Farnham is a small village in
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, England, situated near
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...
. 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 was 410 at the 2011 census and had increased to 418 in the 2021 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).
History
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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
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, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
in Farnham,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, England. Farnham Primary School is located on the Essex/
Herts
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
county border, within two miles (3 km) of
Stansted Mountfitchet
Stansted Mountfitchet is an England, English village and civil parishes in England, 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, increasi ...
and
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...
, and takes pupils from both counties.
Founded in 1874, Farnham primary is Essex's smallest school with about 50 pupils in 2023. It has three classes: Willow (from Reception to Year 1), Silver Birch (from Year 2 to Year 4) and Horse Chestnut (Year 5 to Year 6). Children graduating from Farnham mostly attend secondary schools in Bishop's Stortford and it lies within Joyce Franklin High school's 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 a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
and
reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
. 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. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the non-metropolitan county excludes Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock which ...
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.
See also
*
The Hundred Parishes
The Hundred Parishes is a cultural heritage initiative focused on an area in the East of England recognized for its high concentration of cultural and historical significance. Although without formal recognition or status, the concept has the ble ...
References
External links
*
Ofsted Parent View
{{authority control
Villages in Essex
Uttlesford