Farnham School of Art

A public meeting to discuss the formation of an art school in Farnham in April 1871. By June of that year, it was reported that £70 (the 2017 equivalent of nearly £8000) had been received in subscriptions and that the classes would start in the autumn. The newly established School met in Town Hall Buildings for several years and by 1872 the School was recognized as a government school of art by the Science and Art Department. The first Head Master was John James Offord who had previously taught on the south coast at what was to become Plymouth College of Art. By 1880 there were over 80 students about half being day students and the others evening. By 1911 the School was referred to as Farnham School of Science & Art with the Head being William Herbert Allen a post he had held for more than two decades. He retired in 1927. Ottway McCannell took over as Principal in 1928. He was a well-known figure and landscape painter of some renown who frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy and other European centres. He was an Edwardian rebel, opposing Victorian ideals and his paintings were often explicitly political. He was an excellent teacher, and although the School of Art was small when he arrived, his passion and commitment soon gave it an impressive reputation. His daughter, Ursula, was also a talented artist and was taught by her father at Farnham from 1939.

Despite its smallness, Farnham was remarkably successful, with its students regularly winning places at larger, prestigious colleges. Some students won the Prix de Rome and Abbey Major Rome Scholarship. Otway McCannell retired in about 1948 leaving a growing and widely respected art school. Three years earlier artist James Hockey was appointed Principal and its staff and alumni included artists of repute such as Robin Ball, Charles Bone, John Verney, Arthur Hackney, Ursula McCannell and Harold Cheesman. At the end of 1968, the first moves to merge the two art schools of Farnham and Guildford School of Art were underway and the West Surrey College of Art and Design was born within 1969-1970.