In its edition of May 25, 1984, the Farnham Herald reported: “Farnham now has a town council, a mayor and a deputy mayor. This puts the council on a par with Godalming and Haslemere within the borough of Waverley. Councillors stated that ‘it’s a question of identity – but they are determined that civic pride shall not prove costly to the ratepayers’.”

Ten years after the reorganisation of local government in 1974, Farnham had a local council back. One prominent councillor at the time, Harry Lawrence, said: “At the time of reorganisation, we felt we had lost our identity and individuality. We are now able to claw back some of the identity we lost.”

The modern Farnham Town Council works in tandem to provide public services with two other layers of local government – Waverley Borough Council and Surrey County Council.

In 2021, Farnham was named by the National Association of Local Councils in their Star Council Awards as the Council of the Year winner and in the town clerk category, Farnham’s Iain Lynch was the national runner-up. Farnham stole the show.

The above is part of a series of articles to mark the 50th anniversary of the dissolution of the Farnham Urban District Council (FUDC) in 1974.

From 1895 until 1974, 50 years ago this month, FUDC was the local authority responsible for Farnham and district.

But local authorities all over the country were affected by the 1972 Local Government Act on the reorganisation and reform of local government which came into effect on April 1, 1974.

The FUDC was disbanded and replaced by Waverley District Council, which also covered Godalming, Haslemere and Cranleigh and many villages in between.

To acknowledge that milestone, in coming weeks Peeps into the Past will feature 50 events over those 50 years.