Sunday 12 September 2010

Heritage Open Day @ Farnham, Surrey



If you don't know by now, every year in September we have Heritage Open Days which was started in 1994. It’s a National event & more info can be found on www.heritageopendays.org.uk
Each town have their own Heritage sites & Events & even though it’s over for this year, you can use the site next year to see what's happening.
But as I live in Farnham Surrey, I went to visit a few places there & it was a nice day for it. The last 2 times over the past few years, I visited the Castle & it’s a splendid site to visit. But I let you see for yourself from the pictures below: (click on images to enlarge)


More pictures can be found at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58169&id=658203832&l=a2b74a45eb & http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58170&id=658203832&l=420f500d33
 
Today I went to see more of the buildings around the Town, 1st stop was 24 West Street. It was the home of Harold Falkner for most of his life. He was a very important man in Farnham’s history as an architect of a few well known buildings. More info can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Falkner. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures due to the business that runs within it, but an author Sam Osmond who did Harold’s biography book gave me a brief tour around the building & he actually knew the man himself.
Next was the Council Chamber at the Council Offices in South Street, again no pics were taken but it is a splendid room with a high ceiling.



Just up the road & to the right along a road is The Victoria Garden opposite Sainsbury. This was Farnham’s 1st public swimming pool, created in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The arched entrance was created by Harold Falkner. Don't know when it was closed, but in 1997 to celebrate the Centenary of the pool the Garden was created.


Next place I went to was St. Andrews Church as it was listed as open, but for some reason they weren’t.


I decided to head back home & went the scenic route. I went via Bishops Meadows, a beautiful spot to go for a walk. It was recently in the local papers as it was up for sale with the risk of redevelopment, but was stopped by the residents of Farnham with the help of Sir Ray Tindle. More about the land & its campaign on this site: www.bishopsmeadowtrust.org.uk & they are still after donations to keep the land safe. When there I saw there were event being run for kids to do.




There was many other events that had been running over the 4 days, I just went to some of the ones running on Sunday. What I liked about it was it all was free & all thanks to the volunteers who helped answering questions & doing the tours.
For more info on Farnham itself, please visit these sites:
www.farnham.gov.uk
www.farnhamsociety.org.uk
www.waverley.gov.uk