Affpuddle is a small village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Affpuddle and Turnerspuddle, in the

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

district of the ceremonial county of

, England, east of Dorchester. The local travel links are from the village to Moreton railway station and to

Bournemouth International Airport Bournemouth Airport (previously known as Hurn Airport and Bournemouth International Airport) is an international airport located north-northeast of Bournemouth, England. The site opened as RAF Hurn in 1941, but was transferred to civil cont ...

. Part of the village street is the B3390, which divides the village into two. Affpuddle parish included the settlements of

Briantspuddle Briantspuddle is a small village in the River Piddle, Piddle Valley in Dorset, England, near the villages of Affpuddle and Tolpuddle and about east of the county town of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. It forms part of the civil parishes in En ...

to the east and Pallington to the south. In the 2001 census this parish had a population of 402. On 1 April 2010 the parish was abolished and merged with Turners Puddle to form "Affpuddle & Turnerspuddle". In the 2011 census this joint parish had 200 households and a population of 436. Affpuddle village is in the Piddle valley, just north of the Purbeck

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

plantations and heathland, in a valley beside the villages of

Tolpuddle Tolpuddle () is a village in the civil parish of Burleston and Tolpuddle, in Dorset, England, on the River Piddle from which it takes its name, east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, the county town, and west of Poole. The estimated populatio ...

and

Puddletown Puddletown is a village in the civil parish of Athelhampton and Puddletown, in Dorset, England. It is situated by the River Piddle, from which it derives its name, about northeast of the county town Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. Its earlier ...

. The village is linear and made of brick, stone and

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

ed cottages and has a 13th-century church dedicated to St Laurence.

History

The village was established during or before the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

era, and was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as ''Affapidela'', having a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

belonging to the

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Cerne. After the Dissolution the village became an estate of the Lawrence family, an ancestor of whom married the heiress of a branch of the Washington family, from another branch of which descended

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

. The Washington

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

was quartered by the Lawrences and thus appears on the north wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

in the village church on a Lawrence monument. The church of St Laurence is noted for its elaborate pews, dated 1545 or 1547, and the finely carved

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

, undated but in a very similar style. The church dates from the 13th century but was enlarged by an aisle and a tower in the 15th century. Other features of interest are the Norman font and south doorway. The earliest records in Dorset of the agricultural practice of flooding fields to form

watermeadow A water-meadow (also water meadow or watermeadow) is an area of grassland subject to controlled irrigation to increase agricultural productivity. Water-meadows were mainly used in Europe from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Working water ...

s refer to Affpuddle in the early 17th century; Edward Lawrence, the lord of the manor at the time, was interested in agricultural improvement and favoured the use of flooding here and in neighbouring Briantspiddle and Pallington, where he also had manors. The village later belonged to the Framptons of Moreton, noted for their involvement with the

Tolpuddle Martyrs The Tolpuddle Martyrs were six agricultural labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, who were arrested and tried in 1834 for swearing a secret oath as members of a friendly society. Led by George Loveless, the group had ...

. John Lock who gave key evidence against them also lived in the village.

References

*''History of Dorset'', John Hutchins, 3rd ed (1861–73) *''Affpuddle in the County of Dorset'', Joan Brocklebank (1967)

External links

Affpuddle & Turnerspuddle Parish Website
* {{authority control Villages in Dorset Former civil parishes in Dorset Purbeck District