Fern is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Little Marlow

Little Marlow

Little Marlow is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England.It is on the north bank of the River Thames, about a mile east of Marlow. The toponym "Marlow" is derived from the Old English for "land remaining after the draining of a pool"...

, in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Historically this was a wasteland area of the parish, off the Marlow

Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Marlow is a town and civil parish within Wycombe district in south Buckinghamshire, England...

 to Bourne End

Bourne End, Buckinghamshire

Bourne End is a village predominantly in the parish of Wooburn and Bourne End, but also in the parish of Little Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated close to the border with Berkshire, near where the River Wye meets the River Thames...

 road. A workhouse

Workhouse

In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...

 was built here in 1781, which was a productive needlework and embroidery manufactory during the Victorian times. After the workhouse was sold to private hands in the early twentieth century, it became known as Fern House, and other cottages and houses were built along what is now Fern Lane.

The Little Marlow parish cemetery is located at the end of the road. It was consecrated in 1900 and has a small chapel. The popular crime writer Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....

 is buried there.

There is a small, disused gravel pit in the hamlet, the Fern House Gravel Pit. Significant geological formations have been noted in the sides of the pit and this is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

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Adjacent to Fern, on Sheepridge Lane, is the headquarters of the Vulcan Explorer Scouts

Explorer Scouts

Explorer Scouts , a section of the Scout Association in the United Kingdom for 14- to 18-year-olds, was introduced in 2001 replacing Venture Scouts . This was part of a greater change in programme, including the introduction of Scout Network for 18- to 25-year-olds...

unit.