National Gazetteer (1868) - Fareham

"FAREHAM, a parish and market town in the hundred and division of Fareham, county Hants, 8 miles S. of Bishop's Waltham, and 12 S.E. of Southampton. It is a station on the South-Western railway. The parish is situated on Fareham Creek, to the N.W. of Portsmouth Harbour, and includes the hamlets of North Fareham, Catisfield, Wallington, and Funtley. Fareham is called Fernham in Domesday Book, which records that Edward the Confessor assessed the land to the crown at two thirds its value, as a compensation for the injuries it was exposed to by the incursions of the Danes. It was in ancient times a parliamentary borough, and is a place of considerable trade, vessels of good tonnage being able to lay close to the town. Petty sessions are held here, and it is a polling-place for the S. division of the county.

The principal trades carried on are brick-making, pottery, and tanning. The town is situated on a gentle eminence at the N.W. point of Portsmouth Harbour, and is paved and lighted with gas. There are a Philosophical Institution, a bank, savings-bank, county lunatic asylum, union workhouse, sessions-house, and two new forts. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Winchester, value £530, in the patronage of the bishop. The parish church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, is a very plain structure, partly rebuilt in the early part of the present century. There is also the district church of Holy Trinity, a perpetual curacy* value £100. The parochial charities produce about £400 per annum, the principal of which is rice's, for the support of the free school and maintenance of widows. The Independents and Wesleyans have each a chapel. Besides Price's endowed free school, there are two National schools, and one for infants. The bishop of the diocese and the vicar of the parish are the lords of the manor. There are many good residences, the principal of which are Cams Hall, Blackbrook, Down End, and Uplands. Monday is market day for corn and cattle, and a fair is held on the 29th June for cattle, cheese, &c. "CATISFIELD, a hamlet in the parish and hundred of Fareham, Fareham division of the county of Southampton, 1 mile from Fareham. "MEAN, a hamlet in the parish and hundred of Fareham, county Hants, 3 miles S.W of Fareham. It is situated on Southampton Water, at the head of Portsmouth harbour, and is said to be the Meanvari of Bede. "NEWTOWN, a hamlet in the parish and hundred of Fareham, county Hants, 3 miles W. of Fareham, and 15 S. of Winchester. It is situated on Southampton Water, at the head of Portsmouth harbour. "WALLINGTON, a hamlet in the parish of Fareham, county Hants, half-a-mile N. of Fareham, on the creek to which it gives name."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]