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.
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 - |
| Hundred | Puddletown | |
| 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 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:
- 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.
Villages, Hamlets, &c
BartonBourne
Chine Hill
Cliffe
Druce
Duddle
Little Piddle
Troy Town
Waterson
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.