Gonne, the Irish republican suffragette. More recent residents have included the watercolour artist, William Herbert Allen, the Formula One driver, Mike Hawthorn, the England cricketer, Graham Thorpe, and the England rugby union captain, Jonny Wilkinson.

Farnham was a constituency covering the south-westernmost and various western parts of Surrey for the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, 1918—1983. Its main successor was South West Surrey. The seat was formed with north-eastern territory including Woking from Chertsey in 1918 and shed the Woking area to form its own seat in 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP). During its 65-year span its voters elected three Conservatives successively.

St Andrew's Church is an Anglican parish church in the centre of Farnham, Surrey. It is a Grade I listed building and surviving parts of the structure date back to the Middle Ages. It is in the Archdeaconry of Surrey, in the Diocese of Guildford. The churchyard contains the grave of William Cobbett and there is a memorial to Augustus Toplady.

The Redgrave Theatre was a theatre in Farnham in Surrey from 1974 to 1998. The theatre, named after Sir Michael Redgrave, had regular repertory seasons and also staged a variety of plays and musical productions until financial difficulties forced it to close. Now demolished, the surrounding site is under redevelopment. In January 2018, the Redgrave Theatre was finally approved for demolition. As of March 2019, the theatre is currently being demolished to make room for the "Brightwells Yard development".

Farnham Town Hall is a municipal building in South Street, Farnham, Surrey, England. It provides the offices and the meeting place of Farnham Town Council.

Farnham Castle is a 12th-century castle in Farnham, Surrey, England. It was formerly the residence of the Bishops of Winchester.

Farnham Maltings is a creative arts centre in the heart of the market town of Farnham in Surrey, England

The Storming of Farnham Castle occurred on 1 December 1642, during the early stages of the First English Civil War, when a Parliamentarian force attacked the Royalist garrison at Farnham Castle in Surrey. Sir John Denham had taken possession of the castle for the Royalists in mid-November, but after the Royalists had been turned back from London at the Battle of Turnham Green, a Parliamentarian force under the command of Sir William Waller approached the castle. After Denham refused to surrender, Waller's forces successfully stormed the castle. They captured it in under three hours, mostly due to the unwillingness of the Royalist troops to fight. This allowed the Parliamentarians to get close enough to breach the gates, after which the garrison surrendered.

The Crafts Study Centre is a university museum of modern crafts, located next to the entrance of the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, Surrey. The Crafts Study Centre holds collections of 20th and 21st century British craft, primarily in the fields of calligraphy and lettering, ceramics, furniture and wood, and textiles, but also has small collections of jewellery, works of art on paper, and other miscellaneous items. The object collections are accompanied by archives such as diaries, correspondence, photographs, catalogues and working notes from crafts practitioners and crafts organisations. In some cases the Centre also holds ‘source collections’, collected from around the world by makers for their own inspiration, enjoyment and knowledge.Much of the collection has been built up from donations and bequests and includes work by Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, and Hans Coper in ceramics, Ethel Mairet, Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher in textiles; calligraphy by Edward Johnston and Irene Wellington, and furniture by Ernest Gimson and Edward Barnsley.

Willmer House is a grade I listed building in Farnham, Surrey, in England. Built in 1718 for a local hop merchant the building later became a school and dental surgery. Since 1961 it has housed the Museum of Farnham. The building was purchased by Waverley Borough Council from Surrey County Council in 2012. Willmer House is Baroque in style and features an elaborate red-brick façade, described by the Pevsner Architectural Guide as one of the finest in the country. Architectural historian Nathaniel Lloyd, in 1929, described the pilasters at either end of the façade as "perhaps the most beautiful example extant of the Doric order interpreted in brick". A restoration of the façade in 2017 revealed it was in need of more significant repair than had been thought. Since 2018 scaffolding has been in place to protect the public from falling masonry. The council applied for Arts Council England funding in 2022 to part-fund the repairs.

Guildford School of Art was formed in 1856 as Guildford Working Men's Institution and was one of several schools of art run by Surrey County Council. After several mergers with tertiary art institutions it became part of the University for the Creative Arts in 2008.

Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College (SIAD) was an art college in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 2005. It was formed from the merger of West Surrey College of Art and Design (1969–1995) and Epsom School of Art and Design (1893–1995). It merged with the Kent Institute of Art & Design on August 1, 2005 to form the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham and Rochester, now the University for the Creative Arts.