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Puddletown, Dorset

Historical Description

Piddletown or Puddletown, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on the river Piddle, 5 miles NE by E of Dorchester stations on the G.W.R. and S.W.R. It was once a market-town, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Dorchester, and a fair on 29 Oct. The parish contains also the hamlets of Admiston Hill, Bourne, Chinehill, Druce, Dnddle, Ilsington, Little Piddle, Troytown, and Waterson. Acreage, 7186; population of the civil parish, 1028; of the ecclesiastical, 1077. There is a parish council consisting of nine members. Ilsington House is the chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £335 with residence. The church is Decorated English and Perpendicular, and contains a figured Norman font, some old effigies dating back to the 13th century, and several brasses. There is a Congregational chapel.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyDorsetshire 
DioceseBristol1542 - 1836
DioceseSalisbury1836 -
HundredPuddletown 
Poor Law unionDorchester1836 -
Registration districtDorchester 
Registration sub-districtPuddletown 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

The registers of marriages and burials date from the year 1538, and baptisms from 1547. The original register books are now deposited with the Dorset Archives Service, but have been digitised by Ancestry.co.uk and made available on their site (subscription required).

The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Piddletown, 1538-1812 is online


Churches

Church of England

St. Mary (parish church)

The parish church of St. Mary is a large building of stone, principally in the Perpendicular style, and consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, south aisle or chapel dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, north and south porches, and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and 6 bells, rehung, one recast and one added, in 1897, at a total cost of £300: the chancel and north aisle were lengthened in 1911 at the cost of the Rev. J. G. Brymer M.A. the lay rector: in the Athelhampton chapel there are several effigies of the Martin family, the earliest dating from 1250, and numerous alter tombs and brasses: the stained east window is a memorial to the late Rev. F. E. Freeman M.A. vicar 1868-1906: and there is another in the aisle presented by Alfred de Lafontaine esq. of Athelhampton: there are 455 sittings.


Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Puddletown from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.


Maps

Online maps of Puddletown are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the Dorset County Chronicle and the Sherborne Mercury online.


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Barton
Bourne
Chine Hill
Cliffe
Druce
Duddle
Little Piddle
Troy Town
Waterson

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.

DistrictWest Dorset
CountyDorset
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Postal districtDT2
Post TownDorchester

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