Affpuddle
| Affpuddle | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 Parish church of St Laurence | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SY807935 |
| Location: | 50°44’30"N, 2°16’34"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 436 (2011) |
| Post town: | Dorchester |
| Postcode: | DT2 |
| Dialling code: | 01305 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dorset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
South Dorset |
| Website: | www.affpuddle.co.uk |
Affpuddle is a small village in the south of Dorset. It is found nine miles east of Dorchester. The village is in the Piddle valley, just north of the conifer plantations which stretch east to the Isle of Purbeck, in a valley beside the villages of Tolpuddle and Puddletown.
The village is linear and made of brick, stone and thatched cottages and it has a 13th-century church dedicated to St Laurence.
Part of the village street is the B3390, which divides the village into two. At the 2001 the wider parish, including Afpuddle and the hamlets of Briantspuddle to the east and Pallington to the south, had a population of 402.
History
The village is listed in the Domesday Book as Affapidela. The manor belonged to the Abbot of Cerne. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, 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 General George Washington, the American revolutionary and first President: the Washington arms were quartered by the Lawrences and thus appears on the north wall of the chancel 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, 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.[1]
The earliest records in Dorset of the agricultural practice of flooding fields to form water meadows 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.[2]
The village later belonged to the Framptons of Moreton, noted for their involvement with the Tolpuddle Martyrs. John Lock who gave key evidence against them also lived in the village.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Affpuddle) |
References
- ↑ Betjeman, John, ed. (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches; the South. London: Collins; p. 171
- ↑ J H Bettey. "The Development of Water Meadows in Dorset during the Seventeenth Century". bahs.org.uk (British Agricultural History Society) (scan). pp. 37–8. http://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/25n1a5.pdf. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- Hutchins, John: 'History of Dorset', 3rd ed (1861–73)
- Brocklebank, Joan: 'Affpuddle in the County of Dorset', (1967)
