• Home
• 
• FARNBOROUGH
• 
• LOCKSBOTTOM
• 
• LOCAL AREA
• 
• CHILDHOOD
• 
• TURNPIKE

Farnborough Hall is the most distinguished residential building in the village, formerly the centre to a substantial estate.  The ordnance survey map dated 1895 below shows the House in the centre of the image, with no other buildings nearby, click to enlarge.
Contrast this with a modern Google view below.



The present house is not the first on the site.  It dates from the early eighteenth century, although parts may be older. The Stow family lived there from 1841 to 1851 as farmers before taking up residence in The New Inn. 

The house is now completely surrounded by later residential buildings, leaving just a small garden area immediately around it.  There is a narrow drive leading from Tubbenden Lane South, which is easy to miss unless you know where to look. The house cannot be seen from the road. 

Farnborough Hall c 1958

Listing Details

The building is Grade 2 listed  The listing narrative reads as follows:

Early C18 with C19 alterations. 2 storeys. 2nd floor pebbledash, ground floor brick. Hipped tiled roof of early C18 having 2 hipped dormers with C19 casements. Coved eaves cornice, 3 sashes, 2 of which are 3 light, simple Victorian doorcase. Right side has added Victorian bay. Rear has an C18 extension of 1 storey in brick with weatherboarding on the gable end and 1 hipped dormer. The interior is timber framed and dates from the late C17 to early C18. There is a wooden staircase possibly of the same age. The house or an earlier one on the same site, was the house of John Stow the historian of London. Here also was the manor of the Earls of Leicester.

List entry Number: 1299011  Listing Grid Ref. TQ4468464393


     Farnborough Hall from above (centre), Tubbenden Lane South is top left corner

A Late Nineteenth Century Account

This account was first published in 1883/4, republished 100 years later in 1984.

Farnborough Hall, at a short distance to the north-east of the village, is built upon an estate which appears to have been held by Simon de Chelsfield of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, in the reign of Henry III. About the middle of the fourteenth century the property was purchased by the Petleys, from whom it passed by sale to the Peches, and from that family it passed, by the marriage of an heiress, to John Hart. With the descendants of this gentleman the property remained till it was conveyed by marriage to the Dykes of Lullingston.

This is part of Chapter X111 of 'Village London' Vol 2, published by The Alderman Press March 1984.  First published 1883-4 by Casssell & Co Ltd., under the title 'Greater London

FARNBOROUGH VILLAGE

• The Village
•  
• Early History
• Nineteenth Century Perspective
• Farnborough Hall
• Church Road
• Farnborough Churchyard
• Parish Registers
• The Woes of Victorian Clergy
• Vestry Meetings
•  
• Village Tour
• The Village Hall
• Farnborough Fire Engine
• Farnborough Allotment
• Limes Laundry
• Village Shop - Going the Extra Mile
• The Plumbridges
• The Parliamentary Roads
•  
• Public Houses
• Landlords and Characters
• Builder, Banker, Undertaker
• The Swiss Cottages
• Tea Rooms
•  
• Farnborough War Memorial
• Heroes of World War 1
• Memorial Stories - 1
• Memorial Stories - 2
• Foster Raine
• Thomas Durrant

Farnborough Hall Residents

These details are taken from Census records

1831	Thomas Stow (1769-1851), Farmer, and children Elizabeth (1793-1846), William and Sarah
1851	William Stow (1798-1864), Farmer of 320 acres, and his sister Sarah (1811-)
1861	George Wood (1834-1898), retired Farmer, and family
1871
1878	W.T.Dowes
1881	James Currans (1863-); 1885-1888 James Evans (1833-1915), Farmer, and his wife Charlotte (1838-1892 - buried in Farnborough churchyard)
1891	James Evans, Farmer, living in the High Road, but no house or building identified in the High Road
1901	John M Higgs (1869-1921) and family, Farmer
1911	John M Higgs (1869-1921) and family, Farmer
1939	Mary Higgs (1872-1954) and her two daughters