Fareham Recorded in the Domesday Book

1086

Fareham appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Fernham', held by the Bishop of Winchester. The entry records a settlement of moderate size with agricultural land, meadow, and woodland. The Bishop of Winchester was one of the wealthiest landholders in England, and Fareham formed part of his extensive Hampshire estates. The Domesday record shows a community engaged in farming, with ploughlands suggesting arable cultivation and meadow indicating pastoral use of the low-lying land near the creek. The presence of a church is implied by later records, and the settlement would have had a mill, though the Domesday entry for Fareham is not among the most detailed in the survey. What the Domesday Book confirms is that Fareham was already an established place by the late eleventh century, with a functioning agricultural economy and a position within the Bishop of Winchester's landholding that would shape its development for centuries. The episcopal connection brought administrative oversight and a degree of economic organisation that helped the settlement grow. Fareham was not among the largest or most valuable Hampshire manors, but it was a solid, functional settlement in a useful location.