Frensham is a village in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England, next to the A287 road, WSW of

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, the county town. Frensham lies on the right bank of the

River Wey The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton, Hampshire, Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Onc ...

(south branch), only navigable to canoes, shortly before its convergence with the north branch.

Farnham Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around 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 ...

is the nearest town, to the north. The majority of Frensham parish is within the

Metropolitan Green Belt The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...

and the substantial green buffer in the parish is Frensham Common which is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

and is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI). The non-agricultural land surrounding the village is mainly open heathland and birch woodland. The Common covers about and comprises

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

, together with some coniferous and mixed woodland. There are two large ponds, known as Frensham Great and Little Ponds, which were built in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

to provide

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

for the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

's estate and today are the backdrop for a hotel and are used for fishing and sailing.

History

Before the English Reformation

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

camp or living sites have been discovered around Frensham. Hundreds of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

arrowheads have been found around Frensham and there are several

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

(burial sites). In 688 AD, King Caedwalla of Wessex made a charter conveying to the

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

60 hides of land that included

, Frensham and Churt. This became the property of Hedda, Bishop of Winchester. The origins of the name Frensham come from 'Frena's ham'. Frena was the name of either a Danish

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

who was killed in the battle of Ashdown in the year 871, or of a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

who was driven south from

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

by the

Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...

in 993. The second part 'ham' means 'settlement', and is also from where we get the word 'home', so Frensham is 'Frena's settlement'. In 1348, there was an outbreak of the plague in Frensham. Before it ceased in 1350, fifty-two area farms had become desolate. Frensham Beale Manor, off Mill Lane, is a Grade II listed timber framed manor house dating from the 14th century.

Neighbourhoods

Frensham includes the neighbourhood or locality, largely separated by a small green buffer,

Rushmoor Rushmoor is a local government district with borough status in Hampshire, England. It covers the towns of Farnborough and Aldershot, the former of which is the location of the council. The neighbouring districts are Hart, Surrey Heath, Guil ...

or Rush Moor. A few outlying farmsteads have also become reverted to clusters of houses.

Industries

Locally clay was extracted from around Frensham for

Farnham Pottery Farnham Pottery is located in Wrecclesham near Farnham, Surrey. This is one of the best preserved examples of a working Victorian country pottery left in England and is a grade II listed building. Its significance in the local area is shown by i ...

. The

managed to retain ownership of most of his historic Farnham estate including most manors in the south until the 19th century. In the 17th century, farmers focused primarily on hop growing and

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

rearing. Fishermen continued to work Frensham Great Pond.

20th century

Having been drained in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the lakes in the common were transformed into a leisure destination and in the late 20th century they were used as film locations for the 1999 film ''The Mummy''. Actress Liza Goddard was a Frensham resident. Pierrepont School was bought by Ellel Ministries International and converted into a training centre.

St Mary's Church

Originally a chapelry of

, the present St Mary's Church was dedicated in 1239, having been moved from its previous site on low ground beside the

. The move was probably due to the massive storms of the 1230s which flooded Waverley Abbey, downstream, to a depth of . The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

is the oldest part of the church, its walls being those of the original building, the 13th-century niches,

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

and aumbry. The tower is 14th century, with massive diagonal buttresses and eight bells dated between 1627 and the 19th century. The porch is restored but is believed to be 15th century. The north aisle was built in 1827, and the whole church was subject to a major restoration in 1868. The font, of Purbeck Marble, is early

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

but its carvings are nearly obliterated. The organ was installed in 1871 with subsequent modernisations. The exterior of the building is of local

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

and rubble, with evidence of endless repair and reconstruction. The church contains a large cauldron, said to have been borrowed from the

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

and never returned.

Demography and housing

Historic

The population of Frensham in 1851 was 714. Today the area of Frensham, Dockenfield and Tilford has a total population of 3,961.

Latest statistics

The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%. The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares with the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining percentage is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible percentage of households living rent-free).

Amenities

Frensham post office and village shop is a community run shop and celebrated its tenth anniversary in January 2006. There are four local schools: St Mary's Church of England Infants' School, Frensham Heights, Edgeborough and More House. More House School is the largest residential special school in the UK, educating boys with specific learning and language-based difficulties, including

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

, developmental language disorders and dyspraxia. Frensham Great Pond, lying within Frensham Common, extends over and is a centre for sailing activities. The pond sometimes suffers from

eutrophication Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of organisms that may deplete the oxygen in the water; ie. the process of too many plants growing on the s ...

. The occasional presence of

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria ( ) are a group of autotrophic gram-negative bacteria that can obtain biological energy via oxygenic photosynthesis. The name "cyanobacteria" () refers to their bluish green (cyan) color, which forms the basis of cyanobacteria' ...

means that official advice regarding swimming varies, as indicated by notices at the water's edge. The smaller Frensham Little Pond is a scenic area for picnics - neither swimming nor sailing is allowed there. There are two active sports clubs in the village – Frensham Cricket Club and the Frensham RBL Bowls Club.Frensham RBL Bowls Club
/ref> The cricket club (2013) has two grounds, and plays in the I'Anson league with local villages. The bowls club have a very busy friendlies schedule as well as playing in the West Surrey Men's League, the Three Counties Bowl Fellowship and the Farnham and District League.

References

External links

Frensham Parish Council Website

Multimap

Results and conclusions of village survey

Frensham Little Pond

{{authority control Villages in Surrey Borough of Waverley Civil parishes in Surrey