The Farnham Heritage Trail

Last week I took a trip to Farnham to visit knitting festival Unravel. I was meeting a friend at 1pm to explore the festival, but I wanted to make the most of my Nice Day Out so I got an early train to give myself some time to explore the town itself.

On my previous visit to Farnham (for the textile festival Thread) I picked up a couple of tourism leaflets, including a guide to the Farnham Heritage Trail. I love it when towns have trails like this. A ready-made walking route round a new place, with lots of interesting things to see and fun facts to discover along the way? Yes please!

Farnham is a very pretty place, with a lot of interesting old buildings...

 

 

... little courtyards...

 

... ghost signs...

 

 

... plus lots of nice doors! (You know I like a nice door).

 

I sadly didn't have time to follow the whole trail (or to visit the local castle) as my train was rather delayed in the morning (boo) but I was lucky with the weather. It was a lovely, sunny morning - perfect for a walk around town!

I loved the weathervane of the Golden Hinde on the top of the Town Hall Buildings, and the quirky arcade of shops of shops below.

 

 

 

Who could resist the charm of these old almshouses? (Again, I am a sucker for quirky doors).

 

 

I also visited a peaceful little park, built on the site of a former open-air swimming baths.

 

 

Those circular marks in the bricks were made with pennies, by generations of children queuing up to swim.

They're exactly the sort of detail that you'd miss if you were just strolling by, but they're so evocative of what the baths would have been like when they were in use. A teeny glimpse into the past! Delightful.

I'll be blogging about my visit to Unravel itself later this week, so brace yourselves for lots of photos of lovely yarn :)