Piddlehinton, Dorset
Historical Description
Puddlehinton or Pyddle Hinton, a parish in Dorsetshire, lying on the river Piddle, 6 miles N by E of Dorchester station on the G.W.R. It has a post and telegraph office under Dorchester; money order office, Piddletrenthide. Acreage, 2921; population of the civil parish, 388; of the ecclesiastical, 339. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor belonged once to an alien monastery, and was given by Henry VI. to Eton College. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £280 with residence. Patron, Eton College. The church was built about the beginning of the 15th century, and has been enlarged and well restored.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
| Diocese | Bristol | 1542 - 1836 |
| Diocese | Salisbury | 1836 - |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Piddlehinton St. Mary | |
| Liberty | Puddlehinton | |
| Poor Law union | Dorchester | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Dorchester | |
| Registration sub-district | Puddletown |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1539. 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).
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary is an ancient building of flint and stone, in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, north porch and a southern embattled tower, with pinnacles and containing 5 bells: there are some brasses of the early part of the 15th century, one of which is palimpsest and one is to Thomas Brown, 27 years rector, with an inscription in Latin verse: the church was restored and enlarged in 1868 at a cost of £ 1,200, and has 300 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Piddlehinton was in Dorchester Registration District from 1837 to 1949 and Weymouth Registration District from 1949 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Piddlehinton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Piddlehinton (St. Mary))
- Hunt & Co.'s Directory of Dorsetshire, Hampshire, & Wiltshire 1851
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Piddlehinton are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the Dorset County Chronicle and the Sherborne Mercury online.
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.