Tolpuddle, Dorset
Historical Description
Tolpuddle, a parish, with a village and two hamlets, in Dorsetshire, 3½ miles N of Moreton station on the L. & S.W.R., and 7 ENE of Dorchester. It has a post office under Dorchester; money order office, Puddletown; telegraph office, Affpuddle. Acreage, 2053; population, 288. The living is, a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £210 with residence. Patron, Christchurch, Oxford. The chancel of the church was rebuilt in 1840, and the whole building has since been restored. There is a small Wesleyan 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 | Sherborne | 1835 - |
| 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 1718. 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. John the Evangelist (parish church)
The parish church of St. John the Evangelist is a building of flint and stone, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, and consists of large chancel, nave, north aisle, north transept, south porch and an embattled western tower, containing 4 bells: all the windows in the chancel are stained: a stained glass window in the north transept was erected in 1894 to the memory of Canon George Lloyd Nash M.A. 41 years vicar of this parish. There is also a memorial oak chair presented by the parishioners. The silver communion plate bears the date 1577: the church was restored in 1855, and affords 240 sittings.
Civil Registration
Tolpuddle 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 Tolpuddle from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Tolpuddle)
- 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 Tolpuddle 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
ParkSouthover (Tolpuddle)
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.