Welcome to East Farndon! The purpose of this page is to provide an overview of our fabulous village – its history and things to see and do. Please click the numerous links to learn about our village in glorious detail 🙂

Village Setting

East Farndon is a small linear village in Northamptonshire, UK, close to the border with Leicestershire – so close that it has a Leicestershire postcode. The parish of East Farndon, including all its fields, currently covers around 1400 acres (near 600 hectares). It used to be larger but some fields in the north of the parish were transferred to Leicestershire, most recently in 1964. Farndon means ‘Ferny Hill’ – ‘fearn’ is Old English for a fern, ferns, or a ferny place; and ‘dun’ is Old English for a hill. It is a bit of a mystery why it is ‘East’ Farndon….there is a West Farndon in Northamptonshire (south of Daventry), and it is possible that the East/West prefix refers to the villages’ locations relative to the A5 (the Roman Road known as Watling Street).


Beech Tree Aerial Photo

Village Life

Today, East Farndon does not have a pub or any shops. However, there is still plenty to do!

Our Village Hall is run by a charity, who regularly put on social events. Full details of what’s happening can be found on this website via the Village Events Page. Click here to learn about the Village Hall organisation, including how to book the hall for a private function, and click here to read about the history of the Village Hall.

The East Farndon Church of St John the Baptist is part of the Faxton Group of Churches, and services are regularly held. Click here to visit the Church Home Page.

East Farndon Parish Council is a small local authority that represents the first level of local government and manages a wide range of services on behalf of the Village including areas such as burials, street lighting, public benches, litter bins, etc. It also coordinates community services such as footpaths, grounds maintenance, tree protection, etc. Meetings usually take place at 7.15pm on the second Wednesday of alternate months, and everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. To find out more, including who to contact, click here to visit the Parish Council home page.

Marriott Green is the amenity land in the front, right hand side of the Church. It is run by a charitable trust and maintained by a group of Village volunteers – everyone is welcome to enjoy the space. Click here to visit the Marriott Green Home Page.

The East Farndon United Charities provides grants for educational and other reasons. If you currently live in the village, and have been a resident for 2 or more years, then you are eligible to apply. Click here to visit the United Charities home page.

The Parish of East Farndon is very fortunate to have a wealth of footpaths and rights-of-way, providing both locals and visitors a fantastic opportunity to explore the surrounding countryside. Click here for more information, including suggested walks.



Village History

East Farndon has a fascinating history – from its Anglo-Saxon beginnings, through the Battle of Naseby and two World Wars to more recent times. We are fortunate to have many villagers who have researched various aspects of East Farndon’s history. A brief history is set out below, but to see lots more, click here to visit the Village History home page.

East Farndon was already an established settlement by the time of the Norman invasion of 1066. William, King of the newly conquered nation, regarded all land as being his to allocate as he chose. Farndon, referred to in the Domesday Book as ‘Ferendone’, was divided between four ‘tenants-in-chief’. At some point these holdings were combined, so that the village had just one Lord of the Manor. By the year 1315 the lordship had passed to the Longville family and it continued in their hands through many generations until 1618, a period of 300 years. They or their representatives would have had to supervise the agriculture of the fields, collect rents from those who farmed the strips and hold sessions of the Manor court. All through the Middle Ages and up till 1780, the surroundings would have looked different from the fields and hedges of today. In common with most other villages in the area, the land of the parish was divided into three large open fields, divided into strips. These huge fields were not sub-divided by hedges and the countryside would have looked very open and bare to our eyes.

East Farndon’s one involvement in an event of national significance came in 1645, during the civil war which was fought between Charles I’s Royalist forces and the Parliamentarian army. In June of that year the Royalist army was in the Harborough area, hoping to intercept the Parliamentary forces which were known to be not far away. A letter survives from the people of Farndon, complaining that they have suffered unreasonably at the hands of the foraging Royalists. The Royalists, under their commander, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, moved up to the top of Farndon, in the Oxendon Road area, awaiting news of the enemy’s whereabouts. The Parliamentary army, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, was to the south. Both armies moved towards their opponents and the resulting clash on 14th June was the Battle of Naseby, in which the King’s forces were defeated. At ‘Rupert’s View’ on the Clipston Road, the Battlefield Trust has set up a platform and an information board about the battle.

