In 1868 Vernham Dean was described as a parish in the upper half of Pastrow hundred, county Hants, 8 miles S. of Hungerford, its post town, and 9 N.W. of Andover. The soil is clay upon a substratum of chalk.

There is a distinction between the parish name and the village name, the parish being Vernhams Dean while the village is Vernham Dean, before this though it was known as Ferneham which means the village or meadow among the ferns.