07/07/2026
🏰 Before police, courts, council offices — or Facebook community groups — Farnham had Law Day.
Local Facebook groups are full of posts like these: “Does anyone recognise this person on my Ring doorbell?” or “Has Evri left my parcel outside your house?” or “Whose sheep are in my garden?”
In medieval Farnham, those questions would not have gone on Facebook. Instead ,they might well have ended being brought up at Law Day.
Look closely at an old map and you can still see the evidence: Law Day House, north of Farnham Castle. That name is a survival from a time when local justice was public, local and very personal.
In medieval England, communities were expected to police themselves. From around the age of 12, men were grouped into a tithing — usually about ten people who were collectively responsible for one another’s behaviour.
If someone committed an offence, his neighbours were expected to report it. If they failed, the whole group could be fined. In other words, keeping an eye on what was going on locally was not just nosiness — it was a duty.
Twice a year, the Hundreds of Farnham and Crondall gathered on Law Day Heath Common. Medieval records show Law Day courts being held around Easter and the Michaelmas season in autumn.
Law Day was part court, part public meeting, part community reckoning.
The matters brought before the court were the stuff of everyday life: stray animals, broken boundaries, poaching, trespass, unpaid duties, quarrels between neighbours, minor assaults, brewing or selling ale against the rules, underweight bread, and failures to raise the “hue and cry” — the medieval equivalent of shouting “Stop thief!” and expecting the whole community to join in.
Some offences that seem serious to us might result in a fine. But property, crops, animals and land were treated very seriously, because in medieval society land meant wealth, power and survival.
Farnham, its manor and its hundred were held by the Bishops of Wi******er. The Bishop may not have personally stood at Law Day Heath hearing every complaint, but it was absolutely his authority which stood behind the Law Day court.
Farnham Castle was fundamental to this machinery of law, order and local government. Through stewards, bailiffs, court rolls, fines, rents and obligations, the Bishop’s power reached deep into everyday local life. For the people of Farnham and the surrounding villages, the Bishop of Wi******er was more immediate, more visible and more relevant than the king.
So next time you walk or drive through Folly Hill and spot the name 'Law Day Place', spare a thought for the farmers, tenants, widows, alewives, bakers, tithing-men, neighbours with grudges and villagers hoping their animals had not wandered into the wrong field!
Medieval Farnham may not have had Facebook, CCTV or doorbell cameras.
But it certainly had neighbours watching 👀
For more detail on the above https://www.farnham-castle.com/post/keeping-law-and-order
Tours of the Bishop's Palace most Wednesdays. See: https://www.farnham-castle.com/
