Qualla: Farnham https://qualla.com/farnham en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Farnham https://qualla.com/farnham Farnham: Introduction https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit Weydonian (talk), CC BY 3.0. Farnham sits at the western edge of the North Downs, on the north branch of the River Wey, on land the Bishops of Winchester owned for nearly a thousand years. The earliest document calling the place "Fernham" - meadow where ferns grow - is a copy of a 7th-century charter. Henry de Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror and brother of King Stephen, began building Farnham Castle in 1138 as a stopover halfway between Winchester and London. Henry VIII probably spent part of his childhood here as a ward of Bishop Richard Foxe. Charles I slept here on his last journey before his execution. The pub in which William Cobbett was born in 1763 still stands and is named after him. Almost nothing in Farnham is recent. Almost everything in Farnham touches something that is.

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Image: Weydonian (talk) | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Farnham: The Bishops' Stopover https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit Jack1956, CC0. The bishops of Winchester were among the wealthiest landowners in medieval England, and Farnham was one of their most lucrative manors. Henry de Blois built Farnham Castle in 1138 to give him a place to sleep on the road between Winchester and Westminster. The castle became more ...

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Image: Jack1956 | CC0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-the-bishops-stopover.mp3 0:06 2 full Farnham: Cromwell's Bullets, the King's Nightcap https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit BabelStone, CC BY-SA 4.0. Farnham declared for Parliament early in the Civil War. The castle, considered a Royalist rallying point, was given a Roundhead garrison in 1642 - but the garrison commander Captain George Wither, himself a noted poet, decided to evacuate. John Denham, also a noted poet and the n...

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Image: BabelStone | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-cromwells-bullets-the-kings-nightcap.mp3 0:06 3 full Farnham: Cobbett, Cabbages, and Common Sense https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit Birdworld, CC BY-SA 4.0. William Cobbett was born in a Farnham pub called the Jolly Farmer on 9 March 1763 - the son of a small farmer who taught him to read by writing letters in the dirt. Cobbett grew into one of the most original political voices of his century: a soldier, then a radical journalist, t...

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Image: Birdworld | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-cobbett-cabbages-and-common-sense.mp3 0:06 4 full Farnham: Hops, Wool, and Greenware https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit David960, CC BY-SA 2.0. Daniel Defoe wrote that Farnham had the greatest corn market in England after London. He counted 1,100 fully laden wagons coming into town on a single market day. Hops were grown around Farnham from the early 17th century until the 1970s; the brewing industry built up around them...

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Image: David960 | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-hops-wool-and-greenware.mp3 0:06 5 full Farnham: Peter Pan at Black Lake https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit Colin Pyle, CC BY-SA 2.0. J. M. Barrie spent the summers of 1901 and 1902 at Black Lake Cottage, a remote woodland retreat just outside Farnham near Tilford. There, with his neighbours the Llewelyn Davies boys, he played pirates and Indians in the woods around the lake and began working out the story that...

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Image: Colin Pyle | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-peter-pan-at-black-lake.mp3 0:06 6 full Farnham: Waverley and the Annals https://qualla.com/farnham/ Photo credit Colin Pyle, CC BY-SA 2.0. About a mile south of Farnham lies the ruin of Waverley Abbey - the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester. The monks of Waverley kept a year-by-year chronicle called the Annals of Waverley, an important primary source for earl...

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Image: Colin Pyle | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/7/farnham-wp/gcp7-farnham-waverley-and-the-annals.mp3 0:06 7 full