Farnham is a small village in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England, situated near

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

. The main features are Farnham Church of England Primary School, the church and the Three Horseshoes pub in Hazel End, which some consider a hamlet in its own right. The population is approximately 300, increasing to 410 at the 2011 census. It is divided up into several areas, such as Farnham, Hazel End, Bell's Cottages, Saven End and Farnham Green. The name is derived from the Fernham (Hamlet in the ferns). This village is also mentioned in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'' as the site of a battle between King Alfred’s army and a Viking army that had captured a great war-booty in 893. King Alfred defeated the Vikings and recovered the booty. ::Þa hie gefengon micle herehyð, & þa woldon ferian norþweardes ofer Temese in on Eastseaxe ongean þa scipu. Þa forrad sio fierd hie foran, & him wið gefeaht æt Fearnhamme, & þone here gefliemde, & þa herehyþa ahreddon... ::They (the Vikings) had now seized much booty, and would ferry it northward over Thames into Essex, to meet their ships. But the army (king Alfred’s) rode before them, fought with them at Farnham, routed their forces, and there arrested the booty... Farnham is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as one of the settlements in

Clavering hundred Clavering hundred was a hundred (county subdivision), hundred – or geographical subdivision – comprising parishes and settlements in Essex and Norfolk. Hundreds were divisions of areas of land within shires or county, counties for administrati ...

Farnham Primary School

Farnham C of E Primary School is a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

in Farnham,

, England. Farnham Primary School is located on the Essex/

Herts Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

county border, within two miles (3 km) of

Stansted Mountfitchet Stansted Mountfitchet is an English village and civil parish in Uttlesford district, Essex, near the Hertfordshire border, north of London. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,533, increasing to 6,011 at the 2011 census. The v ...

and

, and takes pupils from both counties. Founded in 1874, Farnham primary is Essex's smallest school with 32 pupils in 2014. It has two classes: Willow (from Reception to Year 3) and Horse Chestnut (Year 4 to Year 6). Children graduating from Farnham mostly attend secondary schools in Bishop's Stortford and it lies within Birchwood High Schools priority admissions area. The school is in federation with the larger nearby Rickling Church of England Primary School, where pupils visit weekly for curriculum enrichment activities, including art, gardening, drama, yoga and sports. Both schools share an executive head and deputy head. The deputy head teaches Horse Chestnut class in Farnham. Farnham primary enjoys consistently good SATS results. In 2013, 100% of Year 6 pupils achieved Level 4+ and 50% achieved Level 5 in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. This compares very favourably with the national average and out-performs most schools in the area. In 2014, the school was the subject of a high-profile campaign to keep it in Farnham and prevent it from moving to nearby Stansted Mountfitchet, as proposed by

Essex County Council Essex County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Essex in England. It has 75 councillors, elected from 70 divisions, and is currently controlled by the Conservative Party. The council meets at County Hall ...

and the Diocese Board of Education for Chelmsford. The proposals were unanimously opposed by the parish councils of Farnham and Stansted and the Farnham parochial church. In response, the school governors voted to reject the proposals.

References

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Ofsted Parent View
{{authority control Villages in Essex Uttlesford

Farnham Primary School

See also

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External links