Farmborough

History

The Farmborough Hoard of Iron Age coins was found in the village in 1984 and is now in the British Museum.

The parish of Farmborough was part of the Keynsham Hundred, The village has historically been connected with the coal mines of the Somerset coalfield, but these are all now closed.

Farmborough Church of England VC Primary School was built in 1857, and now has 90 pupils between the ages of 4 and 11 years. The school intake figures have shown a gradual decline in attendance in recent years. In 2007 the local community pre-school playgroup moved into an unused classroom at the school site and a breakfast club was established to assist working parents to leave their children in a safe environment prior to school opening hours. Author Dick King-Smith once taught at the school.

Governance

Farmborough is one of the electoral wards of Bath and North East Somerset, a unitary authority, electing one member to the council. Although Farmborough village is the most populous area of the ward, it covers a wider area north almost to Keynsham. The total population of the ward at the 2011 census was 2,505. Farmborough also has a parish council with responsibility for local issues.

Historically, Farmborough was part of Clutton Rural District between 1894 and 1974, and the Wansdyke district of the county of Avon between 1974 and 1996.

Farmborough is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of North East Somerset and Hanham.

Demographics

According to the 2001 census the Farmborough ward (which includes Compton Dando, Marksbury, Woollard and Chewton Keynsham), had 1,111 residents, living in 428 households, with an average age of 44.5 years. Of these, 71% of residents described their health as 'good', 21% of 16- to 74-year-olds had no qualifications, and the area had an unemployment rate of 1.0% of all economically active people aged 16–74. In the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, it was ranked at 22,100 out of 32,482 wards in England, where 1 was the most deprived LSOA and 32,482 the least deprived.

Church

The Church of All Saints dates from the 15th century and is a Grade II* listed building.

In the 13th century John Stafford who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury was the rector of Farmborough.

Notable residents

• Anthony Head, actor
• Author Dick King-Smith
• Charles Warrell, creator of the I-Spy children's books; born in Farmborough in 1889

References

References

1. "Farmborough Parish". Office for National Statistics.
2. "Farmborough". British Museum Collection.
3. "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI.
4. "Farmborough Church of England VC Primary School". Ofsted.
5. "Farmborough playgroup". Find my school 2008.
6. "Welcome to Farmborough Church of England VC Primary School". Farmborough primary school.
7. King-Smith, Dick. ''Chewing the Cud''. London: Penguin Books, 2001. p. 174-175.
8. "Ward population 2011".
9. "Clutton RD through time | Census tables with data for the Local Government District".
10. "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995". HMSO.
11. "Neighbourhood Statistics LSOA Bath and North East Somerset 016B Farmborough". Office for National Statistics 2001 Census.
12. {{NHLE
13. Dunning, Robert. (2005). "A Somerset Miscellany". Somerset Books.
14. (30 November 1995). "Obituary: Charles Warrell". The Independent.