Farnborough is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, about south of Wantage. The village is above sea level on a ridge aligned east – west in the Berkshire Downs. It is the highest village in Berkshire. Geography The Office for National Statistics no longer publishes Farnborough's population total separately. For the 2011 Census the ONS grouped Farnborough with its smaller neighbour Catmore. It recorded the combined population of the two parishes as 102. But Farnborough remains a separate civil parish, governed by its own parish meeting. Farnborough parish comprises of chalk downland. Due to the porosity of the chalk and the village's hilltop position, the only supplies of groundwater are at great depth. The parish's lowest point is east of the village, above sea level. Since the 1974 boundary changes, the northern boundary of the parish has formed part of Berkshire's county boundary with Oxfordshire. The B4494 road linking Wantage and Newbury passes about west of the village, forming part of the western boundary of the parish. Toponym Farnborough's toponym is derived from Old English and means "fern-clad hills". In this case "borough" is derived from beorg, meaning a mountain, hill or tumulus, and not from burh, a fortified settlement. A 9th-century document records the manor as Feornberge. It appears as Fearnbeorgan in the Cartularium Saxonicum in records from AD 916 and 931. Other 10th-century documents record it as Fearnbornthaen, Fearbeorh, and Feornbeorh. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Fermeberge. Another 11th-century document records it as Fernbeorngan. Later forms include Fernbergam in the 12th century and Fearnberughe, Ferenburgh and Farnberg in the 13th century. Manor Abingdon Abbey seems to have held the manor from the 9th century. In 1538 it surrendered its estates to the Crown in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1540 the Crown granted the manor to Edward Fettiplace, whose family held several manors in Berkshire. But in 1542 Fettiplace sold Farnborough to a John Wynchcombe of Newbury, whose heirs held the manor until it was sold in 1671. It then descended through the Jennett, Raymond and Craven families until the late 18th century, when a Fulwar Craven sold it to the Rev. William Wroughton. It was still held by a member of the Wroughton family early in the 1920s. Parish church The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of All Saints are 11th-century and include the Norman nave and