• Faringdon - In 924, it was Fearndun, fearn (fern) dun (hill, down or dune). When or why the middle ing was later added is unknown.

The Anglo-Saxon kings of Wessex and later England had a palace located in Faringdon. However, claims that King Edward the Elder died there are misguided.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Faringdon is recorded as a manor and a mill. The town was granted a weekly market in 1218. The weekly market is still held today. King John also established an abbey in Faringdon in 1202, but it soon moved to Beaulieu in Hampshire.

The Church of England parish church of All Saints may date from the 12th century, and the clerestorey and possibly the west end of the nave survive from this period. A Norman doorway survives, although not in its original position, in the baptistery. The chancel and north transept are 13th century and the west chapel is 14th century. The north chapel is a late mediaeval Perpendicular Gothic addition with 15th century windows.

All Saints has a central bell tower, which was reduced in height in 1645 after it was damaged by a cannon-ball in the English Civil War. Faringdon was fought over because it commands the road to the Radcot Bridge over the River Thames. The tower now has a ring of eight bells. The three oldest bells were cast in 1708. James Wells of Aldbourne, Wiltshire cast the tenor bell in 1779 and another bell in 1803. The three youngest bells, including the treble, were cast in 1874 by Mears and Stainbank.

The Old Town Hall (formerly the Market Hall) dates from the late 17th century or early 18th century. It remains the centre of the town and its focal point.

There is a manor house and estate, close to the edge of Faringdon, called Faringdon House. The original house was damaged during the English Civil War. Its owner at the time, Sir Robert Pye, was kept prisoner in it at one point during the conflict. Building of the current, smaller, began about 1780 and was not completed until after 1785. It was the home of Lord Berners in the middle part of the twentieth century. It currently belongs to the writer Sofka Zinovieff, though she does not live there.

The £1.6 million three-mile A420 bypass opened in July 1979.

Faringdon is home to the famous Faringdon Sponge Gravel, a Cretaceous unit filled with spectacular fossil sponges, other invertebrates, a few vertebrate bones and teeth, and wonderful examples of bioerosion.

Just east of the town is Folly Hill or Faringdon Hill, a Greensand outcrop. In common with Badbury Hill to the west of the town, it has an ancient ditched defensive ring (hill fort). This was fortified by supporters of Matilda sometime during the Anarchy (1135–1141) - her campaign to claim the throne from King Stephen - but was soon razed to the ground by Stephen. Oliver Cromwell fortified it in his unsuccessful campaign to defeat the Royalist garrison at Faringdon House. The Pye family had Scots Pines planted around the summit, around the time that Faringdon House was rebuilt in the late 18th century. This is a conspicuous and recognisable landmark that can be seen from afar, including from the Vale of White Horse, White Horse Hill, the Berkshire Downs near Lockinge and the Cotswold Hills to the north.

The folly on Folly Hill was designed by Gerald Wellesley, Marquess of Douro for Lord Berners and built in 1935. It is 140 feet (43 m) high and affords panoramic views of the Vale of White Horse. During the Second World War the Home Guard used it as an observation post. In 1982 Robert Heber-Percy restored it and gave it to the town in trust.

Near the top of London Street near Faringdon Folly is the pub bearing the same name. Resembling a small living room with a bar placed in the middle, it is a popular haunt for a few of the town's older citizens.