Like most villages in this area, Farndon had continued with its three big open fields, in which anyone with land would have strips scattered in the fields. There are still reminders of this system in the ridge and furrow of many of our fields today. In the eighteenth century there was an increased demand for land to be consolidated into solid blocks, so that all your land would be together; it would be more economical and you could go your own way, instead of having to abide by a collective decision to plant wheat in one big open field, barley in another, and so on. If you wanted to have your land as pasture and keep sheep, then you could. Each parish had to have an Act of Parliament to enclose its fields and divide them up between landowners. Farndon’s landowners applied for an Enclosure Act in 1780, which was passed. Surveyors came and allotted land in blocks, equivalent to the amount people had had in strips. And so the land became divided up. Owners were then free to subdivide their land; as they did so, the present landscape of fields and hedges came into being. 

Village life continued largely unchanged through most of the nineteenth century. The church played a big part in the community, and there were two pubs, the Bell and the Three Horseshoes, which were well patronised. Till the late nineteenth century each parish still had a great deal of independence, as it had had in past centuries, looking after its own poor and unemployed, maintaining the roads and administering the charity funds. The better-off residents paid rates and chose from their own ranks men to act as Overseers of the Poor and Surveyors of the Highway. This changed to some degree when a new Poor Law was passed in 1834 and the workhouse was built in Harborough. Some of Farndon’s most destitute residents went into the workhouse from then on. The Vestry and, later, the Select Vestry, which had run village affairs for centuries were superseded in 1896, when the village residents could participate in the Parish Meeting to express their views on current local issues to the new County and District Councils. This in turn was eventually replaced by a Parish Council, but not till 1977.

In the first World War, the village lost six of its residents, who were commemorated on the War Memorial, finished in 1920. Click this link to read a number of interesting articles that describe what life was like for the villagers of East Farndon during World War I. After the second World War, the names of another four Farndon men had to be added. There were also two air crashes over Farndon that cost the lives of five airmen, for whom plaques were erected in 2021 at the War Memorial. Click this link to read a number of interesting articles that describe what life was like for the villagers of East Farndon during World War II.

The school dates from the mid-nineteenth century, with later additions. It was closed in 1966. The schoolroom often served as a community venue for social events before the first village hall was built in 1924. Due to its poor state of repair, the original village hall was demolished in April 1994, with the building of the current one finishing in December that year. East Farndon has a natural, mineral water Spring that sits on the west side of Main Street, set back from the road just above Spring Cottage. It was formerly known as Caldwell Spring and served as a water supply for the lower end of the village right up to 1950, when mains water was finally laid on.

The village spread down the Harborough Road and round towards Lubenham as the district council built new houses in the 1920s, 1930s and then in 1950. Farmyards became small housing developments later, with Home Farm Close and Granary Yard becoming residential areas as farmers moved out of the main village streets. Farndon parish has lost some of its land to Leicestershire over the last 150 years and the houses of Market Harborough have crept ever nearer. However, the sense of village community that has always existed continues to flourish today.


Marriott Green & The Church
East Farndon Hall - Newly Refurbished - 2021

Statutorily Protected Heritage Assets

There is a Scheduled Monument within the East Farndon parish, covering the earthwork and buried remains of part of the medieval settlement at East Farndon, within two areas of protection. Click here to see full details of the scheduled monument listing.

Additionally, there are six listed buildings in the parish of East Farndon, all of which are Grade II apart from St John the Baptist’s Church, which is Grade I. They comprise:

St John the Baptist’s Church – The church is an Anglican church and the main structure of the present building was erected in the 13th and 14th centuries. Click here to see details of the Church listing. To view current and historical information, click here to visit the Church home page.

East Farndon Hall, Back Lane – The Hall is a late 18th century country house. Click here to view the Hall listing. Click here to view an article detailing the Hall restoration completed in 2021.

Home Farmhouse, Back Lane – Home Farm is a mid 18th century farmhouse. Click here to view the Home Farm listing. 

Kiln Yard, Marston Lane – Kiln Yard is a house built in 1935 and has two listed elements – the house itself and its gates and piers. Click here to view the Kiln Yard listing and click here for the Gates & Piers listing.

The Manor House, Back Lane – One of the officers in the victorious Parliamentarian army at the Battle of Naseby was Thomas Lee, who had The Manor House built in 1664. Click here to view the Manor House listing.



Non-designated and Other Heritage Assets

In addition to statutorily protected heritage assets, the parish of East Farndon has a number of other significant heritage assets of local significance for architectural, historical and social reasons. A short summary is shown below, but you can read detailed articles, and take a Village tour in words and photos, by clicking this link to visit the Heritage Assets of East Farndon home page.

