Today Church Road is a side road leading away from the high street, past St. Giles church and down towards Shire Lane. It is mostly quiet, except when there is a big service or funeral taking place at the church, or when the regular commuters from Biggin Hill rush up heading toward Bromley.
But go back to before the early part of the nineteenth century and it would have looked very different. The present road to Green Street Green along what are now the High Street and Farnborough Hill was not established until about 1800, before this Church Road was the main, indeed the only significant route through the village, see the map below which dates from 1789. Back then it wasn't even called 'Church Road'. but instead the 'High Road'.
The main building in Church Road is of course the church, the history of which is described on the website of St. Giles church.
In the grounds of the church are the village war memorial, and several graves and artifacts associated with the Lubbock family.
In the woods leading down parallel with Church Road toward the High Elms Estate is the burial ground of the Lubbock family, the former owners of High Elms, see below.
The War Memorial in Farnborough Parish Churchyard was dedicated on Sunday 15th October 1922. It was unveiled by Brigadier-General G. Lubbock, C.M.G., D.S.O. and dedicated by The Venerable Archdeacon of Rochester the Revd. Donald Tait. M.A.
The Vicar of Farnborough, Revd. E. J. Welch, M.A. conducted the service and the church choir led the singing, under direction of the organist Mr. H. Atkinson, who played accompaniments on a harmonium.
It is the setting for the service of Remembrance that takes place in November every year. Although situated in the churchyard of St. Giles it is maintained by Farnborough Village Society.
The Lubbock family have a long and enduring relationship with Farnborough, through the purchase of the High Elms estate in the early nineteenth century, and its subsequent expansion and development.
During early Victorian times, the Lubbock family were regular church attenders at St Mary the Virgin in Downe. Members of the family are buried there up until 1879. Then the vicar there preached a rather fiery and fundamentalist sermon against Darwinist ideas in general, and Charles Darwin and John Lubbock were alluded to personally. After that, a cooling of relations followed, eventually resulting in a switch of allegiance to St Giles church Farnborough where the local vicar was much more liberal (with a small “l”).
With the purchase of Church Field in the nineteenth century, the Lubbocks and St Giles became neighbours. Several Lubbock gravestones can be seen today in the St Giles graveyard. There are also some burials and memorials in the family graveyard located in the woods leading to High Elms , including Eric Lubbock, well known as the former MP for Orpington, who died in 2016.