Ridge and Furrow Fields – The medieval settlement of East Farndon would have primarily been agricultural farmed using the Open Field system. All the open land, except small fields (closes) backing onto the houses, manorial land, and areas of woodland or waste, was worked in a seasonal and yearly rotation of arable crops (cereals, beans), grazing and fallow. Medieval ploughs were pulled by oxen and, because they were not reversible, the soil was always turned rightwards as the plough team progressed up and down the furlongs, producing a corrugated pattern of ridges and furrows whose dimensions increased with every season. The open field system was practised for most of the medieval period and beyond, until changes in land ownership or adoption of the latest farming methods gave rise to a move from the large open fields to smaller fields with hedged boundaries, and a change from arable to pastoral (livestock) farming. The parish has a number of ridge and furrow fields, which form part of the setting of the medieval settlement scheduled monument.

The Judith Stone – In a field on the west side of the parish is the Judith Stone, which is a glacial erratic, brought from probably hundreds of miles away during an ice age. It is thought to take its name from the Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror. She is recorded in the Domesday Book as holding land in the parish, so perhaps the stone marked a boundary of some kind.

The War Memorial – East Farndon has an unusually large and imposing war memorial, which makes an impressive sight as you come up the hill from Market Harborough. The central stone bears an inscription which gives the names not only of those who died in World War I, but also of all those who served and survived to return to the village. In 1945 a small panel was added below the main inscription, bearing the names of those servicemen from the village who were killed in the second world war. The war memorial was refurbished in 2023.

The Spring – The natural, mineral water Spring sits on the west side of Main Street, set back from the road just above Spring Cottage. This was used as the main source of water for the village until 1950.

The Old Bakehouse – The Bakehouse appears to have been built the mid-19th century and censuses from before that time indicate that there was a ‘baker’ and therefore presumably a bakery on this site or very nearby.

The Beech Tree – This magnificent tree was planted on the village green by the Womens Institute to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Ivy House – This grand brick built house was originally built as a non-conformist chapel.

There are many other fascinating buildings in East Farndon, including its former school, children’s home and pubs.

Natural Environment and Biodiversity

It might be said that East Farndon is a ‘typical’ area of English Midlands countryside because it has no nationally important wildlife hotspots, and thus that it has little or no biodiversity significance. This would be a misunderstanding of the concept of biodiversity. England’s biodiversity is entirely and only the sum of the wildlife in all of its individual parishes: East Farndon is as important in this regard as every other parish and wants to play its essential part in protecting what remains of England’s threatened and diminishing biodiversity. East Farndon Parish Council is committed to work towards conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of our rural parish. We have a biodiversity policy which sets out how we will consider sustainability, environmental impact and biodiversity when making decisions and a biodiversity action plan to work towards conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of the parish. Click here to see more details on the Wildlife and Biodiversity home page.


Daffodils by Harborough Road
View With Cattle

Housing and Built Environment

Over the 20th century there was a considerable change in the appearance of the village. In medieval times, the majority of houses would have been thatched, with cob or mud walls. Gradually as the use of brick increased in the 18th century, more houses of some status were built, which probably reflects the increasing prosperity among some sections of the population. Some of these larger houses were still being roofed with thatch. Many of the humbler cottages survived through to the 20th century, but by the middle of the century they had all been demolished. The larger houses which had been thatched were re-roofed in tiles or slate. So today East Farndon has no thatched houses and is largely a brick-built village. Click here to read more information on the Housing and Built Environment home page.

Population and Households

The latest population figures (2021) show East Farndon with 319 residents and 131 households (2024). Click here to read more detail on population and households.

Separation from Market Harborough

Historically the River Welland formed the border between Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. Thus the county border was previously further north from the village of East Farndon than it is at present. It is clear from past and recent surveys that there continues to be a strong and vociferous majority of residents of East Farndon who want the village to continue to be separate to Market Harborough. Click here to read more on borders and separation.

Village Confines

Historically, rural villages like East Farndon have often been protected by the designation of village confines adopted in a statutory Local Plan. With village confines in place, development is only permitted inside of the envelope or outside of it in carefully controlled circumstances (for example to provide affordable housing or to meet the needs of the rural community). Although recognising “the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside” is identified as an important principle in the NPPF (para 170 b), neither the current West Northamptonshire Core Strategy nor the Daventry Local Plan identifies village confines for East Farndon. However, as part of the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) development of a new Local Plan, in June 2024, East Farndon Parish Council responded to submit our drawn Village Confines to ensure that development is focused in more sustainable settlements with a greater range of services and facilities and infrastructure that has capacity for expansion, as well as helping to maintain the special landscape character of the Parish and protecting the countryside for its own sake as an attractive, accessible and non-renewable natural resource. The new WNC Local Plan is still under consultation and details of the Parish Council’s submission can be found on the Housing and Built Environment Home Page.


The Manor Back Lane